One of the more argued aspects surrounding the study of evil is the question of forgiveness, or even acceptance. Are there examples of evil deeds that warrant understanding in context (UIC)? It seems so. The state in which I live observed, for many years, a holiday honoring a traitor who abandoned an oath he took to protect the United States of America and, instead, elected to lead a vicious war against that country in an attempt to perpetuate the institution of slavery. If a UIC can cause us to condone the support of evil such as was employed against African Americans, what else is eligible for redemption?
What about a war against the most precious of
innocents, our children?
Jacob Riis was a journalist, photographer, and
social reformer during the late 1800s and early 1900s. In his classic work, How
the Other Half Lives,[1]
he called attention to the neglect of the poor in our country, particularly the
child laborers. In his notes, he observed that child labor exists:
Wherever the street is the only playground of
the children;
Wherever they are dragged into the police courts,
when they ought to be at school,
There is the slum waiting to raise its head.
Wherever men sell their votes and their
consciences, it is only just around the corner.
One child, under five years of age, when interviewed
and asked how long he had been working, could only reply, “since I was.”
He concluded, in a famous passage, “How shall the
love of God be understood by those who have been nurtured in sight only of the
greed of man?” An earlier philosopher, a follower of the same god, noted, “The
poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me.”[2]
Many take this as a UIC, as an admission that some
forms of evil are so persistent as to justify neglect.
Others say, about an instance of evildoing, that “You
just had to have been there.”
During the winter months, we often note the date
of the execution of United States Army Private Eddie Slovik on January 31, 1945.
He was the only American soldier executed for desertion, some say cowardice, during
America’s involvement in World War Two. A month after Christmas, they led him
to a lonely garden in France, placed him in front of a stone wall, in order to
avoid stray bullets injuring someone, and fired 11 rounds of .30 caliber
bullets into him from 12 M-1 Garand rifles. From accounts, he faced the ordeal
with resolve, even bravery.
As with many, if not most things in our country,
it remains a divisive issue. Some say it stands as an extreme case of cruelty,
i.e. evil, to have chosen one of thousands of deserters as an example. They argue
that he fit a handy profile, an admitted deserter with a former felony
background, no children, and a lackluster military career. He, himself argued, “They’re
not shooting me for deserting the United Stated Army—thousands of guys have
done that. They’re shooting me for bread I stole when I was 12 years old.”
Others point out that Private Slovik was offered,
on multiple occasions, clemency if he would return to his unit for duty. He
refused. They also note that there was a feeling at the time among American
soldiers that the war was almost over and it wasn’t a good time to die. Morale
was lagging in the midst of the Battle of the Bulge in which a massive German
counter-offensive threatened to send the war into another long period of horror
for the entire world. The execution of one deserter, under clearly established
military law and a fair trial, in order to instill resolve and discipline in
others remains, in some minds a UIC.
The tricky point of UICs, some of which deserve detailed
analysis, is that unethical forces can use their false cousins for evil
purposes. The talents of Joseph Goebbels, and the efficacy of modern media
sources, support the contention that a large segment of the public falls prey
easily to constantly repeated entreaties by false prophets.
We need only ask the innocent victims of Baghdad,
or January 6, 2021.
