Some rare clarity in the otherwise murky pages of the Minneapolis Star Trib Op/Ed section.

Minneapolis Star Tribune | 3/29/2003 | Tom Dahlberg

[ejorde]

President Bush's decision to face the reality of radical evil, and approach it with very difficult but practical strategies, has now been juxtaposed with the saccharine, narcissistic theater of the antiwar protesters -- true believers in humanity's natural goodness.

This clear difference in worldviews is panoramic -- even global. Humanity is truly divided between those of us who believe in radical evil and those who refuse to believe in it -- perhaps because it is so frightening to confront that which will never succumb to any amount of love, grace or reason. This is why we call it "radical."

Leftists generally remain intellectually crippled by their failure to account for the empirical reality of radical evil in nonreductionist terms. This is primarily why the left remains in gradual, but overall decline.

Radical evil cannot be reduced to what liberals would like to reduce it to -- variables that can be managed by science and patience. Radical evil is not rational. The liberal, pacifist view of evil is reductionistic, inauthentic and therefore impractical. It is certainly not scriptural -- not a part of our Western tradition. The rise of Eastern religion in Western societies may be summarized as an attempt to displace an agonizing belief in the reality and objectivity of evil.

It makes perfect sense that a huge majority of adults understands that radical evil must be destroyed as quickly as possible, while the liberals and academia, along with their protesting children, refuse to even imagine this frightening ontology. The moment we begin to face the fact that evil must be punished, or it will grow, we understand that we are always at risk, and that utopia is impossible in this world.

We will never live in a rational world. We can only secure a relatively peaceful world, through practical strategies designed to destroy evil before it can grow out of control.

Liberals suggest that the president's conservative faith colors his view of reality in unsophisticated ways. Cuckolds are always tempted to save face by suggesting that it is sophisticated to accept the "complexity" of their situation. This is how leftists migrate, historically, to the ironic position of apologizing for the Joseph Stalins and the Saddam Husseins until it is too late.

Tom Dahlberg, Shorewood, is a business consultant.

[browardchad]

Cuckolds are always tempted to save face by suggesting that it is sophisticated to accept the "complexity" of their situation.

And do nothing.

Good post; welcome to FR.

[Blessings]

"The rise of Eastern religion in Western societies may be summarized as an attempt to displace an agonizing belief in the reality and objectivity of evil."

Excellent op-ed piece, however, I think the author generalizes about Eastern religion. In my experience and study, Eastern spritualities are as merciless on ignorance and all delusions as Western religions. They all state that Truth cannot be realized without full awareness of the false self and the inevitable damaging consequences of living out of that ego-driven state.

Unfortunately, just as in Western religion, some will not understand the fullness of the spiritual teachings.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

We will never live in a rational world. We can only secure a relatively peaceful world, through practical strategies designed to destroy evil before it can grow out of control . . .

. . . a huge majority of adults understands that radical evil must be destroyed as quickly as possible, while the liberals and academia, along with their protesting children, refuse to even imagine this frightening ontology. The moment we begin to face the fact that evil must be punished, or it will grow, we understand that we are always at risk, and that utopia is impossible in this world.

It is only radically evil regimes with which we are at all willing to go to war . . . which is why we are never surprised that our enemies do not adhere to the Geneva Convention.

If we trusted them enough to believe that they would adhere to that, we would trust them enough to believe in negotiating with them rather than fighting with them.

[Poincare]

But then there is the considerable number of anti-war leftists that believe that America and Bush are evil. They would be laughable if they weren't so dangerous.

[MNnice]

Two excellent points.

[Clioman]

Or worse...to know of the cuckolding, and conclude that somehow it must be their own fault, so that their self-loathing becomes reinforced. That is the mentality of a would-be slave...