Danny Weissman:
You forgot the Mongols. Ghengis Khan, who conquered a huge empire,
is a counter-example to your list. He plundered and destroyed many rich and
beautiful cities and he massacred all their inhabitants. He's one of the biggest
murderers in the history of mankind. Yet he had no objective to justify
these foul acts.
Regev:
You got me. You're quite right. The Mongols had no religious
or ideological
basis for the destruction they brought to the rich countries they conquered.
They were just savage people, who didn't think much about civilization. All they
wanted was to plunder these cities, and if anyone stood in their way, they felt
no remorse to stop them from killing all the people who lived there.
Maybe I should have written it like this:
The most outrageous things in the world have been done, in most cases,
by people who were 100% sure they were right.
Actually this exception to the rule that the horrible crimes are
done for ideological reasons, is special. Maybe I should have limited my rule to
the peoples who
obey the seven commandments of the children of Noach, i.e. who believe in "Thou
shalt not kill". In cultures where human life has no value, things are different.
Yet this exception is no surprise. The rule that people who believe too strongly
in their causes, are sometime perpetrators of terrible crimes, this is a surprise,
at least to me when I read about Savonarola (many years ago) and got to this conclusion.
Reactions:
Other counter-examples.
If you want to respond to either claim, type in
your comments.
What is all this discussion?
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Date: 10 April 1997