“Good and evil begin with rationalization. It simply is easier to rationalize an excuse for evil rather than for good.” Pizzaonia proverb

Conjectures of a recovering dilettante as we continue to move west

 

 
Notes from Brother Giovanni Seminary lecture series

Much of the world’s horror exists in the name of good. It is amazing how much evil we do in the name of rationalized good.  

Moreover, once we rationalize the evil for good, the acceptance of so-called collateral damage becomes acceptable - anything goes as long as the rationalized good is accepted.

Eventually we see through the self-deception.  Even so, some of us will continue to look the other way.  Later, rather than sooner, we gather the individual and collective will to stop the evil.  We just cannot go on any longer and still have some pretense of conscience left. 

Then, and only then do we do something about it, but by then we have done the damage that only rationalized good can do. 

This seems to be the history of the human condition.