“The end justifies the means.”
It’s difficult to identify the real origin of this quote. Many people credit it to Niccolo Machiavelli, but he actually only said similar things, and the famous five-word quote was around long before the renaissance.
It’s something you could imagine Donald Trump saying, although he would only see it as whatever he wants justifying whatever he had to do to get it.
The fact is, Trump’s view is probably less mature than Calvin’s in “Calvin and Hobbes,” and both are essentially the view of a child.
It’s truly amazing how many folks out on the extremes politically seem to get as close to this view as they can. Rightwing Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of England was quoted more than once as saying there is no such thing as society or community, that all that mattered was individuals and families.
No matter how noble the goal, the means we use to achieve it are important. That’s why the old saw about going back in time to kill Adolf Hitler before he could do all the evil he did might be disastrous. Unanticipated consequences.
Even in the case of Hitler. I remember reading once that Hitler wasn’t the true demonic figure in the Third Reich, that the true demon and maybe the most evil person in history was Heinrich Himmler. Whether or not that’s true, it would be naive to believe that the Nazi hierarchy consisted of good men who were corrupted by Hitler.
The fact is, there are no ends, other than those in individual lives and those are known as death. What some people call ends are just steps along the way to something else. Was winning our independence from England an end? No, because then it was all about what kind of nation we were going to be.
So much of what goes on in the name of freedom these days is only to protect the people making the laws. Especially on the far right, so much time and effort is wasted spreading lies about their opponents.
They believe they are right.
So whatever they have to do to succeed is by nature moral and correct.
In Texas in particular, they had a pretty good governor in Ann Richards. But first with Bush, then with Perry and now with Abbott, Republicans have played more and more into fear and ignorance. With last week’s shooting, when a Latino man went into his neighbor’s house and shot and killed five people, what was the first piece of information Abbott gave out?
The man was in the country illegally.
Damn.
Sorry, Abbott, but there are no ends. Only means.
And you, sir, are meaner than hell.