But this is not a reason to abandon our role as an agent of change. We have done wrong in my lifetime; we've been mistaken and nasty and even evil. But we cannot therefore abandon any future enterprise as tainted. We are not victims of the past.
The assumption is that the chance of doing wrong overwhelms all others. After all, once we've done wrong, there's no undoing it. And we are tainted by all the wickedness of the past; how could we, horrible foul we, hope to help anyone?
This state is a subtle and enervating form of victim mind. It leads to a comfortable state in which we do nothing but lament and bewail our manifold sins. After all, if we do not act, we cannot act on wrong motives. And who can truly say that they are acting out of pure goodness?
And this question leads us to the other prong of her argument: that the United States' are acting out of self-interest. Randians out there will say, "So what?" This is why no one listens to them. Motive is an important part of our actions. It is in motive that the morality of our actions lies. This is not to say that we can ignore the probable consequence; after all, if we act without regard to that we are not truly acting in the hope of doing good, but merely in the hope of avoiding iniquity. Moral action tries to bring about moral consequences. This difference is what Kant is talking about when he writes of an effort of will, as opposed to mere hoping. The peace protestors I've seen (and given the finger) fall into this trap. "Believe Peace" read their signs. "Let's all send out peaceful thoughts," one speaker urged. This is not will; will leads to action. This is useless, will-less hoping.
But hope never harmed anyone, and so the protestors embrace it. It is purely negative, in a moral sphere; it avoids wickedness while producing nothing. This inaction is the true council of the peace protestors. For this reason they view the downtrodden and poor peoples of the earth as purer than us. A people who has never had the power to act is the only people who can be free from wickedness.
The United States, as the most influential country in the world, are the target for all their spleen. Any action, if one traces the consequences far enough, will bring about iniquity, no matter how slight, and therefore all action is wrong in some degree.
This careful removal of motes, while being equally careful to ignore beams, characterizes a certain type of thought. The possible consequences of action are one's own fault; the consequences of inaction are not. After all, one has done nothing. This train of thought is merely victim mind, disguising itself as morality.
The fundamental belief of the peace protestors is therefore one of unexpungeable sin. They do not believe in redemption; they do not believe in free will. At bottom they believe that sins of the past taint all actions, that no action is pure, that self-interest guides all. And they believe this because they are in victim mind. A person in action mind uses the past for lessons on how to act in the present; they are too busy considering the present and its opportunities for moral action to engage in circle-flagellation.
Attack Iraq? NOW!
