Austin Bay shows how it's done

I mentioned earlier that the debate over mistreatment of prisoners would be "a real test for the blog culture." (apologies to all who saw it for the earlier mangling of that post.) Austin Bay (Tip to Instapundit) has provided a timely demonstration of how tough issues of this sort should be discussed. I like this post not only for the point it makes, which is a good one, nor just for its well reasoned and clearly expressed thinking, but also because it hits on a couple of recurring themes I like to blog about.

The first is the "How to know when to stop listening" meme. There is a lot of opinion published these days, and a reader needs to know how to quickly sift the quality thinking from the time-wasting blather. One thing you should look for is a lack of reasonable perspective. People who cannot recognize the difference between George Bush and Hitler, between Christian participation in American politics and the theocracies of the Middle East, or between the detention center at Guantanamo and the Russian Gulag, are also unable to add useful ideas to the world conversation.

As Austin points out, Amnesty International has demonstrated that it lacks (or has lost) its organizational good sense. Over-the-top analogies can be a useful way to make a point, so long as the writer is clear that the analogy is purposely overstated (I confess to this habit. I like to clarify a point with a startling comparison, but I try to make it clear that the comparison is exaggerated.) Too often, unfortunately, the writer lacks an understanding of the things he or she is comparing or lacks the ability to discern scale. In any case, turn the page, click to another site, or change the channel, don't fill your mind with someone else's confused thinking.

People who advance the Bush = Hitler or Republicans = Nazi ideas demonstrate that they're relying on the Cliff-Notes version of world history. It's a shame really, because a proper understanding of what happened in Germany in those years, and who and what Hilter was, could be useful in today's world. Even more sadly, failure to understand Nazism properly makes it more likely that we will re-experience it. I'm not sure what is worse, not remembering history or remembering it wrong.

I mentioned Two recurring themes in Austins post. The other concerns the common concept of "guilt by association". It's a poor label, really, because the idea I am working is larger than that including any time we, the talking, listening, thinking public, fail to appropriately compartmentalize a bit of information about a person, group or idea. Off, that's a clumsy mouthful! Perhaps a few examples will help. Both T. Jefferson and G. Washington owned slaves. Does this moral failing discredit all their works? Can a moral person continue to admire them. I treasure the Declaration of Independence and The Lawn at the University of Virginia and despise the enslavement of any people. Does that make me a hypocrite?

Some fine writings on spirituality and prayer were written by someone who later confessed (and accepted punishment) for sexual abuse of a minor. Are the ideas in those writings now tainted? The Nazi's enjoyed (or pretended to enjoy) the music of Wagner. Must I reject it on that basis? Some very bad people have claimed to be Christians. Must I hold Christianity responsible for their evil?

You have probably discerned, careful reader that you are, that I endorse an "appropriate compartmentalization" in these cases. Bad people have long been attracted to good causes, if only as an effective cover. Only in the comic books do the bad-guys choose costumes that advertise their evil. In this world bad people are more likely to appear wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross. Elsewhere the blue helmets of the UN are a popular disguise. Aesop called it "sheep's clothing", but few would nowadays credit the words of a dead, European male like him. Good things are attractive to everyone, good and bad alike. That an idea is frequently mis-appropriated is a sort of back-handed endorsement.

Of course, even the term "bad guys" is unfair. Again, the comic book world wherein villains are purely evil is not our world. Even those who seem exceptional, like Hitler, on close inspection are rather ordinary people (a much more frightening prospect, really. The world is full of Hitlers, who lack only his access to the instruments of power.) The other edge to that sword are the typical flaws in the "good guys." Some are more obvious that others, and more serious, but all humans have their dark-side. Jesus saved a woman from a stoning with this knowledge.

As Austin reminds us, any human enterprise, no matter how worthy the cause, will also find itself "compromised" in someway at sometime. Properly employed, compartmentalization is analogous to the Christian virtue of forgiveness, and like it, very freeing. The weakness and flaws of a great man, or the moral compromises and stumblings of a great cause, ought to be openly inspected and recognized, and then assigned an appropriate compartment in the total picture of the man or the movement. Those who would hide or turn their eyes from our failings, give the sins undeserved power, just as those who allow the sin to color all aspects of the sinner.

Naturally we should extend this same benefit of the doubt to Amnesty International. The organization has done much good and will do much good in the future. I would like to consider this latest mis-step an unfortunate error and not see this powerful voice lost in a fog of bluster.

We are fighting the GWOT before we fully understand it, learning as we go. Our mistakes can be our best teachers, if we have the courage to accept the lesson. Failure to compartmentalize provokes a defensive failure to recognize. These are serious lessons that we cannot well afford to pass over. Do your part by ignoring those who either cannot or will not discuss these things in their proper perspective. Look to Austin Bay for a good example of blogging at it's best.