re: "If I lived my life in such a way that actually drove someone to hate me so much that that he'd rather die than to see me alive, then it would be very ignorant and oblivious of me not to question my ways. I'd have to understand what the issues are before I can decide what the correct answer is."
You are a moral relativist. You try to see the other guys point of view. If there is a problem, your first instinct is to wonder what you did to provoke or cause the problem, and how you can adjust yourself to make everyone comfortable with you.
The U.S. went through a flirtation with Moral Relativism, in the 1960s and 1970s. But it is a concept foreign to our national nature, and we have shucked it off. Our self-confidence is back. Today, most Americans are willing to say there is a recognizable difference between Good and Evil, and Evil should be identified and attacked.
So, this is not the time for introspection and self-criticism.
This is not the time to try to see the other guy's point of view.
The other guy is Evil.
He has hurt us.
This is a time to hunt him down,
and hurt him back, hurt him so badly, and repeatedly and preemptively,
so he has neither the will nor the ability to hurt us any more.
That's the American Way.
It's ugly, but it works. |
