It can’t be wrong if *we* are doing it... we are the *good* ones.
— Magrat Garlic, Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett
I was always puzzled by people seemingly infinite capacity to justify what they do (like invade a country and kill civilians) and at the same time intensely vilify anybody *else* who would do such a thing. I talked to one of my old friends about it, a very bright guy (hi Carsten), and he said: "That's because we don't understand that *they* are the *good ones*."
Wow, what an epiphany. I had completely suppressed the awareness that many, probably most, people in the world are on a mental state where they actually divide people up into "good people" and "bad people". You see it expressed in movies all the time. (Though to be fair, movies also do their fair sharing of breaking up this odd prejudice, by revealing more about the characters so our view on them must shift.)
Actually you even see capable and intelligent people with this mental attitude. For example a modern religion I know and its followers are deeply the theory of the world that 20% of people are more destructive than constructive, and that 2.5% (what an amazingly specific number) are *very* destructive, meaning actually evil and dangerous.
And this is despite the fact that the same man and philosophy *also* has the awesome philosophy that *we* create our surroundings, and they respond exactly to our minds. It is how *you* think which causes what happens to you. But he never seemed to be able to apply this fully to bad/good people idea on the bigger level. Right until his death, he blamed everything bad in the world on those evil beings.
5 comments:
Wow, what an epiphany.
Your friend is a moron. Civilians got killed in WW2, but the Germans still had to be stopped. We're fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq for the same reason. Fatass leeches like you are and your imbecile friend are a huge part of the problem with the world today. Do something with your life, asshole.
Adolf is dead, Saddam is dead, Osama is dead, so why ARE we still fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq? I suggest that this is what really happened in the Garden of Eden: it wasn't that the fruit of THE TREE suddenly allowed Adam and Eve to know right from wrong, but it got us KNOWING what was good, and KNOWING what was evil to the point where we are willing, nay eager, to snub, insult, batter, and even kill each other over it. Humans in that state obviously cannot be trusted to nurture The Garden, and its not looking good for Earth right now. Thank you Mr. Mitchinson for providing such a clear-cut case study.
If you want to add some horror to your life, read Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam, by Nick Turse. The disgusting things we did "following orders" can only bring to mind WW2 Germany.
Oh shit, I'll try it, but I'm not sure I have the stomach for it. Thanks.
Ol' Ben, you poor fool, we didn't go there just for Osama. Do you know anything about the Taliban? And whatever reasons they had for going to Iraq, Saddam was an evil dictator who routinely tortured and murdered his own people. Even though he's dead, the job's not done. They didn't immediately leave Germany (and Japan) after the war ended either. And lots of civilians got killed in that war.
As for the other shit you were talking about - wow. You're about as crazy as a box of frogs.
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