Advanced ethics: the meaning of exigency
Suppose that one is a policemen confronted with a hostage situation. In a tense standoff, two bank robbers have held a dozen hostages in a vault for hours, making various demands. A sharpshooter manages to find a position on the roof of an adjoining building, and takes out one of the robbers, causing the other one to surrender to a negotiator. The sharpshooter feels lousy about killing the perpetrator, but reflects that they could not have given the robbers what they wanted, or they would hand a blank check to all of those willing to take hostages to secure official favors; that they had made every effort to get the robbers to surrender, with the response being increasing threats to make a demonstration of resolve by killing a hostage, creating an imminent risk of harm; that there was no way to use gas without risking the lives of the hostages, since the robbers might shoot in panic, and some of the hostages might be asthmatic; and that, with the threats of a demonstration killing, waiting them out was not a viable option. Thus, the unpleasant conclusion was that the only way to break the stalemate before a hostage was killed was to take out one or both of the robbers.
Now, people are not executed for bank robbery, nor for hostage taking, nor even for merely threatening murder. They are also not executed without a lot of due process. Additionally, one cannot know for sure that the robbers would have acted on their threats against the hostages, nor can you know for sure that the second robber wouldn't go berserk and start killing people anyway. Nevertheless, under the circumstances, the correct decision was made.
Frequently, exigency forces a conclusion that is very unappealing, as the solution. In national affairs, and particularly international relations, is this especially so. One of the main divisions between liberal and conservatives is the willingness to face disturbing conclusions. Liberals often try to skirt the dilemma, instead of admitting that a hard choice has to be made. Conservatives are generally more willing to admit that we cannot avoid the "lesser evil", or, as it is classically known, the raison d'etat........ |
