May 06, 2005

Opus Dei?

I have to wonder about the idea of a “culture of life” that, in a cavalier fashion, lies about weapons of mass destruction to justify intervention in a sovereign state at the cost of innumerable lives, both military and civilian. Recently I have been reading Mein Kampf. It is frightening to read, now 80 years since its publication. It outlines the Hitlerian idea that the lie must be big enough to convince the masses of its veracity. Propaganda does not appeal to reason, but to base emotions. Fear is among the most basic of emotions. Instill fear in a people and they will sell their souls for the illusion of security. Do I sound cynical about my country? I am.

Lebensraum


Hitler used lies and deception to sell the idea of Lebensraum to the German people. This ultimately became the justification for the annexation of Austria, the expansion into Poland, Scandinavia, France, and Czechoslovakia. Germany required land for the master race, the Aryans. Lesser mortals were destined by nature to be their slaves and would live and die for the good of the master race. This was the value of subhuman races: to provide for the strong.

Help me if I sound overly cynical, but does this not sound quite a bit like the rhetoric surrounding the war in Iraq? We expand into a sovereign country that is unable to govern itself. We topple the elected government and establish a government that is more to our taste. We support that government only to the degree that it provides what we need and demand of that place: oil.

A Culture of Life?

The idea of the culture of life is to recognize the value of all human life and not to draw distinctions in the value of any life. John Paul II was adamant in his opposition to communism. This is well known. He was also quite outspoken in his criticism of the United State’s War in Iraq. A true culture of life is defined by John Paul II, in his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life). In this he condemns capital punishment, euthanasia, and abortion as part of a “culture of death.” While there is much with which I take issue in these state