Heart of darkness: torture and evil
I have decided not to watch or read the descriptions of atrocities that occurred on October 7. Nevertheless I come across headlines, I hear references, and so I actually know quite a bit about what happened. It is so terrible, so horrific, so sadistic, so atavistic, that the mind recoils. And yet it happened – and it happened in many cases to children, the most innocent of all.
So I’ll just link to this post at Legal Insurrection, which contains many of the grisly details, as well as this from Caroline Glick about both the atrocities and the widespread denial from Hamas-sympathizers. Consider yourself warned.
I’ve never been able to watch horror films, either, I think because of things I had read as a child that affected me so deeply that I became unable to deny what human beings can do to each other. I couldn’t keep what I saw on the screen in the realm of “just a movie.”
I can remember some of those things I read or saw as a young child. Holocaust photos, of course, which I came across at about the age of seven in a large book at a friend’s house. Another source was Greek mythology. I no longer remember the story, but I was about six and it had to do with soldiers surrendering and then being tortured and ultimately killed in ways I’ll not go into here. Another Greek mythology source was this tale, which I probably came across at around nine years old. I remember feeling as though I might throw up. I put the book down and didn’t pick it up again for a long time.
Another story that came along a little later – perhaps I was ten – was during a period when I read books about English royalty. Henry VIII’s two beheaded wives, of course, but most of all Lady Jane Grey. Her beheading at the age of 17 troubled me immensely. I didn’t care what she’d done; her death absolutely horrified me.
And so on and so forth into man’s humanity to man. I’ve had Catholic friends tell me they had similar nightmares when reading of the lives of various martyrs.
I simply could not understand, and still cannot understand, wanting to watch a horror movie as well.
So on a certain level the events of October 7 simply represent an old old story. As Sarah Hoyt writes:
Time and again when reading history, we come across some horrible act of violence, some terrible event, and historians from the safety of their offices and the height of their theories ask how this was possible? How could humans do this beastly thing? How is it even possible that civilized man, civilized, I say, could do this or that or the other.
The truth is that humans, despite all our striving to do better, are creatures where our violence and the ability to dream up and execute horrible atrocities are as much part of us are our dreams, our moral thinking, our thirst for knowledge and our theories. …
Humans have, with great effort, with discipline, with careful raising of their children and with philosophies that value life — be they Judeo Christianity or our national creed — raised themselves above the petty cruelty, the wanton sadism of the not-so-noble savage. We can, in places, in times, given enough abundance, enough time, enough luck, and enough investment in certain ways of living, raise ourselves above creatures that kill innocent women and children. We can even rise above creatures that make the bodies of horses and young men into art installations.
The beast inside isn’t gone. It’s not vanquished. It’s quiet. And kept quiet by ideals and thoughts, by our front brain repressing the impulses of beast.
However, this is never universal. This is never everywhere. …
But when the culture goes sour, when savagery is encouraged and when it’s believed a source of strength, and mindless violence against others is treated as proof of worthiness and power, be it in the Gaza strip or amid our ante-fa, it must be met.
There must be no excuses. There must be no “more sinned against than sinning.” There must be no excuses.
Because if the civilized won’t stand for civilization, savagery wins.
We must face evil and not deny its existence if we are ever to fight it.
NOTE: Here’s the Jewish approach to what it calls “the evil inclination”:
‘The good inclination and the evil inclination.’ In the typical Rabbinic doctrine, with far-reaching consequences in Jewish religious thought, every human being has two inclinations or instincts, one pulling upwards, the other downwards. These are the ‘good inclination’—yetzer ha-tov—and the ‘evil inclination’—yetzer ha-ra. The ‘evil inclination’ is frequently identified in the Rabbinic literature and elsewhere with the sex instinct but the term also denotes physical appetites in general, aggressive emotions, and unbridled ambition. Although it is called the ‘evil inclination’, because it can easily lead to wrongdoing, it really denotes more the propensity towards evil rather than something evil in itself. Indeed, in the Rabbinic scheme, the ‘evil inclination’ provides human life with its driving power and as such is essential to human life. As a well-known Midrash (Genesis Rabbah 9: 7) puts it, were it not for the ‘evil inclination’ no one would build a house or have children or engage in commerce. This is why, according to the Midrash, Scripture says: ‘And God saw everything that he had made and behold, it was very good’ (Genesis 1: 31). ‘Good’ refers to the ‘good inclination’, ‘very good’ to the ‘evil inclination’. It is not too far-fetched to read into this homily the idea that life without the driving force of the ‘evil inclination’ would no doubt still be good but it would be a colourless, uncreative, pallid kind of good. That which makes life ‘very good’ is the human capacity to struggle against the environment and this is impossible without egotistic as well as altruistic, aggressive as well as peaceful, instincts. …
The Rabbinic view is, then, realistic. Human beings are engaged in a constant struggle against their propensity for evil but if they so desire they can keep it under control. The means of control are provided by the Torah and the precepts. …
It follows that for the Rabbis the struggle against the ‘evil inclination’ is never-ending in this life.
