You're angry. Accept it.
11 Sep 2001 08:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
firecatYou might think you're angry at the people responsible, or you might think you're angry at the people who want to stomp those responsible into the ground. Or both. Or something else.
Be angry. Accept it. But don't pretend that your motives are more pure and compassionate than others'.
"Holier than thou" is exactly what leads to stuff like this. There's only a tiny step from thinking you're better than the local thug who is badmouthing Muslims and thinking you're better than the passengers on the plane you are about to use as a large bomb.
The only response to something like this is to try to get it to stop. But trying to get it to stop is also what leads to more things like this.
Be angry. Accept it. But don't pretend that your motives are more pure and compassionate than others'.
"Holier than thou" is exactly what leads to stuff like this. There's only a tiny step from thinking you're better than the local thug who is badmouthing Muslims and thinking you're better than the passengers on the plane you are about to use as a large bomb.
The only response to something like this is to try to get it to stop. But trying to get it to stop is also what leads to more things like this.
Re: Unpacking it some more at 5 in the morning
Date: 12 Sep 2001 11:17 am (UTC)I agree in both cases. And I think it's not that hard to become shark. I'm not an expert on WWII but I have read a bit about it, and I might well have advised to drop the first bomb (though not the second). I am saying that also having read a lot about the effects of the bomb.
I don't believe that the attacks on New York, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, or Dresden served a valid defensive function.
A lot of people would agree with you. I think I'd prefer war to be carried out strictly on military targets myself. But there are disagreeing points of view based on rational arguments. And then there's also the mind simply screaming "NO," that's capable of much that's irrational.
But the person who sent those pilots... Some acts are either completely misinformed, or evil. I can't feel anger at someone who was completely misinformed, and when it comes to evil, I can't wrap my mind around it. I don't think I want to.
Interesting. I frequently feel anger at people who are misinformed. Especially people who are highly intelligent, with many resources -- I think they don't have an excuse to be misinformed.
I guess I do want to wrap my mind around evil, in part because I think the more I know about it, the less likely I am to perpetrate the worst forms of it. I think it's easier to do evil if you think you're not capable of it.
I think the people behind these attacks, and the people who said to drop the atom bomb, and the people who committed the holocaust, all believed they were entirely or mostly on the side of good.
further thoughts
Date: 12 Sep 2001 12:11 pm (UTC)Anybody can be misinformed, imho. Even highly intelligent people. Unfortunately, part of being misinformed is that you don't know you're misinformed. I think it's tragic, rather than something a person can be blamed for.
It's different when you have a reasonable expectation that the person should have known better, but through laziness, greed, fear, etc., they choose not to. That's what makes me go ballistic.
I think the people behind these attacks, and the people who said to
drop the atom bomb, and the people who committed the holocaust, all
believed they were entirely or mostly on the side of good.
Yeah, I believe you are mostly correct. But I haven't ruled out the possibility that one or more said to themselves, in effect, "I know this is wrong, but I'm going to do it anyway, because I want to. Because I can."
Re: further thoughts
Date: 12 Sep 2001 01:03 pm (UTC)And yes, I think people sometimes do evil things "because they can."