No one specifically said to me as a child that perhaps the most critical decision growing up is whether you could take another person's life. I think most of us assume we could, given the right circumstances. The most peacenik people I know have certain people they feel the rest of us would be better off without.
I declined to serve in the military because I did not want someone else to make the decision when, where and whom I would kill. My conscience would not be clear just because I had been following orders. I couldn't hand that power to someone else and hide behind that authority.
Over the years I have had the usual human fantasies about beating the blood and brains out of someone who deserved it. But, like all fantasies, it seldom stands up to scrutiny. Sure, we'd be better off without people pursuing certain activities. We each have a different list. But when is it appropriate to interrupt someone else's path to enlightenment? When do we give up and consign them to death?
Some people make the decision easily. Too easily, I contend, but all of human history is more or less endless conflict between groups of people tearing greedily at the Earth's resources to control them. That's a hard habit to break. It takes a level of thought a lot of people don't want to produce, especially since it is unlikely to get them laid or make them rich. It only makes sense to get rid of "the other guys" so "our side" can have everything. Let the good times ROLL, just as soon as we get this last unfortunate war out of the way.
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