Because if the civilized won’t stand for civilization, savagery wins.
For me, it’s very easy to choose sides. I stand with civilization against those who would tear it down. I love life and thank all the generations of men and women who worked and toiled to build us up to this point. A point where in general I don’t have to worry about when my next meal may be, or if I’m going to be knocked on the head by an invading horde of barbarians and have all my worldly possessions taken from me and anyone I care about raped and/or murdered. I very much like that I have shelter, a full belly, and comfort and therefore can pursue interests beyond of my basic survival.
And I can’t help but feel that if more people truly understood these simple things, they could never support the filth that perpetrated the October 7, 2023 attacks or anyone remotely connected with them. And yet we see so many fools who do.
My guess is that people who grew up in violently abusive households have developed an immunity of sorts to the jump scenes, shocks and simple evil deeds done by humans over time and portrayed in flicks. It’s been commented to me a number of times that “You don’t scare easily.” Not true, I just recognize danger quickly and don’t jump.
I learned very early that, as a protagonist in a favorite novel of mine said “Fear gains a man nothing.”
I think that life experience probably led to my “hyper”-involvement in MA and my danger junkie period (which is only faded, not gone).
I’m with you, Neo, on being unable to watch the videos of the Hamas horrors, or horror movies. But I am very much aware that evil exists. However one’s religious advisers explain it, it’s clear that humans are capable of truly monstrous behavior. It’s dangerous to us all not to recognize evil when we see it.
Because if the civilized won’t stand for civilization, savagery wins.
Yet behind a whole lot of civilizations stands the savagery essential to their foundation.
You want to keep it to a minimum, but there are times when logic and reasoning and pleadings just don’t work.
“If the king did not, without tiring, inflict punishment on those worthy to be punished, the stronger would roast the weaker, like fish on a spit”–the law of Manu, 1500 BC.
Four Views of Government:
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/65895.html
At the time, I purposed to view the beheading of Daniel Pearl and in this latest case, some of the atrocities committed against the innocent on October 7. I want to have some measure of what we are up against. I have a deep belief in God, lived out in my Catholic faith that expounds regarding evil to my satisfaction. Based on my faith, I believe the human being is spirit, soul and body. In its entirety, it is a mystery and the biblical statement that “we see through a glass darkly” (1 Corinthians 13:12) captures the truth as far as I can perceive it. It is the next part of that sentence, “then we shall see face to face” that frames my foundation. While I am very aware of what evil is capable of by means of current and historical accounts, as well as lived personal experience, I don’t allow myself to imagine the possibilities of how horrible the manifestations of evil can be. I aspire to prayer, also believing the statement by the same author (St. Paul) that the battle is in a spiritual realm. So I lean into my faith, thanking God for it. When the time comes, on my headstone will be the words, “then we shall see face to face”.
Well it sure looks as though the evil inclination is crawling out of the woodwork.
Globally.
In droves.
Slouching towards Bedlam…chaos and destruction.
“”People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.””
G Orwell.
The US is losing that population of “rough men” as Army recruiting is dropping drastically due to the idiots running our government. The Army Secretary (female of course) hopes to avoid a “warrior caste” by excluding recruits with a family history of serving.
Israel seems to be generating enough “rough men” but their problem is numbers. I don’t know anything about Israeli women in the military but my experience examining American women joining the US military is that almost all are interested in clerical jobs.
Oligonicella:
Sometimes it works that way, but sometimes a violent childhood makes a person ultra-sensitive to violence – even viewing it in a movie.
I will not, can not watch the videos. When on a Historical Tour in Germany we were going to former concentration camp. I wasn’t going in because I know what went on there. I did eventually go in, and I felt very very uncomfortable.
In this case, I don’t have the citation, so those who doubt my memory will need to do their own research. I’m a million years too old for dating apps, but they provide a lot of interesting data. Once, I read that horror movies were the best predictor of whether two people would end up dating for a long time. If both people liked horror movies, then there was a good chance they’d get along. If neither liked horror movies, then they might get along, but the probability was far lower. If one liked horror movies, but the other didn’t, then they probably wouldn’t get along. Far more women than men like horror movies.
I’ve always liked working in foreign countries, and I also like very slow travel. When I’m in another country, I try to figure out the local sense of humor. I think that tells me a lot about their culture — even though that word’s too pretentious for my simple motives.
I worked in Qatar for a few years. One day, in the parking lot of a Doha shopping center, I saw a few young men gathered around a cell phone. They were all laughing loudly, as they looked at the phone. When I walked past them, my curiosity got the better of me, and I asked them what was so funny. They showed me a video of a man getting his head chopped off. I’m not sure, but I think it was Daniel Pearl.
Some women do serve in fighting units in the IDF. It’s entirely voluntary in their case.
For some reason they are also in the tank corps, serving, at least in some cases, together in the same tanks with men. Some people seem to believe this to be a good idea….
I believe there are also a number of female fighter pilots. There are female helicopter pilots though I’m not sure if they fly fighter helicopters or larger support/transport copters.
