An interesting lecture, for all the writers that read me.
TED Talk: Politics of Fiction
A Purging Burn – an argument against US intervention
When I was in Afghanistan, I was always greatly torn – maybe we should bomb this place back into the stone age! That thought did not come from a disdain or dislike for the country, or for the people. In fact, over the course of a year there, I began to feel love and great affection for a few, and know that if harm would come to them, my heart would crumble to my feet. Yet, there was something to be said about allowing a situation to completely descend into chaos.
In California, there are seasonal brush fires, a great cause for concern to some, and to others, it is a natural ecological process that destroys the impurities and stimulates newer, better growth. Only through the eradication of the bad can the new have a chance to succeed. Only through the destruction of an empire can a new one emerge.
In that same vein, maybe only it is through blood that a tree of liberty be nourished. Only through the deaths of the old generation and their antiquated and impossible ways of thinking can new ways of thought emerge and progress be made.
Yet, we, as Americans and our perception of ourselves as the shining city upon the hill, the world’s watch dog andsuper hero ready to right wrongs and bring peace, democracy and stability to places that would not manage without our aid, still stand with our intervening, sympathetic hearts, and keep places from descending into the ashes. So, we keep the phoenix from ever rising.
There is a Chinese proverb that says “Save a man from drowning, and you are responsible for them for the rest of their life”. When you save a man, you become the reason for all of their following actions, whether it be good or bad. Does that mean that you should save the man, or no?
One can never know.
Doctors, and their Hippocratic oath would say that you save the man, regardless of who they are. Humanitarians may say that a life saved is worth everything. Humanists believe that all life is sacred. Ghandi, or Hitler… all life is the same.
Yet, is that true? Is all life balanced? What if the man who was drowning is one who then beats his wife, rapes his daughters and murders his neighbors? We then become responsible – complicit in abuse, in rape and murder along side of him.
