As I write this Boris is on TV trying hard to defend his right hand man, Dominic. People are calling for blood. No doubt a lot of the calls are based on a simple hatred of the man – many people see him as an evil influence in this country.
I think about my own case. My family are hundreds of miles away. I have given some thought to what I would do if I caught the virus, or if they did. I know I have a raised risk if I catch the virus. But I have come to accept that if I were to catch the virus I might not get the chance to see my family again. I would not want them to risk their lives to see me. So comparing the actions of DC against the actions I would take leaves me with the view that he was wrong.
But is our hatred enough to condemn somebody, or is a comparison with our actions the right way to go. And anyway, he wears a lanyard talking about God. Or maybe we need some rules (which gives me a good segway in to this video – can we rename it the DC anthem?).
I used to go to a church in the East End of London. One of the elderly guys there was Joe. He had been a prize boxer. He had been a member of the Diamond Gang, collecting “insurance” from local traders. He would recount stories of the East End, including the time the Krays bought their first shooter from his friend.
One evening he said he thought he had done wrong, but he wasn’t sorry. In his row of houses there was a frail lady. At the other end there was a thug with a big dog. The thug would terrify the old lady by letting the dog jump up, held back by the lead. He had gone out and explained to the thug that this was going to stop. The thug started to complain. Joe said to us “When he woke up…” Joe had planted a left hook and knocked him out. A good man did a bad thing. Was this right?
Another thing Joe told us was that at the height of the London gangs the streets were really safe. Ordinary people were not robbed or attacked. The criminal gangs protected their neighbours. Bad people did good?
We can all remember that movie where the evil person was going to escape, and the frustrated cop shoots him. We know it isn’t right, but there is a bit of us (bigger in some than others) that smiles at that.
A friend posted something recently that got me thinking about this.
I just read an excerpt from a 1933 letter of a German Theology Prof. (Tübingen) reporting to his higher-ups the good news that 80% of the other profs. were glad to get behind Hitler and support him. He assures them that the rest – while not willing to go so far as to praise or support Hitler in an unqualified way – are at least all convinced that Hitler is God’s CHOSEN INSTRUMENT to do good for the German nation and the German people.
Yes we can have “feelings” about whether people are good/bad or whether acts are right and wrong. Yes we can say “he is going to make us great again”. But unless we have some touchstone to judge against we can easily be led in to supporting evil because they do good.
What are the core values that we set as guides for our life? And how do the people we follow stack up against those values?