Your values are not universal
"Some men can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with"
Why did Seneca say in his letters, now published as Letters From a Stoic,
“Keep clear then, of the sort of quibbles and qualifications I’ve been mentioning in philosophers. Straightforwardness and simplicity are in keeping with goodness.”
It’s a phenomenon you are likely familiar with. Very “smart” people, well-credentialed and highly educated individuals are exceptionally good at tap dancing around morality. They thrive in abstract discussions of the moral gray zones. Black and white is too simple for them. They prefer “context” or “nuance” over blanket statements of what is right or wrong. Complexity (even if contrived) makes for a more compelling college essay or dissertation.
Seneca knew this about the so-called “philosophers” of his day. It is also worth noting that Seneca himself had reasoned (or bullshitted) himself into justifying serving as an advisor to Emperor Nero, a murderous lunatic and antithesis to his own values. “But surely I’m curbing his (Nero’s) worst instincts” Seneca might have said to himself in his own words. This Stoic and political advisor was known to love luxury and the trappings of royal life. He was compromised, but his words still ring true even if they read as an admission of guilt.
We’re starting the week with a weighty subject. Israel and Hamas. You’ll pick up a few related lessons from The Dark Knight, Seneca, and Brad Pitt’s 1997 film, Seven Years in Tibet. Let us know what you think. We’re not called to duck controversy or painful topics here. That is not the way.
Our Ivy League brothers and sisters are not by default moral betters. Look no further than the joint statements made by dozens of leftist university clubs in the wake of the terrorist attacks on Israel last week. Harvard. Stanford. Yale. UNC. Perhaps you’ve seen some of this stuff already.
“Straightforwardness is in keeping with goodness.”
Wholesale murder, rape, and mutilation of civilians, women, and children is evil. The nuance game is a dead-end road. Reject it.
Why then are so many Americans and Westerners so conflicted?
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, This Is The Way published a piece on the Joker and The Dark Knight as a way of understanding Vladimir Putin’s appetite for a bloody war with huge costs to his own people.
We pointed out the Western instinct to call for SANCTIONS, BANK PENALITIES, MORE SANCTIONS and to put the hurt on foreign investments of Russian oligarchs. We care a lot about money here.
“All you people care about is money,” the Joker says to members of the Gotham mob. The Joker is driven by something his criminal peers don’t understand.
Your values are not universal
Remember what Alfred says to Bruce Wayne (Batman) at the midway point of the film, when Bruce is stumped and confused about how to deal with the Joker’s onslaught against law and order in Gotham. “Some men aren’t looking for anything logical—”
But in the West and the halls of American universities, our people are highly skilled at convincing ourselves of the opposite. Surely there must be a logic to all of this. They want the same things we want. Hell, we saw this with the George W. Bush administration and its mission to nation-build and institute democracy in parts of the Middle East unconditioned to democratic norms and values. Not wholly unfit, but unconditioned.
All human beings do not want the same things.
All people do not value the same outcomes from this life.
Watch 3 minutes of this interview with Hamas spokesperson Ali Baraka. Watch Baraka say out loud that Hamas plays the West by taking advantage of its values and moral commitments. We send plastic pipes for water and irrigation, they use them for mortars. We say ‘Please don’t operate in civilian zones’, they say that the civilians are excited and ready to go to heaven. What do you do when your enemy loves and values death? It upends reason, negotiation, and risk mitigation entirely.
“Israel is known to love life, we on the other hand….”
People are, in fact, different
There’s a great scene in the film Seven Years In Tibet, starring Brad Pitt, when Pitt is speaking with a Tibetan woman in the Buddhist holy city of Llasa. She is puzzled as to why he is a professional mountain climber. Pitt’s character is a German climber and famed Olympic athlete. He is sure the woman will be impressed by stories of his climbing feats. She is not.
“This is one more great difference between our civilization and yours. You admire the man who pushes his way to the top in any walk of life. While we admire the man who abandons his ego. The average Tibetan wouldn’t think to thrust himself forward this way.”
Don’t let your intellect and curiosity blind you to the motivations and drive of others. Don’t be fooled by the villain with pure bloodlust because another villain has a sympathetic backstory. Darth Vader and Palpatine (for example) are very different people. To confuse one for the other would be a fatal error.
Be curious. Use reason. Study history and seek to know more about the way the world works. Learn about other cultures and what they value. And while you do this, you must keep clear of “quibbles and qualifications,” and maintain a sense of what is good in your culture.
Without an anchor to something true, you’re just paper (a fancy degree) blowing around in the wind. Pity this person, the fool who will adopt any way of life or creed so long as the words sound pretty.