What does the rabbinic tradition say about Adam? Did he have an ‘evil inclination’ in that ‘very good’ period before the Fall? He certainly did afterward when he blamed his wife.
Or as the joke goes, “One day Adam and his son Seth were taking a walk and passed by the Garden of Eden. Adam says to Seth, “Son, we used to live there, and it was paradise.” Seth says, “Dad, how come we don’t live there anymore?”
And Adam replies, “Well son, your mother ate us out of house and home.”
And the blame game hasn’t stopped since…
I simply could not understand, and still cannot understand, wanting to watch a horror movie as well.
The experience is cathartic, in the Classical Greek sense. “Pity and fear” help us deal with the more problematic aspects of our unconscious minds — the “monsters of the id,” if you will — in a way that is acceptable and safe.
“The Uses of Enchantment” by Bruno Bettelheim addresses and explains this phenomenon. He posits that the violent fairy tales that were once de rigueur for children are quite beneficial — even necessary — helping helping children to safely sort out and explain, through the use narrative and metaphor, the dark impulses and thoughts of their young polymorphous perverse minds. It’s a great book.
Personally, I have watched the Hamas videos, and the ISIS videos as well. In fact I make a point of it. I want to know my enemy. I want to know their evil, to look it in the face. Of course I find them disturbing but, more than that — much, much more — I am infuriated by them. They fill me with purpose and resolve, and certainly not in the way the makers of the videos intended.
Yes, Western Civ is collapsing, all Civs die eventually, and when they do, chaos rushes in to fill the void until eventually a new culture and Civ is born. Meanwhile human nature remains a constant. There will always be a certain portion of the population that thinks, acts savagely, and they will indeed have their say in times of chaos. But we can take heart in the fact that a good portion of the population will band together, help and protect each other, hold on to the best in human nature.
This is the time, I think, to “take the long view” as best we can, and not allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by the chaos. And we should take time to remember that everything in this material universe, as harsh as it can be, is temporary. We can’t change collective human nature, but we can change ourselves through self-reflection and calm detachment, we can as individuals transcend – there’s always hope to be found in that.
The expression “the thin veneer of civilization” exists for a reason — it’s true.
I take the short view. Deal with what the day gives you. Fight evil, kill the evil doers. Live the next day, and the next day, and . . . so on.
new:
Of course there are those on both sides. Just speaking from observation.
IrishOtter:
I see no analogy between reading violent fairy tales and watching horror movies. The pictorial enactment of the horror with realistic blood and gore is different than reading a symbolic fairy tale. I don’t have problems with the latter but have great problems with the former.
And no, horror films are definitely NOT cathartic in the classical Greek sense, and that is the reason that in classical Greek plays all the horrible action (such as Oedipus putting out his eyes) must take place offstage and only be described.
I’ve never been able to watch horror films, either…
My imagination is far too good, and makes real what I see, read, and hear.
I find the Biblical injunction in Philippians 4:8 holds true for me; Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.
Don’t ever forget that the Palestinians have a very low average IQ because they intermarry.
I wrote this about some other related post a while back, but maybe it pertains to this:
Jeremiah 17:9 declares the heart is desperately wicked. Such is the human condition apart from God. We are created with free will (the ability to act to benefit our selves, without regard to the intentions God has for us).
The phrase desperately wicked is from the KJV. Some of the modern translations use other wording such as “beyond cure” (NIV) and “desperately sick” (NASB and ESV). The Hebrew word translated “desperately wicked” has the idea of a terminal, incurable illness.
To act savagely, seemingly enjoying the pain we are inflicting, we need to de-personize the other. We have done that in all wars- where the person is reduced to something less than human, thereby preserving our notion that we are acting inside the morality of the society.
It’s one thing to be able to kill someone without emotion, but quite something else to enjoy and make it part of the process to inflict as much pain as possible during the killing. I think this is related to revenge– something that is NOT part of the Jewish or Christian worldview.
That leap from being able to kill another human/sub-human to enjoying the act speaks to the depravity of the human condition– where Jeremiah says “who can know it”– who can understand the depth the sickness can reach. It’s an extension of the getting even aspect.
As we move to a post-Christian society, savage acts of revenge/vengeance can/will be considered moral. It can’t be ignored– abortion is a savage act that society holds as moral, since the human being killed hasn’t achieved the status of person. It’s just done out of sight, so we aren’t revulsed by the act.
Acts of justice, capital punishment for instance, is not the same as revenge.
I think in some truly twisted hearts, the act of torture goes beyond revenge but to some adrenaline rush that is confused with a state of euphoria. This may be in the same category of emotion that makes horror films “enjoyable”. There are two aspects of a horror film that captures our emotion. The suspense of knowing something awful is about to happen– and a good horror film squeezes every ounce of emotion out of that. Then there is the horror of the horror. What emotional state does that produce?
An emotional jolt of revulsion which we confuse with pleasure. Like every drug, it requires increasing doses to achieve the same jolt. The desensitization is underway.
My wife and children, who are all avowed liberals and pacifists, simply love violent and gruesome murder mystery TV shows! I often find myself alone in another room reading history or science pieces, while piercing, blood-curdling screams emanate from the TV room. They seem absolutely unfazed by depictions of violence!
