May 8, 2006

• If your average American had been brought up in Nazi Germany, wouldn’t he have approved of the Holocaust? If he were brought up in Iran, wouldn’t he be itching to nuke Israel? We’d all like to think there’s something inherently good about us, and that we would choose right over wrong in whatever situation we were put into, but ultimately we’re all products of our culture. We generally approve of the things that our neighbors approve of, and disapprove of those they disapprove of.

  And history shows us that very often those around us can be misled. We think of Nazi Germany, or Southern slavery, or radical Islam and we see that incredibly evil ideas can get ingrained in a culture. So ingrained, in fact, that those involved can see them as a positive good. It’s easy for us to condemn those outside our culture, but obviously it’s not easy for people on the inside to see things any differently.

  We marvel that the German people could be sold on genocide, but is it really that surprising? Isn’t it more likely that we ourselves are sold on some different evil? Other cultures in the world certainly see us that way. We in turn point our fingers at their flaws. Given the multitude of ethical standards out there, it doesn’t look like humans can discern right and wrong with much accuracy.

  I am always amazed when I see people around me participating in, and approving of things that they would have condemned twenty years ago, especially when those things are expressly against the tenets of the religion they espouse. It makes me wonder if they think at all or just roll along with the culture. I think that’s a dangerous thing to do.

  In “The Marketing of Evil” David Kupelian takes a look at how certain ideas are being sold to the American people. Ideas that destroy lives are portrayed as right, and outright lies are used to promote them. Yet the lies were never effectively challenged and the general public was sold on them. Especially interesting are the admissions of the founders of the abortion movement that they used lies to market their cause.

  Unfortunately, “The Marketing of Evil” is just too short. Each chapter in it could be its own book.
  

  • 7:40 am
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