by Richard A. Cheatham, Press Media Group, LLC
Thank goodness, most people don’t regard killing another person as particularly pleasant. Not only do most people consider murder morally unacceptable behavior, most also consider it personally offensive.
Certainly, killing and murder are somewhat different. Killing in self defense can be natural and justifiable, but murder never is.
Most consider killing other humans at best only a “necessary evil.” Even if there are substantial financial and other rewards for the killer in a particular murder, most consider that in the balance, murdering another person will be more negative than positive for them. This is because there is broad social disapproval for murder, there are laws reflecting that disapproval and some people even site the possibility that there might be serious after-death consequences.
Why do people kill other people? What are the typical reasons given? In addition, how would you convince people to kill other people if you wanted them to kill?
Some people kill others in a rage without thinking, lashing out without considering consequences at that moment. Some kill to get something. Some kill for a perverse pleasure they get from completely dominating another person. Some kill to “do good.” Some kill preserving their own life and/or the lives of family members or friends. These are some of the classic justifications for intentionally taking a human life.
To convince a person to kill, or be willing to kill, for his country or community, a government assassin, a soldier or a policeman, for example, one must overcome many of the classic objections cited above. There are ways to do that. Make it socially acceptable. Mask from the killer the gruesome physical elements of the killing as much as possible. Convince the potential killer that the person or persons they will kill are evil or dangerous, perhaps actually different inferior types of humans, and that by killing them they would be protecting their own family, friends and country.
“Kill those people on my command because you trust me as an expert and a respected leader to be certain they need to be killed.” Ask yourself this question... Has that argument ever been abused by any government “leader?” Could it be in the future? Isn’t there enough doubt to seriously consider the issue? Or are you willing to take the word of others, to subordinate your own morality and judgement to that of some government employee in an issue as important as killing other humans? Is a standing professional army just a government job or welfare program to you?
The bloodiest of tyrants were and are tyrants only because they control more than the power of one person. Born as a single individual, how do they get their immense destructive power? They get it because people willingly, almost blindly, follow them into the most vile of human actions, killing other humans. Are Americans different?
©2005 by Richard A. Cheatham. All rights reserved. Mr.Cheatham is a professional speaker/writer and is syndicated through Press Media Group, LLC. Contact him through, Living History Assoc., Ltd., at www.LHALtd.com or DrawBackVeil@aol.com.