President Obama, in his Tucson speech, acknowledged that “Much of this process, of debating what might be done to prevent such tragedies in the future, is an essential ingredient in our exercise of self-government.” But the main thrust of the speech was to condemn, “pointing fingers or assigning blame.” Obama said, “What we cannot do is use this tragedy as one more occasion to turn on each other.”
The main point that I received in the speech was this message: “It’s important for us to … make sure that we’re talking with each other in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds.”
It’s interesting that this speech urging everyone to be nice to each other has received high praise from Glen Beck and other right wing spokespersons. I guess the reason for such praise is because the thesis of the speech is that there is no responsibility. The subtext of the speech seems to be:
- Rather than assigning blame to Arizona’s gun laws that allows any deranged moron with the retail price to buy a powerful weapon,
- Rather than pointing fingers at a dysfunctional educational and mental health system,
- Rather than questioning whether Sarah Palin’s careless language or her gun target advertisement aimed at Tucson had any effect,
let’s find a way of talking about this violent act in a way that avoids hurting anyone’s feelings.
Obama quoted Job: "But when I looked for good, evil came; and when I waited for light, darkness came." Here, William Blake shows God appearing to Job.
In his efforts to deflect blame, it seems to me that Obama crossed a line when he asserted, “Scripture tells us that there is evil in the world, and that terrible things happen for reasons that defy human understanding.” Of all the phrases in the speech, this one hit my ear as demagoguery — “appealing to popular prejudices rather than by using rational argument.”
The idea of “evil” reappeared later in the speech when Obama said, “We may not be able to stop all evil in the world, but I know that how we treat one another, that’s entirely up to us.”
It’s hard to fathom, but 40% of Americans believe that, according to scripture, the earth is a “young earth” — only 6000 or 10,000 years old. When Obama says, “Scripture tells us,” he is speaking, as in code, to millions of Americans and millions of Muslims around the world who insist on accepting the literal words of “scripture” as revealed truth. In this literal view, evil is a supernatural force, and humanity is marching inexorably toward a final battle between good and evil, between people aligned with “good” and people aligned with “evil.” Heaven help us.
No doubt, Obama, personally, has a nuanced and sophisticated POV concerning evil. I read he is influenced by theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. According to this report, “What Neibuhr means by ‘evil’ … is not necessarily a will to kill and enslave, but ‘excessive self-interest’ and a ‘lust for power’ that leads to the tolerance of injustice.”
Obama, it seems to me, if called upon directly, probably would give such a Neibuhrian definition of evil. But the definition of evil that Obama delivered in his speech was quite different — what the scriptures say about evil — that there is a supernatural force of evil in the world that causes bad things to happen. This view of evil isn’t appropriate for a president to advance. It’s an idea that downright dangerous to advance, in fact, because it gives credibility to lunatic ideas, which in turn gives rise to lunatic actions.
Obama implies that an act of violence by a disturbed 22 year old misfit is among the “terrible things that defy human understanding.” Yes, the confused and violent thinking in the mentally ill is frightful and defies human understanding — in some absolute sense. But it makes sense that disturbed thinking is influenced by the culture it lives in, the same culture that influences all of us. As a democracy we need to investigate and understand what is the source of sickness in our culture and how we can make our culture more healthful.
What doesn’t make sense is to propose that self destructive mental states are evidence of an “evil force.” Good grief. We need to rise above medieval thinking. Normal or creative mental states defy human understanding, as well. As humans we don’t understand either the negative or positive parts of ourselves.
The topic of evil is one that deserves a lot of attention — There is the theory that the reason there is starvation and war in the world is because the world is in the grip of a supernatural evil. Such a theory, or some version of, is attractive because it conveniently gets us all off the hook from making much of an effort to change things. How to overcome evil is the question. I appreciate the scripture about overcoming evil that President Bill Clinton used in his speech after the Oklahoma bombing. Here are Clinton’s words:
To all my fellow Americans beyond this hall, I say, one thing we owe those who have sacrificed is the duty to purge ourselves of the dark forces which gave rise to this evil. They are forces that threaten our common peace, our freedom, our way of life. Let us teach our children that the God of comfort is also the God of righteousness: Those who trouble their own house will inherit the wind. Justice will prevail.
Let us let our own children know that we will stand against the forces of fear. When there is talk of hatred, let us stand up and talk against it. When there is talk of violence, let us stand up and talk against it. In the face of death, let us honor life. As St. Paul admonished us, Let us “not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