I once was asked to endure a TV screening of “Schindler’s List” at an extended family gathering, for the sake of politeness. I did so, but my opinion of Germans has never recovered!
Ps. I have also read Shirer’s “Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” several times, so my animosities are not merely based on fiction.
No matter what the provocation is every human being capable of beheading babies? Not a chance. The vast majority of human beings are incapable of embracing, up close and personal, that degree of evil.
Nazi death camp survivor Viktor E. Frankl had actual experience with that depth of evil; “From all this we may learn that there are two races of men in this world, but only these two — the “race” of the decent man and the “race” of the indecent man. Both are found everywhere; they penetrate into all groups of society. No group consists entirely of decent or indecent people.”
The khmer rouge were capable of such savagery i recall spaulding gray blamed on nixon and subsisting on tree bark but that granular maoism
FWIW I had a violently abusive childhood and nobody had better ever come up quietly behind me, then clap me on the back. (Why do people do that?)
I was never much for horror movies. The first “Alien” movie terrified me, even though I was 27. I expected a national movement of concerned parents and teachers to rise up against the film. Ridley Scott had the cast and crew watch “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” so everyone would be on the same page.
Although I have revisited “Alien” since then and appreciated its craft. It is a well-made film, especially compared all the other films in the franchise except the second.
_______________________________________
If you don’t watch the violence, you’ll never get desensitized to it.
–Bart Simpson to Lisa, “The Simpsons”
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Slasher horror just seems silly to me. Devil movies, even “The Exorcist,” likewise.
But I will make exceptions for “Rosemary’s Baby” and “The Shining.” The original B&W horror films — “Frankenstein,” “Dracula,” and “The Invisible Man” likewise.
The exorcist repels me somewhat the sequel was bewldering pace boorman the intro sets the template of the ancient assyrian god pazuzu one of those old gods naomi wolf rediscovered
I think it’s important to remember that neither those who are deeply traumatized and those who recover (to more or lesser degrees) aren’t anyone’s enemy. Just people with perhaps even a genetic disposition to lean into flight or fight.
There’s an interesting connection between horror and disgust. Disgust can be equally upsetting. Compare any blood and gore fest with Eraserhead.
Took my brother to see that and it really shook him up.
Huxley, I was roughly that same age when I saw Alien, and I was similarly troubled and angry. Can’t stand horror movies. Was scared by reading Poe way too early…
Mike K,
I’m not worried about the relative numbers. The Israelis are smarter, more brave, and have superior skills and technology. They have eliminated about 2500 terrorists so far, and captured about 1500, some of whom are talking, and documents have been found as well. So they are learning about the tunnels in detail. The hostages are probably in those tunnels, so that’s the dicey part. Once the hostage situation is resolved Hamas has no chance.
Unfortunately, winning this war will mean Israel is saddled with Gaza’s security again…
I love the way the Israelis insist on retaining the high moral ground. They overcame hostile fire to open the humanitarian corridor today. Thousands of civilians went south to safety.
De-humanization is the enemy.
Reverence for life is the crux of civilization (yes, that thin veneer).
L’Chaim
Count me among those who doesn’t watch horror movies and has trouble dealing with even the thought of torture in general.
I had a fairly traumatic experience with a horror comic when I was a child. I guess I was about 7 or 8, as I was old enough to read. I walked around in stark terror for several days (I think). I can still see a few of those images. Don’t do this if you’re very sensitive, but if you want to see the kind of thing I’m talking about do an image search for 50s horror comics.
I have had some very bad experiences when reading an ordinary novel and suddenly being hit with something gruesome. Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove was one–very good book, but those Indian tortures….
The worst part of such things is not being able to get them out of my head later. So I’m not going to watch those videos about the Hamas atrocities. I don’t need to see them in order to feel the horror and outrage.
I can well believe that some of those Catholic martyr stories gave children nightmares.
Some years ago, when I was spending time with a friend who wrote YA fiction, we discussed the observation that some here have made on the difference between reading about violence and watching it on the screen. She said, in effect, that viewing something with the mind’s eye was not as graphic as viewing it with the real eye, and I agree, based on my own self-analysis.
I would add that this observation may only be true for people who have never experienced or seen real-life serious violence themselves, because the mind’s eye of those who have knows what it is reading about.
For the tally, I don’t watch horror movies or violent action movies, although I am okay with suspense and “cartoon” violence sans the blood and gore.
@ Mac – comic books, graphic novels, paintings, photographs, etc. are IMO more akin to movies than book-text.
neo,
When I was a kid I liked horror movies even though they scared me. I’m thinking, especially in this regard, of “House on the Haunted Hill” and “Forbidden Planet.” Terrifying. But I liked the thrill of being terrified. And the satisfaction of surviving it. That’s what I mean when I say they are cathartic. The only modern movie that really disturbed me, because of its horrific violence, was “Bone Tomahawk.”
huxley; IrishOtter:
In this post I probably wasn’t exact enough, but by “horror movie” I meant violent gory horror movies. Rosemary’s Baby doesn’t qualify; I had no trouble watching that. And I loved Forbidden Planet.
