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Why Do We Allow Evil to Flourish?

An interesting, if occasionally infuriating piece from Michael Ledeen at Pajamas Media this morning [1].  A snip and a couple comments:

 

I studied fascism primarily because I wanted-desperately-to understand how so many people could have appeased it.  Did they-and by “they” I mean the European victims of the Holocaust and the European and American targets of the Axis-not see the evil?  michaelledeen [2]Did they not hear the words of the tyrants who constantly called for the destruction of the Western democracies, the enslavement of the inferior races, and the imposition of a new order?  Did they not see the armies on the march, the concentration camps being built, and the ruthless campaigns against the racially unworthy, from the Jews to the gays, the gypsies and the mentally challenged?

Why did it take Pearl Harbor to bomb us into action?  Why did the Soviet and European Communists-intended victims of Nazism-make a Grand Bargain with the Fuhrer?  Why did the Jews, with rare exceptions, go quietly onto the cattle cars?

 

I figure it’s much the same force that caused us to wait until southern Manhatten became an airliner landing zone before responding. Ledeen continues:

Nearly fifty years later, I think I understand at least part of it, and, alas, that understanding applies to the current appeasers as well.  You’ll find it discussed at length in my forthcoming book, Accomplice to Evil, which identifies many sources of the willful blindness that has long been a central part of the foreign policies of the Western democracies. 

Aha. A book. Well, good luck with that, Mike, but I see a probem in the book without ever having laid eyes on it. 

The three most important factors seem to me to be:

-the Enlightenment theory of human nature, according to which “we are all the same, and we are all basically good”;

You know, I have to wonder about the definition of ‘enlightenment’ in Ledeen’s context, because frankly, the word has never been limited to one school of thought. In reality, this is my sole complaint about the article. His doesn’t seem the Kantian vision of ‘enlightenment’ for example, at least within this context.  That’s particularly true given the religious overtones of the next item he  lists:

-Beaudelaire’s profound insight, most recently presented in the great movie “The Usual Suspects”:  “the greatest trick the devil ever played on mankind was to convince us that he does not exist”;

It’s obvious, at least to me, that Ledeen is being euphimistic, here, and is making an argument in extension of his first point. If there’s good in everyone, then evil can’t exist. This fairyland mindset, then, causes us to expect the unrealistic of our government. Witness:

-the terrible costs and risk of failure if we recognize our evil enemies for what they are, and defend ourselves against them.  Politicians don’t like that;  they’d rather leave it to their successors.

Here, we agree. This is an argument I’ve made many times with respect to Bill Clinton’s handling of Radiacal Islam.

If you look at some of the recent commentary on Iran, some of it from very serious, knowledgeable and experienced policy makers, you will find the willful denial of evil in full bloom.  Take, for example, the astonishing essay by Francis Fukuyama [3] in the Wall Street Journal last Tuesday, in which he describes Iran in these terms:

A real tyranny would never permit elections in the first place-North Korea never does-nor would it allow demonstrations contesting the election results to spiral out of control…

Following which he opines on how gradual Constitutional change might produce “a genuine rule of law democracy within the broad parameters of the 1979 constitution,” but concludes it is unlikely, and that the most likely outcome of the present internal conflict is “conflict with other countries in the region.  This could easily consolidate its legitimacy and power.”

Well, look… the first problem is taking Fukuyama seriously on much of anything. I’m sure Ledeen knows this, based on the ease with which he flays the guy without raising a sweat. I’ve remakred in the past how Fukuyama seems bent on finding ways to prove that evil doesn’t exist, thus allwowing it to flourish, meanwhile declaring the west and it’s cultures and activities ‘evil’.  His clear disconnection from reality, in this case particularly in terms of Iran and its ‘election process’, is staggering in it’s implications for just about any other pronouncement he makes.

Ledeen’s article is timely, since as I suggested in yesterday’s Ramble, correct problem identification is step one in the solution process.  I’ll be interested in what his book has to say.