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f had to pick one lesson that evil unequivocally teaches us, it would be the power and significance of staying the course. There is perhaps nothing more persistent than evil, save that of more evil. This I write as
In fact, every where one sees persistent instances of evil, one also sees considerable creativity. Serial killers or rapists, for instance, are not dumb. Quite the contrary, they are often able to outsmart the police for years on end. Nor are child molesters. With a studiousness that would put most of us to shame, these folks close in on their “prey”.
As Ehud Sprinzak observed in his seminal essay “Rational Fanatics,” suicide-terrorism works because the final result is a part of a very large and creative network. There is no simple-mindlessness going on with suicide-terrorism. It is not just an expression of anger or outrage. It is not an uncontrollable outburst. Far from it. Suicide-terrorism is as calculating and as persistent as any form of human behavior has ever been.
It is in this regard, namely of creative determination, that I wonder whether Good is a match for evil.
It seems to me that so often those who seek to do Good want a very quick victory. Or, in any case, they want to see immediate results. Sometimes, it seems to me that take what I shall the boogie man approach to evil. That is, we seem to think that all it takes is a good scare and evil is out the door. Needless to say, nothing of the sort is true.
And as I reflect upon the way in which the world is evolving, it seems to me quite clear that evil has the advantage owing the unerring creative determination on the part of the agents of evil. They seem never to tire and the occasional defeat seems only to strengthen their resolve to win.
Oh how different the world would be if Hezbollah was easily discouraged.
With Good, on the other hand, it too often seems to be the case that the slightest setback suffices to discourage and to occasions doubt about the worthiness of the cause.
It goes without saying, of course, that it can sometimes be foolish not to change course. But if all it takes to arrive at that conclusion is a single setback here and there, then one has little chance of succeeding at anything.
What intrigues me, though, is that agents of evil never seem to have the thought, owing to set backs here and there, that their cause is unworthy; whereas this is often the case with the agents of Good. Again, I am struck by the fact that agents of evil rarely if ever seem to lose their resolve; whereas agents of Good often retreat so quickly from their initial stance that one has to wonder how much resolve was there in first place.
More importantly, if there is one thing more than any other that evil is counting on it is that of wearing down the agents of Good.
I am reminded of the biblical passage in the book of Ecclesiastics which reads as follows: “The race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong”. Most poignantly, it seems to me that the agents of evil grasp the soundness of this passage better than the agents of Good.
Sometimes in life, the most important gift that we can bring to any struggle or battle is our unfailing determination. In this regard, I am reminded of a wonderful student. He has been utterly unflappable in his determination to excel. And over the years, he (DTS) has stayed the course with an intellectual majesty that has truly earned my respect and admiration. Words cannot do justice to how moved I was by the depth of his ideas as we spoke at Marshall Square Mall a week or so ago. The excellence exhibited by this beloved student that afternoon came from one thing: his staying the course.
Nothing could be worse than for all of us to become so comfortable with our lives that we lose the will to struggle against evil. And it is my considered view that this is precisely what Hezbollah and the like are counting upon.
But here is a truth that we must not forget, namely that the steadfast determination on the part of a people to perform small acts of goodness can be like a mighty river whose force very little can withstand. The lives of the people of Le Chambon bear witness to this truth. Without anything near the military might of Hitler’s army they stopped him in his tracks and thereby saved the lives of thousands of Jews. What made the difference is not so much one dramatic act on the part of anyone, but everyone’s unfailing commitment to doing their small part, which gave rise to a tidal wave of moral excellence that even Hitler thought best to leave alone.
Again, DTS successfully climbed the mountain of excellence in my eyes not by doing a single dramatic thing, but by proceeding step-by-step with a certain sure footedness. The agents of Good can surmount the agents of evil only if they (the agents of Good) proceed in a like manner.
To be sure, dramatic events of success are wonderful and readily savored. There is no denying that. But the will to stay the course in the absence such events is a most extraordinary virtue. And the collective will so to behave is a veritable wall against which evil can rarely, if ever, prevail.
But once more and most sadly, it would seem to be the agents of evil that grasp this truth ever so profoundly rather than the agents of Good. Oh how I would that it was otherwise.
There is something ever so sublime here. For the greatest of moral gifts, namely unfailing determination, is one that comes not so much from God but from within us. That, to be sure, is the point of the story of Jacob’s wrestling with the angel. The story suggests that when a mere mortal is unfailing in his determination to receive a blessing from God, then even God himself is moved.
The real victory against terrorism lies not in our mighty weapons or battleships or the array of missiles that can rain upon this or that party, but an absolutely unflappable and unshakable resolve. When agents of evil behold that, they will change their moral posture. For the moment, agents of evil have no need to precisely because from the standpoint of unshakable resolve they very much have the upper-hand.
Thank You DTS for inspiring this entry
