Saturday, April 17, 2021

Schall on Use of Force

Fr. James Schall (RIP) was a Catholic Jesuit who taught at Georgetown.   These days, he would be 'cancelled'--not because of racism, real or invented--but because he presented "What Is" in terms of perennial truths.

Here's a short excerpt from his essay published in Policy Review 128, (12/04-1/05 issue).  Bear in mind that 'use of force' is a term used for domestic and foreign applications.

A calm and reasonable case can and should be made for the possession and effective use of adequate military and police force in today's world.  It is irresponsible not to talk about and plan for the necessity of force in the face of real turmoil and enemies actually present in the world.  No talk of peace, justice, truth, or virtue is complete without a clear understanding that certain individuals, movements, and nations must be dealt with in terms of measured force, however much we would like to deal with them in a more peaceful or pleasant manner.  Without force, many will not talk seriously, and sometimes not even then.  Our human, moral, and poverty problems are greater today because of the lack of adequate military [ed. : or police] force or, more often, of its failure to be used when necessary.

A bit further on in the essay, we see this:

...But force is meaningless if one does not know that he has an enemy or how this enemy works or thinks.  Many an adequately armed country has been destroyed because it did not recognize its real enemy.  ....[This] is an argument for force for justice's sake.  I am not for "eternal peace" which is a this-worldly myth but for real peace of actual men in an actual and fallen world.  Peace is not a "goal" but a consequence of doing what is right and preventing what is wrong and, yes, knowing the difference between the two....

There is a LOT there.  

We can say without question or doubt that Official Washington's 'force leaders' in the FBI and CIA do not know the difference between what is right and what is wrong.  Any fair-minded review of national political events from 2015 through today makes that very clear.  This blindness, whether willful or simply born of ignorance, has metastasized to State and local officials--see Minnesota, or Minneapolis, for contemporary examples--or see John Chisholm for a nearer one.

But since those "leaders" do not understand right thinking as outlined by Schall, they invite citizens to utilize force; in fact, one could say that they compel such action.  It happened in "Koreatown" during the LA riots, and you can see armed civilians guarding retail stores in Minnesota, too.  Kyle Rittenhouse is another example and his case begs the question:  is this what "leaders" really want?

Well, is it, punk?


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