John Podhoretz is wrong
We in the West have not evolved to the point where we're too morally advanced to oppose evil effectively. In fact, common sense would seem to rather clearly dictate that such a state of affairs is no moral advance at all.
Rather, we've morally deteriorated- and we'd better get a grip on ourselves, fast!
I remember a European once commenting on this blog in that the United States is morally inferior to Europe for allowing capital punishment. Now, I am not a supporter of capital punishment, because there is too great a danger of a mistake, and no way to rectify one if it's discovered. But that the commenter in question was able to seriously argue for Europe's moral superiority over the United States on the ground that, in principle, executing murderers is more immoral than killing the terminally ill and the unborn and the otherwise inconvenient members of our species, as is done in Holland, or legalizing drug abuse and prostitution, as is done in more than one European country, is merely further evidence in support of the notion that Europe in general is in deep moral doo-doo.
Same here. A morally developed society will do what it has to do to defeat evil. That it often finds the necessary actions repugnant is simply another way of saying that it's morally advanced. But the ultimate test of its moral stature is its willingness to do what it finds repugnant because the consequences of not doing so are even more repugnant.
When we lose the moral courage to do that, we have ceased to develop morally, and are regressing.
Rather, we've morally deteriorated- and we'd better get a grip on ourselves, fast!
I remember a European once commenting on this blog in that the United States is morally inferior to Europe for allowing capital punishment. Now, I am not a supporter of capital punishment, because there is too great a danger of a mistake, and no way to rectify one if it's discovered. But that the commenter in question was able to seriously argue for Europe's moral superiority over the United States on the ground that, in principle, executing murderers is more immoral than killing the terminally ill and the unborn and the otherwise inconvenient members of our species, as is done in Holland, or legalizing drug abuse and prostitution, as is done in more than one European country, is merely further evidence in support of the notion that Europe in general is in deep moral doo-doo.
Same here. A morally developed society will do what it has to do to defeat evil. That it often finds the necessary actions repugnant is simply another way of saying that it's morally advanced. But the ultimate test of its moral stature is its willingness to do what it finds repugnant because the consequences of not doing so are even more repugnant.
When we lose the moral courage to do that, we have ceased to develop morally, and are regressing.
Comments
You hit it right on the head. The Nazis considered Christians and especially Americans to be degenerates who could not resist the superior specimens of National Socialist social and genetic engineering. They seriously erred. May God give us the moral resolve to resist evil.