G Britain-
You may be familiar with an essay that Bill Whittle wrote maybe 20 years ago “Tribes.”
I can’t find it now non-paywalled, but I recall that it divided humanity into 2 groups, one group that would be capable of beheading babies, and his tribe, which could never do that. He made it clear that his Tribe had people of all races, colors, all the things.
Like you, I could never do that. I have never killed anyone or even intentionally hurt anyone, but I feel that I am fully capable to protect myself or my family.
Too bad we have to have discussions like this.
Cornhead:
Ashkenazi Jews were marrying their first cousins for at least a millennia prior to modern times. Didn’t seem to hurt their IQs any.
@ Neo > ” Here’s the Jewish approach to what it calls “the evil inclination”:
Latter-day Saints often quote a couple of succinct scriptural maxims that say the same thing:
“The natural man is an enemy to God and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit…” (Mosiah 3:19).
“For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things…” (2 Nephi 2:11)
Sorta makes you think those old guys were on to something that our modern “philosophes” have missed, or suppressed.
For fuller exegesis of those passages, here are some “scholarly” articles (as opposed to doctrinal sermons, which are easily found at https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org using the Search tool; lds.org will get you there as well).
https://rsc.byu.edu/book-mormon-mosiah-salvation-only-through-christ/natural-man-enemy-god
https://rsc.byu.edu/book-mormon-second-nephi-doctrinal-structure/lehi-gods-law-opposition-all-things
“Indeed, in the Rabbinic scheme, the ‘evil inclination’ provides human life with its driving power and as such is essential to human life.”
Spock said as much in “The Enemy Within”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=susht8wU5GE
neo
And let me be clear, I too don’t like gory horror movies. But not because they horrify me with their gore and violence. Rather, because I find the gore and violence cheesy, boring, and stupid. As I said, however, I was genuinely disturbed by the horrific violence in “Bone Tomahawk.”
I don’t have a problem with the gore and violence, however horrific, in realistic war movies. E.g., “Saving Private Ryan.” But of course, those aren’t meant as “horror movies.” Perhaps that’s the distinction that must be made — it’s the intent that matters.
@ Geoffrey & West TX – The example of The Righteous Among Nations — people who rescued Jews from the Nazis despite the danger to themselves — would seem to lean toward the “two kinds of people” paradigm: to them, what the Nazis intended was simply wrong, and they would not abet it.
On the other hand, Solzhenitsyn had an observation about decent & not-decent (good & evil) that seems to be more akin to the Jewish inclinations paradigm:
“The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart — and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained”
? Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago
Probably both are true, but depends on how far one’s line can oscillate before it reaches a point where a decision has to be made as to what kind of people they will be.
One might wonder if the Nazi and Hamas executioners maintained any bridgehead of good, but they are an extreme case.
For some reason, the dash from Goodreads turns into a question mark here.
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/450864-the-line-separating-good-and-evil-passes-not-through-states
@ David > “Four Views of Government:”
It is interesting that you also cited a post at Hoyt’s site (although it was by Orvan, not Sarah).
Coincidence?
I think not!
IOW some things are true no matter what their form & forum.
Here’s another elemental view of the situation. Not sure the title is fully correct, but certainly for some, the delusions have been shocked into deeper consideration…
The Day the Delusions Died
by Konstantin Kisin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyW4SMK0Fpc
He calls attention to the “Constrained” and “Unconstrained” view of humanity, and I believe there is a great deal of significance to the distinction and realizing how it colors many foolish outlooks on the world.
}}} My guess is that people who grew up in violently abusive households have developed an immunity of sorts to the jump scenes, shocks and simple evil deeds done by humans over time and portrayed in flicks.
This may be a component, but it’s not a necessary condition by any means. I was never in such a situation, and, while my childhood was hardly wonderful, all the truly negative aspects were outside of my family dynamic.
I, personally, fit Camus’ definition of “an intellectual”:
Someone whose mind watches itself.
I, thus, see the negative inclinations and impulses which I reject, all the time. So the darkness within is something I am fully aware of, and have no problems with it existing in others, though I do expect everyone to do the same in rejecting it, whether they actually do, or not.
I see there being “three” types of people in the world (yes, among many different classes of distinction):
a — sheep
b — wolves
c — civilized wolves (e.g., “guard dogs”)
The reason why so many sheep want gun control is that, despite the fact that the guard dogs are needed to protect the flock from the wolves of the world, the dog is a constant reminder that the wolves exist, and the sheep get nervous as a result. The fact that they won’t be made any safer by defanging the guard dog is irrelevant. That fear is happening on a deeper level than any rational concepts.
Does not mean you surrender to the idiot sheep, you just can’t be surprised by their behavior — it’s in their nature.
And there are far more sheep in the world, today, than there were, particularly in the USA, which used to have a lot larger percentage of guard dogs… it’s where our 2nd Amendment comes from in the first place: “the right to have fangs”.
