Saturday, February 25, 2006

Meditations on monsters

Friedrich Nietzsche has a quote which should be required reading for anyone in Law Enforcement. Paraphrased, it goes something like this:

"Those who fight monsters should take care that in the process they do not become monsters. When you gaze long into the Abyss, the Abyss gazes into you."


One of the bad things about monsters, is that the worst of them don't believe that they are monsters. They believe that they're doing The Right Thing. Maybe they're a little blinded by their idealism, I don't know, but it makes them monsters none the less.

Which brings us to the War on Terrorism.

Terrorists, and those that support them, are world-class monsters. Literally.

As such, those that gird up to fight these monsters should take extra time to make sure that they aren't developing scales and horns along the way.

When fighting world-class monsters, every "necessary" action should be second-guessed, agonized over, and outside opinions should be sought.

Unfortunately, I get the awful feeling that Congress, the Executive Branch, and those tasked with enforcing the laws of Congress, and the orders of the Executive Branch, aren't checking themselves and each other for symptoms of creeping monster-itis often enough.

The utterly worst monsters became so willingly, and for all the right reasons.

Metaphorically speaking, I suspect that the Abyss is giggling its' little black ass off about right now.



Anonymous said...

Amen to that, brother.

Problem is, my humble opinion, Congressweasels were already monsters for the most part before all this stuff started. WHat does a person want once they have power? more power. well now they have an excuse to run roughshod over the American people, and their ideals. They are doing everything they can to make America safe (for everyone who hates us).

No sir, I think what they tend to check each morning, isn't if they are growing scales and horns, but whether their scales and horns are SHOWING.

cheap viagra said...

Great post, I've been reading a lot about Friedrich Nietzsche, the lasted was "Antichrist". It was a great book, to many thoughts, just one philosophy. I think you'd add something about it, and his meditations are very important in this times. 23jj