Brutal truth is that we will never be able to fix all of world’s evils

By David McElroy · July 16, 2015

There was a shooting in Chattanooga, Tenn., today. Four Marines were apparently killed by a gunman motivated by religious hatred. That’s as much as I know about it — and that’s all I want to know.

When I was growing up, I thought it was everyone’s duty to be informed. By that, I meant one should read newspapers and watch news on television. It somehow seemed like the responsible thing to do. I thought news was important. That’s probably part of the reason I ended up spending a decade in the newspaper business.

But I pay little attention to news today. What’s more, I pay very little attention to the larger evils that I’m aware of. I know people are being slaughtered in various countries because of political and religious conflicts. I know that people are sitting in prisons — in the United States and around the world — who have no business being punished for things that shouldn’t even be crimes. I know that there is open slavery in some parts of the world. I know there is underground sex trafficking in most places. I know that women are abused and children are being taught to continue ugly cycles of evil all around the world, including near me.

I know that children and adults suffer in violent and dysfunctional households. I know that kids are being beaten and sexually abused pretty much everywhere, mostly hidden. I know that animals are being tortured and abused for the pleasure of evil people. I know that people mistreat each other and hate one another and excuse it in the name of religion or other beliefs.

There’s so much evil that it’s impossible to list it all. In fact, there’s so much evil in the world that much of it is so routine as to seem banal.

I’m not paying attention to any more of it than I have to, but it’s not that I’m callous. I actually care too much.

I care too much to treat it as entertainment. I care too much to look at it all the time and then go right on living my life as though nothing happened. I can either ignore it or I can become overwhelmed and go crazy.

I have had to learn to ignore evil — to ignore what we call news — because I’m not willing to sacrifice my life and destroy myself for nothing. I finally had to accept this brutal truth — that you can’t change everything that’s evil in the world. I had to learn that until you accept that, you’re not going to have peace in your life.

The world is full of voices lecturing us about doing something about all the world’s ills. We’re rarely told how we can stop evil, of course. We’re just exhorted to do impossible things.

Albert Einstein is frequently quoted as having said or written, “The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.” Since so many supposed Einstein quotes are fakes, I don’t know if he said it or not, but the point is that this is the typical voice of wisdom in the world today.

And that “wisdom” is a path to misery in most cases.

People often express surprise that I read or watch almost no news anymore. When I explain my reasoning, they say things such as, “But surely you don’t think I should do nothing about all the terrible things going on.”

Actually, yes, that’s exactly what I think. Unless you are one of a very limited number of people whose actions can really change something related to a particular evil, I think you should do nothing — because there’s nothing you can do.

What can you do about periodic random shootings? Nothing.

What can you do about ISIS beheading people and releasing video for the world to watch? Nothing.

What can you do to stop the fighting in the Middle East between Israelis and Palestinians? Nothing.

What can you do to prevent Iranian religious leaders from hating Americans? Nothing.

What can you do to stop tribal and ethnic violence in Africa? Nothing.

The list goes on and on and on. For almost every single person who could possibly read this, there is nothing you can do to stop the evils you see reported on television and read about in newspapers.

Absolutely nothing.

If you’re one of those few people who can change something, do it. If you’re trafficking children for prostitution, well, stop it. If you know something that can stop such abuse, go ahead and do something with your knowledge. If you happen to be in a unique position and your action can stop some particular evil, go ahead. Do it.

Otherwise, accept the difference between what you can do and what you can’t do.

You can’t stop other people from being evil. You can only control your own actions. So what you can do is change your own mind and your own heart. You can change the way you personally treat people. As Jesus memorably said a couple thousand years ago, “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:5 ESV)

I have to look away from some things, because I can’t concentrate on everything in the world. If I pay attention to all the things I can’t fix, it will break my heart. It will overwhelm me. It will depress me. And it will make me insane because of my inability to change what I see.

I can change myself. I can’t change others.

That’s why I don’t watch the news. That’s why I don’t read the news. That’s why I won’t be offering wise commentary on the shootings in Chattanooga and telling everybody how to solve the problems.

Life is more peaceful for me now that I’m not trying to fix everybody else. Improving myself is a full-time job.