I am particularly reminded of this quote:
We are far far closer to tyranny than ever before, though some of the reversals of late for the PostModern Left have offered some hope.
Too good not to share –
https://babylonbee.com/news/thomas-kinkade-studios-releases-violent-scenes-of-the-old-testament-collection
it has become common knowledge that the women who moved into leadership positions beginning in the late 1970s to today have had a much less disciplined education. That is to say, they have been “passed through” many classes–especially the most demanding. I live in terror that our Army and now our Navy will be run by women who did not earn their positions because they have acquired great intellect by rigorous discipline, but rather by excuse-making and gender expectation. With our Army and Navy gone, we are a lost country.
The very heavy lifting comes with the fact that we raised our kids to become Barbarians like this.
In “Harvard, Hamas, and the Barbaric Death of Discourse by Barbarians” by “Dad Saves America” points to Barbarian teachers who don’t teach useful skills or even advance our culture and Civilization. Harvard is a “case study” example. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6noX5AUuzwU
Interesting, how he turns to his and his wife’s 17-18 year old son to further concretize their missing parenting attentions,
You want horror?
“The memory-holed massacre;
“One month on, the Hamas atrocities of 7 October are already being denied, obfuscated and forgotten.”
H/T Powerline blog.
Key grafs:
“7 October 2023 ought to be a date that will live in infamy. One month ago today, Hamas terrorists smashed through the Israeli border, killing, torturing and kidnapping innocent civilians in their path. Simply repeating the number of those murdered – now believed to be 1,400 – cannot do justice to the savagery and wickedness of this attack….
“This vile pogrom in southern Israel was the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. A month on, the horror has yet to subside. Funerals continue to be held daily in the Kfar Aza kibbutz, as bodies are still being identified from their remains.
“But while 7 October remains raw in Israel, here in the UK the atrocities are already starting to fade from view…. [A] month on from 7 October, so much of the coverage and commentary now skips over the pogrom entirely. You could be forgiven for forgetting why this conflict even started. You might even have the impression that Israel is attacking Gaza because… well, that’s just what evil old Israel does. What we are witnessing right now is the memory-holing of the 7 October massacre. [Emphasis mine; Barry M.]
” This memory-holing takes many forms. Some Hamas spokespeople and their useful idiots continue to actively deny the atrocities… Then there are the legions of online cranks, Islamists and anti-Semites who say the worst of 7 October, from the butchering of babies to the rapes of young women, did not actually happen – despite the vast documentary evidence of these crimes, most of it filmed by Hamas terrorists themselves. It’s a kind of ‘Holocaust denial in real time’, as journalist Bari Weiss has described it.
“Then there are those who seek to violently erase the memory of the attacks…. So intense is these people’s loathing of Israel, so unhinged is their anti-Semitism, that they cannot bear to be confronted with Jewish suffering, even that endured by children. What happened on 7 October must be forgotten and suppressed, it seems, so that these activists might once again feel at home on the ‘right side of history’.
” Others try to reframe the slaughter as a righteous act of resistance. 7 October was ‘a day of celebration for supporters of democracy and human-rights worldwide’….”
Etc., etc., etc.
Yes, there are some who continue to deny the entire concept of “Evil”…even as they simultaneously ascribe it to those whose elimination they demonstrate and/or pray for…
https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/11/07/the-memory-holed-massacre/
The REAL horror is that it’s being denied, memory-holed, pooh-poohed, RATIONALIZED by supposedly intelligent, sane, reasonable people—including educators teaching children at every level—so quickly
Thucydides, “Cvil War in Corcyra,” 2,500 years ago.
Next they went to the sanctuary of Hera and persuaded about fifty men to take their trial, and condemned them all to death. The mass of the suppliants who had refused to do so, on seeing what was taking place slew each other there in the consecrated ground; while some hanged themselves upon the trees, and others destroyed themselves as they were severally able. During seven days that Eurymedon stayed with his sixty ships, the Corcyraeans were engaged in butchering those of their fellow citizens whom they regarded as their enemies: and although the crime imputed was that of attempting to put down the democracy, some were slain also for private hatred, others by their debtors because of the moneys owed to them. Death thus raged in every shape; and, as usually happens at such times, there was no length to which violence did not go; sons were killed by their fathers, and suppliants dragged from the altar or slain upon it
There you have it: fake trials, defense of “democracy,” slaying of hated enemies, violence without restraint best described as “butchery,” mass suicide.
The Left has been warring against America by these means for a long time: “They stuck a fork in the victim’s stomach—wild!” Spoken by future educator of teachers Bernadine Dohrn, founder of the Children and Family Justice Center in the Bluhm Legal Clinic at Northwestern Law. Then there’s the murders and massacres, the Wichita Horror, the Nashville Horror, the Zebra murders….
If you have the stomach to follow what was done to Buckley and Higgins–both US military officers captured by terrorists–you might wonder how so much could have been done to a guy without him dying.
Strikes me it took research, practice, training. Probably manuals someplace. Not just a couple of guys of limited intelligence hopped up on carefully installed hate.
