Originally Posted by
Niall_Quinn
I'm talking about the good men who do nothing as evil thrives. When a handful of evil men dictate to a majority that could act, yet does not act, what would you say is holding back the latter? Courage? This is why most people prefer to have others do their thinking for them, even though they know the lies that ease their consciences are indeed lies. And that's why they'll defend those lies and condemn whoever resorts to truth. It's not difficult to know the basic truths these days. Evil isn't skulking in the shadows, it has become confident enough to act in the light. That so many can deny this is happening in front of their eyes (it's all a bunch of coincidences and conspiracy theories) presents the unmistakable stench of terror, wouldn't you inevitably conclude? Or what is it? What drives people to not only turn a blind eye but actively prop up that which surely they know to be wrong?
We're back to asking those questions that have perplexed us. Why did the German people allow it? How could Lenin get away with it? Why don't the Chinese people do something about it? Why didn't the Jews fight back? Historical precedent is coming back into sharp focus and all those lessons we claimed we learned have been thrown away at the first sign of danger. Fear.
Christ trembled with doubt in the garden before an ancient manifestation of "authority as usual" came to drag hm away to his torture and death. It was the act of overcoming evil's greatest weapon, fear, and the courage to brandish the greatest weapon of goodness, love, that seared his message into the future chapters of humanity. "Forgive them for they know not what they do." When all else failed God sent his Son as an explicit example of how a good man should stand and, if necessary, fall. But never succumb and never facilitate evil. The Roman empire crumbled, as all empires do. The example of Christ prevailed and thrived. And all throughout history, battle after battle, goodness prevailed without exception as it will again. Provided good men stand and never facilitate evil.
You don't have to be religious to understand the concepts. You can dismiss God and Christ or fall back on a noxious cocktail of conceit and arrogance to ignore the course of human history and rewrite it in a manner that excuses abdication of the one main duty, do the thing you know to be right and just.
Or you can submit and throw away your humanity, endorse evil, and apologise for it, because you are afraid. Or evil, I suppose. But usually just afraid.
You invite me to dispense with my "conspiracy theories" and embrace the great benevolence that is sweeping our allotted slice of human history. Isn't it me that has the problem, you accuse? Shouldn't I shut up and admit the wars were just well intentioned mistakes, and the pestilence merely a sequence of unfortunate and uncontrollable events, and the ongoing famines a sad but unsolvable problem that must take a back seat to our latest, hedge fund inspired, project to save the planet? Shouldn't people like me say and do nothing? Because what possible harm could come from everyone closing their eyes and letting the work of the few wash over us?
I'll admit, fear is the easier way to go. But the stench. How can people live with it?