David Strom:
Evil things happen because human beings have evil within them. Most people don't act on their darker impulses or learn as they grow up how to sublimate the wolves within their souls. But certain people, and certain cultures that don't teach people to become civilized, do awful things.
Civilized people don't excuse these acts. They don't provide "context." Context for violence is knowing that self-defense is involved, or some other mitigating circumstances. There is no context in which gangs of youth assault a couple and film themselves laughing at the harm they are doing.
And civilizations that employ law enforcement officers who blather on about context, equity, and other irrelevant concepts rather than cracking down--hard--on barbaric behavior are agents of evil, even if they believe they are doing good. No civilization can survive if it excuses evildoers who are undermining it.
# posted by Ranger @ 7:12 PM