I reject the “two kinds of people” theory. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn had it right: “The battleline between good and evil runs through the heart of every man.”
I think that the “two kinds of people” theory is the first step down the primrose path to ruin, and frankly, I think it explains how a lot of leftists have found themselves defending or rationalizing Hamas’s savagery.
Don’t get me wrong, Israel must defeat Hamas and I support them. But I also believe in being on guard. If I convince myself that I’m not “that” kind of person, I’m actually increasing the risk that the opposite will come true.
Here is the current Pope on Islam as “the Religion of Peace.”*
* See https://www.raymondibrahim.com/2023/11/08/pope-francis-defends-islam-as-religion-of-peace-in-new-book/
RE; My post above about how the Pope thinks of Islam as the “Religion of Peace.”
Rather than playing little word games and the moral equivalency game, I’d rather look at the actual facts on the ground, behavior not rhetoric.
Given the choice between the Pope’s analysis and those of Robert Spencer and Raymond Ibrahim, I would choose Spencer and Ibrahim every time.
So, how well-off are the leaders of Hamas who live in Qatar?
(Geez, one would think they would be living in Gaza).
If this, here, is accurate, pretty damn good:
https://nypost.com/2023/11/07/news/hamas-leaders-worth-11bn-live-luxury-lives-in-qatar/
And let’s not forget those “former” Hamas big wigs living pretty well in London, UK.
All those pro-Hamas demonstrators, who profess to actually care about the plight of ordinary Gazan citizens, are silent about the vast wealth and uber lux lifestyles of Hamas leaders.
Note that Egypt and Jordan – along with every other Arab nation – refuses to allow any Palestinians into their countries; even if only on a temporary basis for humanitarian reasons.
When Arabs kill Arabs, there is no outcry from the world “community” or leftist groups that purport to stand with the “oppressed.’
When the Iranian govt. executes their citizens for whatever reason the govt. decides, the response is silence from those who profess to support the “oppressed.”
Just goes to show , yet again, that the “oppressed” is simply a political tag attached to any group or individual that can be used to promote the radical movement du jour.
By the way, don’t be too harsh on those Hamas billionaires living in Qatar, far removed from where the real action is taking place. After all, the US has folks in Congress that do not live in the districts they “represent” or perhaps not even in the state they wish to represent.
Speaking of Qatar (which harbors the top echelon of the Hamas killers), the USA has a mutual defense deal with Qatar as well as a large military installation in Qatar.
Yep, once again, the geniuses within our govt show all the world how brilliant they are. Our tax dollars at work.
Israel needs to actively disseminate and promote around the world any pictures videos – even the most graphic – of the atrocities committed by Hamas.
Presently, as expected, and with the full cooperation of the western media, Hamas is winning the propaganda war vs. Israel.
Israel has to do a better job here.
Oh yes richard aubrey there was a russian trained iranian doctor that supervised buckleys torture i read about it from gordon thomas.
Bauxite @ 7:52: Well said.
Everybody commenting: Also well said.
This is a most important topic —THE topic of our human nature— and you all do it credit. Thanks.
This will set Occam’s head a’spinning’
“From the River to the Sea? Arab Citizens of Israel Say, No Thanks to ‘Liberation’ “—
https://freebeacon.com/national-security/from-the-river-to-the-sea-arab-citizens-of-israel-say-no-thanks-to-liberation/
H/T Powerline blog.
From here
https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780553053579
Yes we left saudi for a more ruthless brethren clan the tamims (does that sound like the family of suicide bombers probably) qatar backed zarquawi the taliban hamas the army of conquest in syria
The original Hebrew for “Evil Inclination” and “Good inclination” in these texts has nothing to do with inclination or tendency.
They are best translated as “bad creative force” and “good creative force”.
The same root is used throughout the bible, Talmud, and prayer book to designate G-d as “the Creator”, and in modern Hebrew for works of art.
Perhaps now the words of the sages are better understood.
The drive to bond and mate is positive, creative – but can fan baser urges and go off the rails.
Also many ego-driven goals – material wealth, honor – can fuel creative activity but have a selfish, immoral core.
The late John Campbell was a science fiction author, and editor of Analog magazine for many years. He often wrote editorials which were “provocative”; I believe deliberately so.
If I’m remembering correctly, one such editorial argued that in the inevitable conflicts between civilization and barbarism, civilization has the edge – because barbarians can’t use the methods of civilized men, but if necessary civilized men are quite capable of acting like barbarians.
That is why I cannot look at those pictures of those who were kidnapped on October 7, it is too saddening for me.
Neo the first cousin marriages of Ashkenazi Jews were still going on in my parents generation. Two first cousins of hers got married and produced an offbeat daughter of whom I am fond.
Nonetheless, it might be of interest if you cite the midrash that describes what results when the “evil inclination” (or “bad creative force”) is banished from the world…
Miguel cervantes at 9:25, Stephen Kinzer’s book Poisoner in Chief, was a game-changer in my opinion regarding our government. I read it at the same time (April 2021) that the debacle of Sars CoV-2 was being exposed for those not deluded about our government enterprises in this realm. Eisenhower warned of these concerns in his farewell address. And all funded for by the hard-working taxpayer.
