It’s been a dark and depressing month.
One awful week stands out.
- On 5 September, the Charlotte Area Transit System released a video of the murder of Iryna Zarutska on a city train. The images of Zarutska’s cowled murderer, towering over her from behind as he plunged the knife, and of the alarmed and pleading look she gave him after his first strike, are unforgettable.
- The next day, Israel made publicly available 22 minutes of horrific footage, much of it recorded by Hamas terrorists, from the 47-minute documentary shown in private screenings to journalists and diplomats after the October 7 pogrom.
- Then, three days later, Charlie Kirk was assassinated in front of his wife and child..
One common denominator in all of these events was the impulse to explain or “contextualise” them in ways that minimise their horror.
- After 9/11, for instance, I heard a Muslim student say that the hijackers just wanted to “start a conversation” with the West.
- After 10/7, an expert on sexual violence excused her public silence about the rape and torture of Israeli women because, she told me, such atrocities are “happening every day” around the globe.
- The Charlotte mayor responded to the murder of Zarutska, an utterly innocent victim, by calling for “compassion” for homeless criminals like the man who stabbed her...
Whatever else all this might mean, these responses serve to distract us from addressing the real issue: the problem of Evil...
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