Good and Evil

Here's a letter to the editor, which I wrote a week or so ago and which ran in my local newspaper this morning. The genesis, as alluded to, was a previous letter whose author asserted that "leftists" don't know the difference between good and evil, therefore are always wrong, therefore "aren't worth anything"--or words to that effect. I saved a copy of that letter, but lost it. Anyhow, here's mine:

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Good v. evil

January 28, 2006, 2:55 am

A recent letter-writer mean-spiritedly claimed that liberals (or, as he insisted, "leftists") know not the difference between good and evil.

Nonsense. We liberals do indeed know the difference between good and evil. For instance:

Deceiving Americans and their elected representatives to launch a war against a country that did not attack us and which did not possess nor was building weapons of mass destruction: Evil.

Questioning politicians and their cronies whose actions work against the good of the people, the progress of American society, and plain old common sense: Good.

Torturing prisoners who are incarcerated indefinitely without being charged: Evil.

Insisting that those in authority keep their promises, including their promise to uphold the Constitution: Good.

Crowing about being such moral Christians while ignoring inconvenient teachings of Christ (see especially Matthew 5:9, John 8:2-11, Luke 18:9-14, and Matthew 7:1-2 (yes, liberals read the Bible and go to church and everything): Evil.

Branding everyone who doesn't agree with you as "evil": Evil. And un-American.

Interesting aside: "Liberal" and "liberty" derive from the Latin "liber," meaning "free" - as in "free speech," "free choice," "free society", that old-fashioned stuff on which the United States was founded.

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I'll happily concede naivete, and I often suspect I'm nostalgic for a time that never was, but it seems to be more than ever that we are completely unwilling to listen to a contrary opinion...hell, it's not that we won't listen to it: we don't want any to be out there whether we have to listen to it or not!

Whatever happened to that strange old notion, "I may not agree with what you say but I'll defend to the death your right to say it"? Or was it always just big talk?

Of course, we have always demonized "the other" as a way to justify out opinion, position, or action. And I have to give conservatives their due: they've done a superb job as portraying anyone who disagrees with them as not just wrong but out-and-out evil. Many of my conservative acquaintances think this is just swell (they also think of themselves as pretty exemplary Christians, which is either ironic or hypocritical depending on what sort of mood I'm in when I think about it), and I suspect they will continue to think so right up until they find themselves on the "wrong" side of an issue.

That may be a long time in coming, of course: most of my conservative acquaintances are so bobble-headed (always nodding yes) that they seem incapable of forming an opinion of their own but only regurgutate the latest doublespeak coming from Pennsylvania Avenue.
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"An open mind is a prerequisite to an open heart." -Robert M. Sapolsky, neuroscientist and author (1957- )