*UPDATED* Pardon Me? I Don’t Think So

In the film Schindler’s List, Amon Goth, (the notorious commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp played by Ralph Feinnes) was struck by a remark made by Oscar Schindler at a party. Schindler tells a drunken Goth that ‘anyone can kill. Real power comes from the ability to forgive and pardon.’

The following morning, in what is a chilling and mesmerizing scene in film, Amon Goth looks into a mirror and says, ‘I pardon you,’ over and over. He repeats the remarks over and over, with various gestures, seeking the right ‘look’ for his supposed largesse, in which he can appear grand, magnanimous and humble, all the same time.

There is very little that is different between Amon Goth and Mahmoud Ahmadenijad and those who support them and share their ideas.

Both Goth and Ahmadenijad have come to represent an idea that that their imaginary ‘pardons’ of those they have aggrieved, somehow absolved them of the bestial crimes they committed and the repugnant and evil ideologies to which they have committed themselves.

While the evil and ugly Nazi regime is gone, the heirs apparent to those dreams are now suggesting that their act of ‘pardon’ merits us allowing them a seat at the table of civilized nations, notwithstanding their hate, bigotry and racism. In fact, there are those here, in free nations, for whom blatant antisemitism, Holocaust denial and ‘We will finish what Hitler started,’ are not enough to disqualify the purveyors of hate and bigotry from being portrayed as ‘helpless victims,’ or ‘misunderstood,’ and thus worthy of our love.

Mahmoud Ahmadenijad’s ‘pardon’ and release of those 15 British sailors and marines is no more a gesture of Iran’s inherent ‘goodness’ than were Adolph Hitler’s displays of affection for his dog- and it is important that we understand that.

Citizens of free nations need to look inward, at the values and beliefs that have come to define us and we need to be able to recognize those other values and beliefs that are the gospel of those for whom freedom and democracy are abhorrent.

Dr Sanity once noted,

There is an inner courage required to look at one’s self in the mirror of insight and truly know the person looking back. All of us are capable of the most horrible behavior; just as we are capable of finding ways to rationalize it and cover it up or blame others for it. Psychological health requires that we look into that mirror frequently and understand our own motivations and behaviors and not flinch in recognizing the truth about ourselves.

…individuals and societies go off careening off in all the wrong directions–directions that will never lead to the recognition or acceptance of reality, and so can never lead to effective solutions.

It does take courage to look into oneself. It takes courage to look at one’s nation and without the tumult of the ideologues rants, to see where that nation gets it right- or gets it wrong.

It also takes courage to look at other nations and to see what is really there. More often than not, their actions and words paint the most accurate of images. While we may want to see something different, no amount of closing our eyes and clicking our heels together three times can change reality.

Aldous Huxley noted that “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”

There is a difference between nations who value freedom versus those who would destroy freedom and oppress others. The failed legacies of those who wish that were not so and refuse to see the truth of their own failures are spectacular. Those legacies are drenched in the bright red blood of innocents and the billions that are still living under the tyrants boot.

We have reached a point where many would sooner believe absurd conspiracy theories or flights of fancy, rather than face the facts that would upend their perceptions of what reality must be, so as to validate their beliefs and biases.

Like Mahmoud Ahmadenijad and his supporters and like the Arab nations in the Middle East, facts and reality must be recreated and redefined, made to fit so as to support bias and outright hate. There are no limits to the number of lies, distortions or reinterpretations of reality there needs to be.

Aldous Huxley, once more:

That all men are equal is a proposition which, at ordinary times, no sane individual has ever given his assent.

That we are all born as equal in worth, is not in question. That we are all endowed with the same potential, is yet another truth. In a democracy, all men are equal under the law. In a free society we are we each able to optimize our potential.

Nevertheless, in the end, it is our actions, values and beliefs that will determine the relative equality of all men.

Oppressors, and those who support them, are not the same as those who fight for freedom and those who support that fight.

Mahmoud Ahmadenijajad’s ‘pardon’ of the 15 British sailors and marines is no more a diplomatic success for the UK and the west than was Neville Chamberlain’s waving a piece of paper he believed was a peace treaty, ‘upon which is Herr Hitler’s signature.’

Indeed. That ‘diplomatic success’ was to result in an entire continent thrust into darkness for a generation, and a world that sacrificed some of the best they had to offer. Those who believe that evil can be dealt with, rationalized with or bargained with, have learned little from history. There are no examples of regimes being ‘talked out of’ their evil or hate. In fact, as a rule, the less we had to do with regimes for whom bigotry, racism and hate were their calling card, the sooner those evil regimes dissipated.

There are those who will regard regard Mahmoud Ahmadenijad as a ’statesman’ and ‘diplomat.’ There are others who regard him a legitimate leader and the leader of a nation that is a moral equal to our own, and other free western nations. So what if he wants to wipe some nations off the map? So what if he demands we change our policies so that they are more in line and understanding with his own policies of repression, bigotry and hate of Jews Baha’i and Zoroastrians, for starters. So what if he oversees brigades of volunteers that threaten suicide bombings that target Americans and Israelis?

Once more, Dr Sanity:

As psychological defense mechanisms go, displacement is a nice neurotic one that–for the user anyway–keeps all that distressing psychological conflict at bay. The rest of us, however, must continue to live and deal with the reality they are denying.

The image that comes to mind is that of a lifeguard attempting to rescue a drowning person; but the person drowning is so frightened and irrational as they hysterically thrash about that they end up thwarting all attempts to save them; and, even worse, their hysteria threatens to drag their rescuer down to the depths with them.

This past week, the Arab League refused an invitation to a peace summit in Israel, after supposedly extending a hand in peace to that beleaguered nation, ‘with no preconditions.’

They demanded that before they would even consider regional peace talks, Israel comply with all the demands made by the Arab League and Saudi Initiative- the initiative with ‘no preconditions.’ In the same week, Arab world television and media broadcast the regularly scheduled and requisite antisemitic and anti American bigotry and hate.

There is very little that differentiates Mahmoud Ahmadenijad and Amon Goth.

**UPDATED**

See The Wonderland Of Ahmadenijad And His Despot Friends. As usual, The Anchoress refines and corrals some important truths.

It certainly seems like we are in danger of completely losing touch with our gut instincts, with our abilities to define what is authentic and what is illusory. And that’s true on every level. We’re lately unable to cleanly identify authenticity in the realm of politics, in education, medicine, economics, social mores, spirituality, the environment, community…it almost feels like the world is giving up and saying, “screw this, it’s all too complicated and treacherous out there. I’m watching Law and Order, and if the press wants me to believe that Nancy Pelosi freed these marines, then dammit, I’ll believe it! If Rosie wants me to believe that steel does not melt at temperatures above 2500 degrees (as I was taught many moons ago) then fine, I’ll believe it! Anything, I’ll believe anything, just stop browbeating me, please! I promise, I’ll stop thinking! What time is wrestling on?”

And while everyone is letting go, unmooring themselves from the things they have always known – either instinctively or factually – to be true, we’re adrift and floating on a rapid current into some very dangerous waters.

…the world will rip the book out of our hands, tear the thingies from our ears and make us pay attention. And when that happens, we, like Alice and Wonderland, may – sadly – simply mutter in our powerlessness, “Dear, dear! How queer everything is to-day! And yesterday things went on just as usual.”

The answers friends, aren’t to be found in the wind. The answers are in the mirror.