Evil: A Case Study
June 16, 2018 § 3 Comments
The vehicle drives through the gate of the concentration camp and armed guards herd the People Declared as Other into a large, loud, chaotic processing room. Everyone is given a number—fathers, mothers, children, babies—everyone.
Then the children are torn from their mother’s arms, screaming, crying, calling out, “Momma!” echoing desperately across the room. The mothers, too, are screaming, crying, calling out their children’s names, arms outstretched, struggling in vain against the armed men restraining them, as their children are dragged away.
To another concentration camp, the parents to one, the children to another hundreds of miles away. The mothers’ numbers enter the database with one state bureaucracy, the children’s with another. No one anywhere can answer the question, Is there some central database that can ever bring them back together again?
When is this? 1942? Where is this? Bergen-Belsen? No. San Diego, 2018. Land of the free and the brave.
Who is this? Hitler? Himmler? No. Trump. Sessions.
THIS. IS. EVIL.
Knowing, willful, “legal” violence against innocents. Cruelty. Indiscriminate cruelty. Or is it indiscriminate? Cruelty in the name of the law. Cruelty to satisfy the baser instincts of one’s supporters. Cruelty in service of some principle. The principle? America first. Cruelty for the Fatherland. As defined by white, old, rich men.
Shrouded in the red, white, and blue. Red for the blood shed for the Fatherland. White for the color of the skin of those who deserve to live in the Fatherland. Blue for bruises on the arms of mothers and their little children.
Who are these people, who want to do such things? Who believes it’s righteous to orphan children? Who believes in torture? Who laughs about grabbing women by their genitals?
Now, I know that by calling these acts, this policy, maybe these men, evil, I am really saying more about me than I am about them. I am crossing some kind of line. I am declaring a radical stance in opposition to these acts, these policies, these men. I am saying that I believe they need to be condemned, damned, and stopped, if possible.
But how? As Jesus taught, not with violence, but with the truth–and with my body. Not my fists, not that part of my body. With my wrists. With my feet. With my breath. As on the cross.
If these acts are not evil, then what acts are? If these policies are not demonic, not an addiction to power, to lies (“the Democrats did it”), to force, and to dehumanization, then what policies are evil? If these men are not evil, then what are they? What god DO they serve?
Through the Flaming Sword 
Touch screen misfire. My reply continued:
Happy Father’s Day (cont.) … or, .675 of a pound. Place some economic value on that labor and then consider the other expenses that can be attributed to the raising of the pigeons who raised those squab.
National policies that depress the price of good for citizens of the United States do suppress the COLA rates relative to our unfunded mandates. They also make ‘deplorable’ fathers’ labor worth that of the illegal ‘immigrant’ fathers. Is not this race to the bottom a systemic case study in living as live backwards: evil? The Chavezes’ efforts to confront this evil through the organizing of the National Farm Workers Association caused a few deck chairs on our ‘good’ ship Titanic to be rearranged, but the underlying evil remains … and multiplies (you may recall this from Quaker Wanda days in NYYM!?!):
a dis for belief people by Greg Robie, © 9/27/03
You marched with Martin I went to prison Back in our day That was proof Christ was risen
But look what has happened Since, back in our prime We did these things And defined the time
More have got poorer While the rich have got richer ’til life just ain’t handy For half of humanity
And that’s only half Of the whole sorry story The number, so suffering has doubled, its gory
Life’s diversity’s trashed Its melting away Our rush to be quick Is blasting today At all that might balance And hold US in check So now things are set up To clear the deck
We’ll mow down without question Those who stand in our way Of the solemn coronation Of capitalism’s sway A procession of power That can’t see a thing Beyond what it feels like To take, rape, and sting
Do you know what I mean Can you smell the injustice Or is your head up a place Where no one can bust it
Our resting on laurels And living for comfort With limited vision Makes us a consort Of forces that silence The World’s groans for peace And defines us a people Of strong disbelief
And yet you will tell me That we’re doing fine That each of us individually Reflects the Divine
I look twice with eyes Which seem to see clearer I do not see how We have made heaven nearer
We’ve straightened some deck chairs On our good ship, Titanic But its design limits destine That some day we’ll panic We’ll join the others On whose heads we stand And pay a just price For burying ours in the sand
So wake up you sleepers Smell the new day The fire and brimstone That will shape our way
What will you do When you are so confronted Will you turn and repent Or scapegoat the shunted
Its not a bright picture I paint with these words But if darkness has led us It’s what we deserve
You are correct, Steven, that this post’s point about evil says much about ourselves and the apostasy we have been party to … continue to be partnered with. But isn’t it only evil to the degree we repeat past irresponsible economic behaviors and continue in our pious complicity?
8)
sNAILmALEnotHAIL …but pace’n myself
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCeDkezgoyyZAlN7nW1tlfeA
life is for learning so all my failures must mean that I’m wicked smart
>
Happy Father’s Day Steven (even if, in truth, all days are the same and holy),
People, often fathers, from countries in the central and southern reaches of the land masses of the Americas have been coming to our country in search of economic ‘opportunity’ all my life. I have seen statistics that indicate these countries who constitute ‘our’ sphere of influence have been subjected to a 45% decline in their standard of living. Isn’t this due to our foreign policy’s ‘care’ for them and the needs of Wall Street’s economic globalization of CapitalismFail?
Due to a desperation for the means of providing for families, these men have been forced to choose to make partial orphans of their children. Here in New York I saw this flow of ‘cheap’ slave labor impact the construction trades’ price structure about the same time we served together on that Yearly Meeting Renewal Committee. The $1.99/lb. chicken breasts Tina bought on sale yesterday also are the result of this economic meme where greed-is-go[]d. I harvested and butchered two squab yesterday. I sat by one of my brook trout aquaculture ponds and feed the trout their entrails. I buried the feathers, heads and feet in a compost pile. That labor took an hour. The weight of the meat I added to our refrigerator is just under 11oz, or
sNAILmALEnotHAIL …but pace’n myself
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCeDkezgoyyZAlN7nW1tlfeA
life is for learning so all my failures must mean that I’m wicked smart
>
Our day fits Edward Burrough’s description: “For when we looked abroad and beheld the world, behold it was altogether darkness, and even as a wilderness, and desolate, and barren of good fruit; and death reigned over men, and no good fruit was brought forth to God, but leaves we beheld upon every soul.” (Works of Fox Vol. III, p.14) Some souls do not have even “leaves” attempting to hide their nakedness of death and darkness. So how are we to respond?
Paul admonished the Romans, “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” (see 12th chap. of Romans) Now, surely I can dig in and get to work “doing good!” But then I must ask “What is this good that overcomes evil?”
Jesus asked the rich man who came to him, “Why do you call me good? There is none good but God.” (See the 19th chap. of Matt.) There are many ways to get yourself crucified, but the only way that causes our “good” to have evil-overcoming-power is to share with Edward Burrough that sense of “Thus says the Lord…” He said: “Then having thus armed us with power, strength, and wisdom, and dominion, according to his mind, and we having learned of him, and being taught of him in all things, and he having chosen us into his work, and put his sword into our hand, and given us perfect commission to go forth in his name and authority, having the word from his mouth what to cut down and what to preserve, and having the everlasting gospel to preach to the inhabitants of the earth, and being commanded in spirit to leave all, and follow him, and go forth in his work, yea an absolute necessity was laid upon us, and wo unto us if we preached not the gospel.” (Works of Fox, Vol. III, p.14)