The Many Faces of Evil

As you all know by now, except for the cave-dwelling fans of this site, James W. von Brunn has been charged in the murder of a security guard at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. Suddenly every know-it-all psychologist and psycho-analyst and political commentator is struggling to answer the age-old question…

“Why?”

For some reason, every time there is a senseless crime of violence that makes the headlines, everyone wants to dig deeper into the cause–no, no, the ROOT cause of the problem. It is not enough that Mr. Brunn is crazy. It is not enough that he is disturbed–the world believes that “evil” just doesn’t exist and if it does, it is too easy an explanation for crimes like this. It’s a cop-out. So liberals especially, but all of us to some degree, struggle to understand what would cause a human to do an unthinkable thing.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, an associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Museum of Tolerance and Harold Brackman, a historian and consultant to the Simon Wiesenthal Center wrote an article for the Washington Times that does not discuss evil, but discusses hate. In their article they state the following:

“The bloodbath at the U.S. Holocaust Museum is a national wakeup call. Energized by the Internet and inspired by age-old prejudices like hatred of Jews and blacks, a new breed of haters is among us. Whether by organized conspiracy or spontaneous contagion, this breed of haters is sure to spread. We must forge new strategies to meet this deadly challenge. Simon Wiesenthal once said: “I do not judge societies by the number of Nazis but by how many anti-Nazis are prepared to act.” Now is our time.”

A “new breed of haters?” They are suggesting we need to “forge new strategies.” This is a “deadly challenge?” If that is true, when did the “breed of haters” they are referring to become “new?” They mention the following:

The Bronx Four” involved prison converts to extremist Islam who were arrested while believing they were planting C4 plastic explosives at a New York City synagogue. Their leader – James Cromitie, aka Abdul Rahman – pointed to people walking on the street near a Jewish community center and reportedly said, if he had a gun, he “would shoot each one in the head.” Scott Roeder, accused in Kansas of killing late-term abortion provider Dr. George Tiller, boasts in jail that more such assassinations may be in the works. Abdulhakim Muhammad (formerly, Carlos Bledsoe), accused of murdering one soldier and maiming another at an Arkansas Army recruitment center after returning from a murky pilgrimage to Yemen where he may have become the time bomb reimported into the United States.

The article then goes on to identify the real problem–the author makes the point that these are predominantly “home-grown haters.” See it is our fault. In fact it could be argued that it is conservatism that is really to blame. See this quote from the article: “One common denominator of today’s violent bigots is the viral medium of the Internet, which supercharged and validated Mr. von Brunn’s hateful vision and also that of white far-right extremist Mr. Roeder.”

Oh, now I get it, the Internet is to blame and of course far-right extremism. The left LOVES to find crazy guys that think that it is okay to kill abortion doctors and then label them as “right-wing” or “far-right.” The salivate at the chance.

Yesterday on a local news program I heard an “expert” say that the reason Mr. von Brunn shot these people is in part because we have the first African American President and there is much more tolerance of gay marriage and rights in this Country and because the war in Iraq has feuled the fire of hatred among those who are pre-disposed to such thinking.

(Pause)

(wrapping duct tape around my head to keep it from exploding) (one more piece….there)

(taking 10 deep breaths and thinking about puppies and flowers)

The reason Mr. von Brunn shot the security guard is becuase he IS EVIL and likely CRAZY! It is evil at work here. Wake up leftists, progressives and Statists–EVIL EXISTS. Human beings can and at times will be evil human beings and crazy human beings. There is not a “new breed” of haters in the world–there have always been people that hate. For example, I hate beets, eggplant, “Celebration” by Kool and the Gang, socialism, progressivism, killing of unborn children, temperature over 90 degrees, snakes and a certain Dallas-based airline. It is okay to hate things. Hating people is wrong–but so is stealing from them and so is driving drunk and so is attempting to convince us that the government needs to crack down on thought.

I don’t agree with hating people for any reason–especailly race, national origin, color, gender, lifestyle or even being a die-hard Democrat. But how can we as a society be tricked into believing that hate can be legislated away? It is madness.

This man is evil–he didn’t kill anyone because Obama is the President (if he did then he is less a hater than he is a nut job). He didn’t kill the security guard because he hates Jews. He killed him because he is evil, crazy or both. And Liberals–Don’t you dare call him a right-wing extremist. I dare say that lumping him in a catch-all label that includes conservatives is by its very nature “hateful.”

There are many faces of evil–but not every face. Hatred doesn’t have a face because it is not a state of being, it is a way of thinking–and that, even when repulsive, should not be regulated. We need to punish evil in our society and accept the fact that when someone does something evil, society, George Bush, Iraq, Big Oil, and Conservatives are not to blame. The blame for what happened to that security guard rests in the soul of one man–Mr. von Brunn!

In case you don’t get the point, here are some more faces of evil: