The logic of repression

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defends the right to question and deny the Holocaust - a freedom I support even as I obviously do not share Ahmadinejad's denial and agnosticism about the fact of the Holocaust - and then articulates the logic of repression.



It is a logic that is shared by most of the West, today, tragically, even as we would not take it to the extreme of the Iranian President. Like President Ahmadinejad, our pride will not allow us to acknowledge that we share far too much of this logic of repression because, like President Ahmadinejad, to acknowledge this fact confronts our pride that we take freedom and free will and its virtues and its better capacity to deal with our vices more seriously than we really do.

Liberal democracies, today, are less repressive, by far, than the dictatorship of Iran. But they, like me, like all of us, still have much to look at in our own hearts before we can say that we have more genuinely lived up to our liberal democratic ideals.

President Ahmadinejad's words just make the logic of repression plain. Too many of the peoples of liberal democracies agree, in part. They just don't take it to this extreme. And what a sad standard that is to hold ourselves to.

This is why we have ideals. And this is why we must take those ideals more seriously.

Love,
Ben

Impecable logic

The Washington Post cracks me up, sometimes.

Violent Crime, a Sticky Issue for White House, Shows Steeper Rise

Their reasoning in this lead article about the violent crime rate increasing two years in a row is the same as their reasoning in recognition of the failure of a policy of increased sanctions for Iran: do more of the same.

In both cases, the Post acknowledges that a policy of increasing punitive efforts has failed. And so, they reason with all the logic they can summon up, we should, of course, continue doing what we are doing.

You gotta love that kind of reasoning. If what I'm doing isn't working, is counterproductive, and is likely contributing to a worsening of my problem, the logical response, of course, is to do more of the same.

Oh, and by the way, it's the Bush Administration's fault. Isn't everything?.

It must be nice being a liberal journalist or liberal activist or, too often, a liberal academic, these days, when every thought that comes out of your head is the right one.

And thank goodness for that. Because the worst thing I can imagine anyone doing in their lives is admitting when they might be wrong. Makes people think you might not have all the answers. And there's nothing worse than people thinking that you don't have all the right answers.

But the beauty of democratic politics is that when your policies fail, you can always blame the other guy.

Until people want things to get better, that is. In which case, we'll have to actually find the policy that works better.

It's amazing how much humanity fucks up and it's always the other guy's fault, isn't it? How often we look back on our past and shake our heads at our foolishness and cruelty and yet noone is ever wrong in their own time. Interesting how that happens, isn't it? In a culture that preaches responsibility, on the issues that matter to us most, noone ever really takes it. Sad. And predictable. When everyone is scared that taking responsibility means taking it on the chin.

We'll keep doing it, of course. And we'll keep getting the same results. Until some day when we start to wisen up and stop pretending that it's all going better than it is. Some people never wisen up. But most people do. And that - our capacity to admit our mistakes and to be forgiven for our bluster and arrogance - is the source of our progress. Not an ideology or a party. What moves us forward is our capacity to own up, to say "I"m sorry," and to forgive ourselves and be forgiven. Progress is not and cannot be when others twist our arms to take responsibility. Progress is when we take responsibility genuinely in our own hearts.

Everything else is bullshit.

Love,
Ben