Thursday, July 18, 2013

On evil

Sabra muses on the Rolling Stone's glam cover shot of Jahar Tsarnaev and reminds me why I read her every day:
The problem seems to be that, by failing to dehumanize a murderer, he is somehow being glorified.  Which is, of course, patently ridiculous.

Look, murderers all have one thing in common, beyond the obvious: they're human.

Evil is human.  Uniquely human, perhaps.  Animals kill for food, and they kill for dominance, but they don't kill for ideology or jealousy or momentary passing anger.  Humans do all of those things.


But we don't like to admit that. 

...

Susan Smith didn't go around torturing animals; she was from all accounts a devoted mother, right up until she wasn't.



And Jahar Tsarnaev was a nonviolent, chill dude right up until he wasn't.
That's one smart lady.  RTWT.

5 comments:

Arthur said...

....because Rolling Stone puts people on the cover to *not* glorify them?

I'll admit right off the bat that Rolling Stone covers are something I see as a blur in a checkout line, so maybe they regularly put people on the cover that they don't intend to glamorize.

This just strikes me as more up-to-date version of 'Che' t-shirts.

JD(not the one with the picture) said...

What Arthur said. Most people who see that cover picture will not read the article, they will just see the "cool guy", almost none of them will consider the ordinariness of evil or anything else about the human condition.

Images make the best propaganda, because they can evoke a strong emotional response. When people don't know or care about the truth behind the image you get things like Che t-shirts, and in the future, probably Jahar shirts too.

Sabra said...

....because Rolling Stone puts people on the cover to *not* glorify them?

Well, yes, actually. Rolling Stone puts people on the cover of their magazine to...wait for it...sell magazines. Shocking, right? I'll admit I played into their game this time (willingly): the outrage over this has brought them more publicity than they could probably pay for at this point, given that the magazine really is a nonentity for most people at this point in time.

Nevertheless, shouting outrage over the surface of something without bothering to learn the facts is something I personally prefer to leave to the Left.

Arthur said...

Sabra said..."...Rolling Stone puts people on the cover of their magazine to...wait for it...sell magazines. Shocking, right?"

Arthur said..."This just strikes me as more up-to-date version of 'Che' t-shirts."

Sean D Sorrentino said...

"And Jahar Tsarnaev was a nonviolent, chill dude right up until he wasn't."

Typically, no. Murderers rarely start out as murderers. They generally start out with smaller crimes and build up. I doubt that the Boston Bombers, either one of them, were even remotely what we would call "non-violent, chill dudes."