Created Equal

Ministry of Love

Liberty Is Not License

(Cathy Wilcox, The Age, 12 January 2021)




(Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided, PBS American Experience, WGBH, 2001)

Abraham Lincoln (1809 – 65) [16th President of the United States]:
Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.
The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
(First Inaugural Address, 4 March 1861)

Andrew Johnson (1808 – 75) [17th President of the United States]:
This is a country for white men and, by God, as long as I am President, it shall be a government for white men.

Garrett Epps (1950) [Law Professor, University of Baltimore]:
[Andrew Johnson] loved the idea of big rallies.
He loved to get up and make long speeches, largely about himself.
(Reinaldo Green & Kenny Leon, Citizen, Amend: The Fight for America, Episode 1, 2021)

Abraham Lincoln (1809 – 65):
Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow?
Never!…
At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected?
I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us.
It cannot come from abroad.
If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher.
As a nation of free men we must

• live through all time, or
• die by suicide. …

Is it unreasonable then to expect, that some man possessed of … ambition sufficient to push it to its utmost stretch, will at some time, spring up among us?
And when such a one does, it will require the people to be:

• united with each other,
• attached to the government and laws, and
• generally intelligent,

to successfully frustrate his designs.
Distinction will be his paramount object, and … nothing left to be done in the way of building up, he would set boldly to the task of pulling down.
(Lyceum Address, 27 January 1838)

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Stephen Schmidt (1970) [Former Republican Strategist]:
Great presidents have been able to forge compromise.
President Obama was not able to do that, and the reason may well be the implacability of the people sitting on the other side of the table from him.
Sometimes you can’t get to "yes" with someone who won’t say anything other than "no."
(Michael Kirk, America’s Great Divide: From Obama to Trump, PBS Frontline, WGBH, 2020)

(Michael Kirk, Supreme Revenge: Battle for the Court, PBS Frontline, WGBH, 2020)

Addison Mitchell McConnell (1942) [Republican Leader in the Senate]:
The single most important thing we want to achieve … is for President Obama to be a one-term president.
(Michelle Obama, Becoming, 2018, p 370)

Yoni Appelbaum [Senior Political Editor, The Atlantic]:
A conservatism defined by ideas can hold its own against progressivism,

• winning converts to its principles, and
• evolving with each generation.

A conservatism defined by identity reduces the complex calculus of politics to a simple arithmetic question—and at some point, the numbers no longer add up. …
The GOP’s efforts to cling to power by coercion instead of persuasion have illuminated the perils of defining a political party in a pluralistic democracy around a common heritage, rather than around values or ideals.
(How America Ends, The Atlantic, December 2019, emphasis added)

Paul Weyrich (1942 – 2008) [Co-founder, Heritage Foundation]:
How many of our Christians have the ["good government"] syndrome?
They want everybody to vote.
I don't want everybody to vote.
Elections are not won by a majority of people.
They never have been from the beginning of our country, and they are not now.
As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections, quite candidly, goes up as the voting populace goes down.

Ronald Reagan (1911 – 2004):
I know this is a non-partisan gathering, and so I know you can't endorse me.
But I only brought that up because I want you to know that I endorse you [evangelicals] and what you are doing.
(The Roundtable, Dallas, August 1980)

The American Promise

This nation … was founded on the principle that all men are created equal.
And that the rights of every man are diminished, when the rights of one man are threatened.
Now is the time for this nation to fulfill its promise. …

We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. …
The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities. …
Next week I shall ask the Congress of the United States … to make a commitment … to the proposition that race has no place in American life or law.


— John Kennedy (1917 – 63), Civil Rights Address, 11 June 1963.


ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL,
BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.


— George Orwell (1903 – 50), Animal Farm, 1945.


[It] is not just Negroes, but really it is all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice.
And we shall overcome.

— Lyndon Johnson (1908 – 73), The American Promise, 15 March 1965.


When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.
This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." …

Injustice anywhere, is a threat to justice everywhere. …
Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. …
[Freedom] is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. …

We cannot accept these conditions of oppression.
For this is not a struggle for ourselves alone.
It is a struggle for the soul of America. …

Let us all hope that:

• the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away, and
• the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear drenched communities,

and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.

— Martin King (1929 – 68)


Martin Luther King [is] the most dangerous Negro of the future in this Nation — from the standpoint of:

• communism,
• the Negro, and
• national security.

— William Sullivan (1914 – 77), Head of COINTELPRO, FBI, 30 August 1963.

(David Grubbin, LBJ, PBS American Experience, WGBH, October 1991)

Martin Luther King (1929 – 68):
[If] physical death is the price a man must pay to free his children from the permanent death of the spirit, then nothing could be more redemptive.
(The Rising Tide of Racial Consciousness, 6 September 1960)

John Kennedy (1917 – 63):
Other people, [George Bernard Shaw] said, "see things and say, 'Why?'
But I dream things that never were, and I say, 'Why not?'"
The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics, whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities.
We need men who can dream of things that never were, and ask why not?