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We are ruled by the dumbest and most incompetent people among us — and we have a system which allows stupid and irresponsible people to force the costs of their idiocy onto smarter and wiser people. Can we get away with that? Yes, for quite some time. But we eventually reach a point at which the dumbest of the dumb — who are habitual liars and mentally ill fools — lead us to the disasters and destruction that some of us have seen coming for years. We are approaching that point. And yet most of the idiots around us still wave their rhetorical banners of support for the evil people who are leading us to ruin — and all of them point their fingers at someone else, never noticing that their own enthusiastic support of evil is to blame. When things finally fall apart, blame yourself for your blindness to the evil, not whoever happens to be in power when it happens.

I’ve been making some changes to the site lately and there are more changes coming in the days ahead, so don’t be surprised if you some small differences. This is not a wholesale redesign, but rather the addition of some features. Since they’re smarter than I am, I’ve put Oliver and Alex in charge of the technical work, which you can see in this action photo from the control room of our media complex. I recently added a series of landing pages for readers who randomly discover the site from an Internet search. I’ve also changed the YouTube link at the top of the page to go to the new YouTube channel for video essays that reflect things I’ve already published here. (Here’s a little bit about both of the YouTube channels I’m working on.) In addition, I’m trying to move away from using Instagram, so I’m experimenting with photo plug-ins that will eventually allow me to host the pictures — cats, dogs, sunsets, whatever — that I often take. So don’t be surprised to see more changes. Thanks for your patience. Let’s hope Alex and Oliver know what they’re doing.

I have no use for the theocratic and repressive government of Iran. The people who run the country are cruel at best and evil at worst. The Iranian people deserve freedom. But I have no personal quarrel with anybody in Iran. While I’m not thrilled about a future Iranian government having nuclear weapons, I’m just as concerned about nukes in the hands of politicians in Israel, Pakistan, India, China and Russia. I’m not even thrilled with the U.S., Britain and France having them, either, because I don’t trust any politicians to be responsible with such terrible weapons. All I can say with certainty is that American taxpayers have no business attacking Iran, especially since we’re being forced to pay for this attack in order to benefit the politicians of Israel — and nobody else. If Middle Eastern countries want to fight among themselves, that’s none of my business. It’s not the business of the U.S. government, either. I have no quarrel with anybody in Iran — and having the government which claims to represent me launch an unprovoked attack against a sovereign country will only make all Americans less safe in the near future. This attack is poorly conceived and morally unjustified. Remember that when the Iranians launch attacks that we will then condemn as “terrorism.” What the U.S. is doing right now looks like terrorism to me. And let’s not forget that the attack is the latest in a long line of unconstitutional wars by various U.S. presidents — who have no legal power to declare war on their own, according to the U.S. Constitution.

A child having a tantrum understands only one thing: Did I get my way or not? He doesn’t understand the issues involved. He doesn’t understand the reasons that went into a decision. He doesn’t understand any of the things that mature and reasonable adults have to understand in order to live healthy lives. By his reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling to strike down his disastrous tariff scheme, Donald Trump shows himself to be — once more — a screaming child having a tantrum. Outside the world of mob bosses who expect to get their way every time, normal adults don’t act this way, but Trump isn’t normal. He’s an angry and vengeful man who has narcissistic personality disorder. And we are in danger as a result. Trump doesn’t understand the legal issues involved in this ruling. He doesn’t understand economics. He doesn’t understand rule of law. He doesn’t understand that he can ever be wrong. All he understands is that he didn’t get his way. And he is now a narcissistic and raging little boy who also happens to hold life-and-death power over most humans on this planet. He’s dangerous — and the system which gives him that power is even more dangerous.

Is it an attempt to blur the gender line between men and women? Or is it some weird tribute to the traditional Scottish kilt? It’s hard to say, but fashion designers keep pushing for men to wear skirts in the last few years. Both men and women in modern fashion seem oddly androgynous, as though it would be offensive for a man to look manly or for a woman to look feminine. A CNN article about the latest fashions from Paris caught my attention Monday and left me wondering about the ugly clothes the designers are hawking. If a man wants to wear a skirt — or a kilt — that’s OK with me, but I’ll stick with a traditional dark suit with a white shirt and tie. (Well, when I’m not wearing t-shirts and sweats, of course.) I always wonder who actually buys the outlandish garb from fashion designers anyway. I would be humiliated to be seen in any of this stuff, but I obviously have no sense of high fashion.

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