Socrates
The wisest among us have long taught the rest of us that the way to solve problems and overcome controversies is to ask important questions, seek answers, and follow the facts. That approach, of course, takes curiosity which many people lack, and diligence, which they have no interest in developing. Those people are content to cling to the notions they find satisfying, to demand that others accept those notions, and to attack them if they don’t. Meanwhile, the problems increase, the controversies deepen, the conditions worsen, and everyone becomes more frustrated.
Consider, for example, these three unsolved problems and controversies:
THE ABORTION CONTROVERSY IN AMERICA. The pertinent questions about abortion are these:
Is it more accurate to classify a fetus or baby a part (extension) of the mother, or instead a separate entity dependent on the mother? If the latter, what responsibilities does the mother have to the fetus or baby? Do these responsibilities change in any way during the pregnancy?
Does a woman’s fetus become a human being at the moment of conception? At birth? At some point in between and, if so, which point?
Does reaching the classification “human being” give the baby inalienable rights? If so, who is responsible for the preservation of those rights? The mother? The mother and father? What responsibility, if any, does the government have?
Has science identified a point in pregnancy at which the fetus has a better than average chance of living outside the womb? If so, does the mother’s responsibility change at that point in the pregnancy?
Finding answers to these questions would go a long way toward solving the abortion issue, but many people refuse to ask the questions because they fear the answers they might find and the facts they will be forced to acknowledge. So, they talk instead about “a woman’s right to control ‘her body,'” which ignores the question of whether the body in question is hers or her “guest’s”. Or they simply accuse those who disagree with them of sexism or imposing their beliefs on others. As a result, the controversy remains unresolved.
THE U.S. BORDER CRISIS. The right of a country to control its borders is universally affirmed. The legitimacy of the U.S. border is not in question and the law governing non-citizens entering the country is clear. So what caused the U.S. border crisis? The answer is, President Biden’s executive orders halting border wall construction and facilitating immigrant violation of border law.
These actions by Biden and their impact on the country are indisputable facts. Yet Biden has managed, with news media assistance, to substitute a series of mutually contradictory falsehoods for facts. First was the assertion that there was no crisis, only humanitarian approval of entry for victims of starvation and/or oppression. Then that falsehood was replaced by the ridiculous claim that the border was completely under control, and those who say otherwise are lying. In time, that mantra was followed by the bizarre mantra, “There is in fact a border crisis, but Trump caused it!”
The increasingly dangerous sequence of events began by refusing to address important questions and proceeded to demonize those who sought honest answers to those questions, expressed the facts, and warned of the harm being done to the country.
ISRAEL’S UNSOLVED PROBLEM IN GAZA. The most amazing thing about this problem is the almost universal avoidance of its principal causes—Hamas’s barbaric attack on Israeli women and children and the refusal of Muslim extremists to renounce their goal of destroying Israel and killing all Jews. Virtually every call for ending the war in Gaza fails to mention these causes, even though the first was well reported and the roots of the second are ancient. This avoidance has not only been true of the Biden administration and the mainstream media, but sadly of some religious leaders, notably Catholic ones.
Pope Francis has repeatedly made a “firm request for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip” and “for the exhausted and suffering civilian population to be allowed access to humanitarian aid and for the hostages to be released immediately.” He has also called for “tireless efforts to put an end to this and other wars that continue to bring death and suffering to so many parts of the world,” as well as for “the silencing of weapons and the return of peace.”
The Jesuit order spoke similarly, saying “It is unacceptable that, despite attempts, almost six months into the present round of conflict, no one has been able to stop the killing. It is scandalous that no one has been able to ensure that the residents of Gaza have enough to eat. It is shameful that no one has been able to call the warmongers to account. . . .The choice of death over life, vengeance over reconciliation, wrongdoing over justice, self-interest over relationship, violence over dialogue is a choice and not fated destiny. . . We repeat the call for an immediate ceasefire, for the release of all the 7 October hostages, for negotiations and for the beginning of a process that will bring freedom, liberty and justice for all in the Middle East, the only road to true peace.”
It is hard to imagine any thinking person believing that the centuries old Muslim hatred of Jews and the continuing determination to wipe them from the face of the earth are not relevant to the present problem in Gaza. But Francis and the Jesuits clearly seem to believe it, and that helps to explain why their exhortations will do nothing to solve the Gaza problem and may, indeed, intensify it.
These three examples, among many, illustrate the costliness of ignoring the time-honored path to truth and wisdom.
Copyright © 2024 by Vincent Ryan Ruggiero. All rights reserved.
