Blindness
2015-02-13 - by
After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Franklin Roosevelt looked the American people in the eye and said, December 7th is a day that will live in infamy forever.
After ISIS burned a hostage alive, President Obama told the American people, We’ve done some pretty bad things ourselves.
Which is the proper response to a moral outrage?
We need Horatius at the Bridge in the White House but have Hamlet giving a soliloquy on moral relativism: They’ve sinned. We’ve sinned. They’ve done terrible things in the name of Allah. We’ve done terrible things in Christ’s name. We are all alike.
It’s the devil’s own argument breeding moral ambivalence and we wouldn’t be the first poor fools blinded by it.
Lord knows, we’ve committed sins. But we’ve also deposed Kings, vanquished tyrants, whipped Hitler – and never asked for a thing in return.
The day before the President’s soliloquy the United Nations reported ISIS has been “crucifying Iraqi children and burying them alive.”
It’s time for Hamlet to move past ambivalence and stop asking, Are we any better than ISIS?
Blindness
2015-02-13/
After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Franklin Roosevelt looked the American people in the eye and said, December 7th is a day that will live in infamy forever.
After ISIS burned a hostage alive, President Obama told the American people, We’ve done some pretty bad things ourselves.
Which is the proper response to a moral outrage?
We need Horatius at the Bridge in the White House but have Hamlet giving a soliloquy on moral relativism: They’ve sinned. We’ve sinned. They’ve done terrible things in the name of Allah. We’ve done terrible things in Christ’s name. We are all alike.
It’s the devil’s own argument breeding moral ambivalence and we wouldn’t be the first poor fools blinded by it.
Lord knows, we’ve committed sins. But we’ve also deposed Kings, vanquished tyrants, whipped Hitler – and never asked for a thing in return.
The day before the President’s soliloquy the United Nations reported ISIS has been “crucifying Iraqi children and burying them alive.”
It’s time for Hamlet to move past ambivalence and stop asking, Are we any better than ISIS?