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‘It would be wrong for you, but not for me,’
He said. ‘We are so different, you see?
Not that I claim a place among our betters,
But hacking phones and steaming open letters
Requires a stronger stomach, I suspect,
Than one rehashing causes with effect.
Weighing the pros and cons of petty treason,
Loosing rabid dogs without due reason,
These are the kind of hateful calls I place
To make... to make the world a safer place.
Someone has to do it and (God knows why)
The Powers-That-Be have chosen me—and I
Have sacrificed what I would wish to be.
It would be wrong for you, but not for me.’
Always the same lamentable excuse—whether from popes or princes, kings or dictators, civil servants, concentration camp guards or politicians: ‘I am doing what I am doing to make the world a better place. I am the victim here, despite the evidence of your eyes and ears, because I wish with all my heart there was someone else with the fortitude to see it all through. But without me, civilization might well collapse and I must therefore steel myself to order others to do what should never have to be done at all. What a debt the world owes me while it vilifies me behind my back. How unfair it all is.’ Humans are blind in that after thousands of years of philosophy, written and oral history, example and debate, (I deliberately omit mention of religious conviction and tribal diplomacy) the same wretched justifications are put forward again and again— and often believed, Lord help us—by their slithery promoters.
