When Franklin Roosevelt was asked how he could do business with such a brutal dictator as Nicaragua’s Anastasio Somoza, he replied “He may be an S.O.B., but he’s our S.O.B.” FDR was a realist. He knew that it was better to have an imperfect ally than a dedicated enemy.
Nowadays many Americans expect the world to reflect their ideals. If it does not, they throw up their hands in horror and vow to have nothing to do with folks who offend them. They retreat, not into an improved situation, but moral isolationism.
We see this approach in the reaction to the vicious slaughter of Jamal Khashoggi. Although we do not yet know the details of who ordered what, we can be certain that this what a political hit job. In one way or another, the ruling class of Saudi Arabia was involved.
The immediate response in some quarters was that we must cut off all business with the desert kingdom. These are not our kind of people and therefore we should not sell them armaments or work with them against Iran. Unless they instantaneously renounce the heir apparent to their throne, they have to be treated as pariahs.
Had we taken this approach with Somoza, the turmoil south of our border would have been worse. Had we adopted a similar position during World War II, we would not have cooperated with Joseph Stalin in defeat the Nazis. These “friends” were not friends, but the lesser of evils.
The fact is that terrible behavior is omnipresent. It is everywhere and always. While we should strive to reduce it if we can, we must sometimes find ways to coexist with it. The Saudis are not like us and will not be so for the foreseeable future; nevertheless we must make the best bargain with them that we can.
The same goes for villains like Cesar Sayoc and Robert Bowers. This does not mean we should condone their actions. Pipe bombs and mass shootings are never acceptable. Nor should we refrain from protecting ourselves from fiends when a means of doing so is at hand.
Nonetheless, we must understand that other madmen and other anti-Semites await. We will never fully eradicate the monsters from our midst. Although we have to do what we can to suppress the damage they do, but we should not drastically change who we are lest we injure ourselves.
In the case of the Saudis, we will not convert this medieval kingdom into a democratic bastion during our lifetime. Cultural change occurs too slowly for that to happen. Instead, we must tolerate some of what we abhor in order to safeguard what we treasure. We must occasionally hold our noses and cooperate with those who can help us.
In the case of the mad bomber Sayoc, we need to accept the reality of madness. Not all crazy people can be cured by modern medicine. Using their despicable deeds as an excuse for bashing our political opponents helps no one. It merely creates another problem by polluting civil discourse.
As for Bowers, some folks will always try to solve their personal problems by scapegoating others. Turning our nation into an armed camp in order to preclude their depredations imprisons us rather than controls them. Whatever measures we take to stay safe, they are bound to find ways around them.
Life takes courage. We cannot banish everything that frightens us. However much energy we put into blocking that which might injure us, it is never enough to thwart the unanticipated or the inexorable. Sometimes bad things must be tolerated even though they are intolerable.
Nowadays the young clamor for safe zones in which they will never be offended by micro-aggressions. What then are they to do about macro-aggressions? The latter are sure to happen, ergo closing our eyes or stopping up our ears will not preclude harm.
The answer—the only answer—is to gird our loins and accept the reality of evil. Paradoxically, we must also accept that when things go wrong, some people will propose correctives that make things worse. They will be so terrified that they do not think through the consequences of their proposals.
The point is that we must keep level heads even when we are tempted to run and hide. If we understand that evil is a part of life, we can minimize its destructiveness. Otherwise our fears will produce more of what we dread.
Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
Kennesaw State University
No comments:
Post a Comment