(Freedom Ride, Anniston, Alabama, 14 May 1961)

Evan Thomas (1951) [Writer]:
Jack Kennedy was very conscious of images.
When the television cameras and Life magazine arrived down South [in 1963,] that's the moment when the federal government cannot sit back anymore.

Ministry of Love

Live Long and Prosper

The Myth of Pure Evil

Fear begets Anger
Anger begets Hatred
Hatred begets Cruelty
Cruelty begets Suffering

— peaceandlonglife

(Victim of the Rwandan genocide)

Roy Baumeister (1953)

Social Psychologist, Queensland University

[The myth of pure evil posits a] force, or person, that seeks relentlessly to inflict harm, with no positive or comprehensible motive, deriving enjoyment from the suffering of others …
It maliciously and gratuitously seeks out unsuspecting, innocent victims from among the good people of the world.
It is

• the eternal other,
• the enemy,
• the outsider,

who despises the orderly and peaceful world of the good and seeks to throw it into chaos.
(pp 74-5)

[In reality there] are four major root causes of evil, or reasons that people act in ways that others will perceive as evil.
Ordinary, well-intentioned people may perform evil acts when under the influence of these factors, singly or in combination. …

• The first root cause of evil is the simple desire for material gain, such as money or power. …
• The second root of evil is threatened egotism. …
• The third root of evil is idealism. …
• The fourth root of evil is the pursuit of sadistic pleasure.
  [However,] only about 5-6% of perpetrators actually get enjoyment out of inflicting harm. …

[These] root causes of evil are pervasive, which leads one to wonder why violence and oppression are not even more common than they are.
The answer is that violent impulses are typically restrained by inner inhibitions; people exercise self-control to avoid lashing out at others every time they might feel like it.
The four root causes of evil must therefore be augmented by an understanding of the proximal cause, which is the breakdown of these internal restraints.
(pp 376-7)

A common and important cause of evil is the quest to avenge blows to one's pride.
Dangerous people, from playground bullies to warmongering dictators, consist mainly of those who have highly favorable views about themselves.
They strike out at others who question or dispute those favorable views.
(p 135)

[Most] violent people have high opinions of themselves, but most people with high opinions of themselves are not violent.
Violent people are an important but distinct, atypical minority of people with high self-esteem.
The most potent recipe for violence is a favorable view of oneself that is disputed or undermined by someone else—in short, threatened egotism.
(p 341)

The individualism of modern American society leads directly to worship of self-esteem and contempt for guilt. …
Self-esteem is better for the individual and worse for the community, and so Americans prize self-esteem.
Guilt is better for the community and worse for the individual, and so they detest guilt.
The American attitude that values the rights of the individual above the community's best interest apparently contributes to high levels of happiness contributes to individual freedom, and deters tyranny.
But it also promotes violence, along with oppression and individual forms of evil.
(p 313)

Egotism is … on the rise, especially now that modern morality has abandoned its religious commitment to humility and the condemnation of selfishness.
At the international level, one has to worry about Russia, whose rapid loss of global prominence and prestige is reminiscent of the humiliations that pushed Germany toward World War II. …
In the United States, the [national trend is] toward pursuing self-esteem and relaxing self-control.
As long as this trend predominates, it seems safe to expect that individual crime and violence in the United States will be high. …

Idealistic violence is difficult to forecast.
Christianity no longer seems to have the force to set off holy wars, but Islam does.
(p 384)

[All] over the world, regardless of culture or background, the same biological group is responsible for the bulk of the violence: young males from puberty through the prime age of reproductive potency.
(p 381)

The tendency to align with one's fellows and feel hostile toward potential opponents and rivals seems almost ineradicable. …
Yet culture can exert a great deal of influence in teaching people how to express and control their aggressive impulses. …

Equalizing opportunity can perhaps reduce the tendency to resort to violent means as a way of achieving material gain, although there is no very convincing proof of this.
Decreasing the emphasis on pride, self-esteem, and public respect, or providing multiple and clear criteria for proving oneself, may work against the tendency to use violence to maintain one's face.
A strong cultural belief in the rights of individuals and in the inability of noble ends to justify violent means can help prevent idealism from fostering brutality.
(p 382)

Future generations are likely to look back on people living now as evil, because of the profligate use of the planet's limited and dwindling resources. …
[But, unlike] the slave traders or warmongers of past eras [it will be future populations who] will be our victims …
The future will have its own version of Satan, and it is likely to be you and me (and our governments).
But, like most perpetrators, we do not see ourselves as doing evil.
(p 385, emphasis added)

[While the] victim's perspective [needs to be temporarily] suppressed for the sake of [understanding] the perpetrator, [it] is essential for making a moral judgment of the perpetrator.
It is a mistake to let moral condemnation interfere with trying to understand — but it would be a bigger mistake to let that understanding, once it has been attained, interfere with moral condemnation.
(p 387)

(Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty, W H Freeman / Holt, 1997 / 2001)