This week I would like to address a notion I think of as just another form of voodoo, and that’s the idea of blank-out. What do I mean by blank-out? No one tells this story better than Ayn Rand. Quoting Atlas Shrugged, “…they believe that reality can be altered by the power of the words they do not utter—and their magic tool is the blank-out, the pretense that nothing can come into existence past the voodoo of their refusal to identify it.”
Refusal to Identify
We live at a time when events like that which occurred in San Bernardino last week are unfortunately becoming more and more commonplace. Paris was recently the site of mass killings and according to Wiki, there have been seventeen terrorist attacks so far in the month of December this year.1 These attacks are manifestations of evil, and anyone who says differently is practicing some sort of verbal voodoo! There is evil in the world, denial will not alter that fact, and that old ‘pat answer’ regarding cultural relativity is quickly breaking down.
There are those so-called prominent gurus who have argued on my radio show that there is no such thing as evil. In their view, two factors explain what we call evil. The first is the notion that somewhere un-named, a heaven if you will, souls decide on who will be the good guy and who will play the bad guy, and then they come to earth and act this drama out over and over again. They have no evidence for this childish non-sense but we are supposed to accept it on faith. Faith in them—for we’ll not find this hogwash recorded in any of the ancient sacred literature. But that doesn’t matter, they’ll just write a book that says so, and then refer you to it as the authority, and here we go—round and round the merry-go-round, one circularity followed by another. Their evidence is no more than the definition they give it—a pure and simple tautology. Sadly, there are many who do accept this sort of worldview because it feels good and it fits their own narrative, because implicit in this doctrine is the notion that there is no error or sin, and therefore nothing to forgive.
Moral Relativity?
Now their second explanation for the absence of real evil is that of cultural relativity. This argument is for the sciolist in universities. The argument insists that if it’s right within a culture, then it’s right. We have no claim to any moral authority, for morality is culturally defined. The very real problem with this rubbish is that cultures no longer exist as separate planets, separated by great distances of time and space. No—this notion makes no more sense then arguing that each individual is entitled to his or her own moral code regardless of others since it is their cultural perogative. The fact is, nations live together as neighbors in today’s world and therefore, the idea that suicide begets virgins in heaven if carried out against infidels, and infidel is defined as anyone other than the in-group, is simply a non-starter—not a value sanctioned by some silly idea of cultural relativity!
Three Monkeys
Refusing to call evil by its name only instills courage in the perpetrator and fear in the victim. Refusing to acknowledge the many forms of suffering in our world with the idea that if I think no evil, speak no evil, and refuse to acknowledge evil, this will somehow either protect me from evil and/or extinguish it from reality is akin to burying your head in the pillow to hide from the light when the drapes are pulled open. You may pretend anything you want, but if you think you’re an adult, then at least acknowledge that you are pretending. Again, believing “that reality can be altered by the power of the words they do not utter”— is absurd beyond absurdity!
Thanks for the read,
Eldon Taylor
Provocative Enlightenment
NY Time Bestselling Author of Choices and Illusions
www.eldontaylor.com
Sources:
1 List of terrorist incidents, July–December 2015