Speaking of the Saudis, remember way back when, when Jamal Khashoggi was murdered and dismembered by Saudi agents in Turkey?
And the GLOBAL outcry that THAT engendered?
Flash forward!…and it seems that the views and opinion WRT butchery and atrocities (by the usual suspects) have, um, evolved—transformed?—somewhat….
(Of course it does seem to depend on who’s DOING the butchering and who’s BEING butchered…)
File under: “Now, gods, stand up for murderous psychopaths….”
I’m not a huge horror movie fan, but I can watch and enjoy them for what they are. I tend to prefer psychological horror to more violent and physical horror, and I strongly dislike the so called “torture porn” type horror of more recent times exemplified by the Saw series of movies. That said I do like highly unrealistic blood and gore low budget b-movies since it’s easier to see them as fake and laugh at, stuff by Herschell Gordon Lewis for example. And I also enjoy the comedic sort of horror of Sam Raimi, Frank Henenlotter, and Peter Jackson.
Blood and gore doesn’t bother me, I grew up around my father’s veterinary clinic and sometimes he let me “help” him in surgery.
However, years ago I decided that I would not look at the images or films of dead Holocaust victims. The only thing I can do to treat those people with respect is to not look at them.
I’ve avoided watching any of the video or images from the Oct. 7th pogrom for that reason and also because the Jew haters get a thrill out of aggravating us.
That being said, I think the Israeli government should release the video that they’ve been showing to diplomats and journalists.
“Ashkenazi Jews were marrying their first cousins for at least a millennia prior to modern times. Didn’t seem to hurt their IQs any.”
As far as I know, while permitted under Jewish law, it’s never been as common as in some other cultures that permit cousin marriage. In modern times as far as I know it’s only among some Chassidim.
Johann Amadeus Metesky:
They were very common until the late 1800s.
Bauxite on November 8, 2023 at 7:52 am:
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn vs. Thomas Sowell: It has been a while since I read Conflict of Visions, but my take away was not that Sowell was describing two distinct natures so much as describing a common psychological characteristic that exists within us along a spectrum from unrealistic utopianism to being highly realistic (or pessimistic) about human nature. I see this interpretation as in sync with that of Solzhenitsyn.
I presume people can move along this spectrum over time with application of rational thought, and with different topics under consideration. We can witness the political change of our hostess and others. However, I don’t perceive that Neo was ever really overly optimistic about human nature, given her reactions to what she was reading as a child.
When I learned at age 15 that I was probably a secular humanist, I was still optimistic that humanity could be helped to flourish with wise use of science and related knowledge. As I matured I have become less positive that our increasing capabilities to provide for human flourishing can and will be extended to, or accepted by, the larger body of humanity – even by those who live within those advancing civilizations/cultures.
I have used the constrained vs. unconstrained dichotomy in the past, but intending to highlight that some people tend to one end or the other of this spectrum. And of course that they then align somewhat with our usual Left-Right (or liberal – conservative) political descriptions. Your comment made me realize maybe I was over simplifying things to do so.
}}} I reject the “two kinds of people” theory. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn had it right: “The battleline between good and evil runs through the heart of every man.”
I’ll grant you that there is actually a spectrum, even in my own trinarchy of “sheep, wolf, dog”, but people tend to behave most like one or another category in most situations. Pushed to a wall, yes, the sheep can be violent as hell. Joined into a mob, the sheep can be violent as hell. But most people will behave as one of the identified categories is expected to behave in 99% of real life, real world circumstances.
And what you become is often tied to** how you were raised. All that I have seen of Islam is that it is a savage, barbaric desert creed. Christianity was not all that different 500+ years ago, but it has gotten steadily more civilized with time.
Islam WAS going through that process, and had started on that path by the 1950s… then PostModernism and the @#$@ multiculti, moral relativist BS became common in Western Thought. And they’ve backslid into barbarism ever since.
Here. Afghanistan in the 1950s. Yeah, it was almost certainly only in Kabul, but it was a START towards a more civilized life for these people.
https://web.archive.org/web/20140224200304/https://retronaut.com/2010/10/once-upon-a-time-in-afghanistan/
None of that any more, though.
Thanks PostModern Liberalism. It is a Social Cancer. Literally, not figuratively. It destroys every culture it touches.
====
** this is, of course, not a sure thing by any means. Some are prone to brutality and violence, others need to be pushed. Some are naturally passive, others are not. But, yes, if you’re raised to believe in a stupid, violent, hate-filled manner… you’re probably more than likely going to be a stupid, violent, hate-filled person. And Islam turns them out by the billions.
To paraphrase Hamlet (and Hannah Arendt), “Education, education, education…”
And even then…you can’t always be sure what’ll turn out…
(Which may raise the question [Warning: Gross Generalization Ahead!!]: why have all too many educators in the West, at EVERY level, decided on—or succumbed to the pressure (temptation? perverse pleasure?) of—educating their precious charges in barbarianism and savagery?)