Balance Part 4 - When Societies go bad

I have noticed something about oppressive societies. I have noticed that usually they are build around admirable values. For example, much of the oppression connected to the Dark Ages is based on the desire to create a moral Christian order. Morality is a desirable quality for a society. It is clearly better to have a moral society than one that is chaotic. But the imposed morality in the Dark Ages led to a great deal of bloodshed and oppression.

Or what about the terror visited upon us due to Stalinism and other communist societies. A lot of people died due to the laudable desire to create equality. These communist societies are built around the notion of promoting economic equality. Nothing wrong with that. Except that these efforts to promote equality led to millions send to gulags, or being executed.

A desire to be patriotic to one's country is a good thing. But such loyalty allowed Hitler to create his own version of Hell. Islam has some commendable qualities in it. But forcing everyone to accept those qualities has created many of the Islamic tyrannies we see today. As you can see trying to impose some good quality to the rest of society is a big reason why we see the development of oppressive and cruel societies.

This is tied to my discussion of balance. Balance forces us to recognize that any good quality can be used to justify horrible actions. If we remember the importance of balance then we will not be persuaded by the next would-be dictator who asks us to sacrifice it all for a sacred principle. We can agree the principle is good without throwing away our rights and freedoms.

I love my country. I believe we have a right to protect ourselves against terrorists. But my love for my country does not lead me to do anything to protect it. There must be a balance where we do have rules that protect us against a very real threat but we also balance those rules with efforts to maintain our freedom. I neither completely agree with the ACLU nor with conservative talk show host as it concerns the measures to protect ourselves. Rather I will look for a balanced approach that allows us to protect ourselves with a maximum protection of our freedom. I find that on most issues such a need for a balanced approach is best.

Sincerely,



Trouble-Maker