"Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth." - Franklin D Roosevelt
Very true, even when the lie is repeated by many different people, even in different times and places. See below.
"When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion." - C.P. Snow, scientist and writer (1905-1980)
I feel that I am on treading on dangerous ground in criticizing this well-known quote from an important and influential critic of modern thought, but this is exactly the kind of glib authoritative statement that I find very aggravating. People read it and simply accept it without thinking. It sounds so “right.” It sounds right because it fits in so well to contemporary currents of thought, not because it is true. The way it is expressed, that there has been more of one kind of event than of another, sounds like someone has made a careful study, added up the events, and compared the resulting sums. But even though Snow was considered a scientist himself, this is surely not the case. Such a study would probably be impossible to conduct. Among the many problems one would encounter in preparing for such a study would be defining “hideous crimes,” “obedience,” and “rebellion” as they apply to the events of history. It is no doubt true that many evil deeds have been done by people who claimed to be following orders or obeying the dictates of law or tradition, but it is also certainly true that much evil has been done by those trying to overturn the status quo, whatever that was at the time. (One thinks readily of Lenin and Mao Tse Tung.) It may even be true that more crimes have been committed by the former group than the latter, given that there have probably been more of the former than the latter. But this does not mean that obedience is bad and rebellion good, or that conservatives are necessarily more dangerous than progressives.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
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