Get a load of this news story. Then come back here and read the rest of this post.
Got that?
Now, please: Never, ever say that in my thriller HUNTER I exaggerated or misrepresented the appalling level and number of moral inversions that occur daily within our alleged "criminal justice system."
Combine this case with the systematic "enabling" that allowed a child-molesting predator to continue committing atrocities against little boys for years at Penn State University, even after his rapes had been eye-witnessed at least twice, and we see a society that has completely lost its moral bearings.
The cause? A single premise: that individuals are not responsible for what they do -- that they are helpless "victims" of circumstances beyond their control.
From Freud to Rawls to the pulpits to the classrooms, a vast Excuse-Making Industry of intellectuals has persuaded millions that criminals are mere "victims" of circumstance; that the only real crime, therefore, is punishing them for actions that they "couldn't help" -- or even daring to pronounce a negative moral judgment about them, or anything; and that the primary purpose of government is not to protect people from predators, but to redistribute the "lucky" fruits of some people's success to those who were too "unlucky" to get their "fair share," from whatever mysterious source that goods and services and happiness are supposed to magically materialize.
The unrelenting, ubiquitous war on the principle of personal self-responsibility has led to widespread moral intimidation and cultural paralysis, even in the face of brazen degeneracy. Consider just a few recent examples:
* the unwillingness of politicians to clear city streets and parks of "Occupy Wall Street" vandals, thieves, rapists, thugs, and bums, no matter what crimes they openly commit, while police are ordered to stand in passive witness of their offenses;
* the mute confusion and anguished indecision of at least two eyewitnesses and countless college bureaucrats to the Penn State predator's rapes of terrified, helpless little boys;
* the linked news article in this post, which documents once again how our misnamed "justice system" simply can't recycle career predators back onto the streets fast enough or often enough.
If your knee-jerk response to this angry post is indignation over my words, rather than over the unspeakable atrocities that provoke them, then you've imbibed the same toxic premise that is killing our civilization: the premise that the only real "evils" are anyone's demands for self-responsibility, and any moral judgments that proceed from that insistence.
And as you look around our nation and the world at the rise of savage mob rule, tribal piracy on the open seas, and terrorist thuggery everywhere, you need find the cause of it all at no greater distance than your route to the nearest mirror.
5 comments:
There is an interesting contradiction on the left. I've asked about highly productive people being over-taxed and over regulated: "What if they just stop working? What if they just stop creating because they're not being compensated for their efforts?" The answer: "Those people will always keep doing what they do". As if their nature is to work. Evidently their nature will never change, they will always work hard even without external incentive. But suggest that the low-life scum will never change and it's useless to try to "rehabilitate" them and you're regarded as a monster.
"If your knee-jerk response to this angry post is indignation over my words, rather than over the unspeakable atrocities that provoke them, then you've imbibed the same toxic premise that is killing our civilization: the premise that the only real "evils" are anyone's demands for self-responsibility, and any moral judgments that proceed from that insistence."
Robert, that line is applicable to my own novel. I loved Hunter and I hope, and fully expect, you will like mine as much. An Act of Self-Defense is about the collapse of our economy and individual liberty. It is selling well thanks to your advice to sell the eBook at $3.99. see my reviews at Amazon or at ernelewis.com.
Great post Mr Bidinotto.
I only hope your Dylan Hunter stories will inspire some courageous guy to do JUSTICE.
By the way, what do you think of the Dexter Morgan character?
He is a maverick and he may be killing more to satisfy his dark passenger than to do justice, but as I watch the show, I can't stop admiring him.
For many years, I worked in the community college environment, which is one of fear and multicultural bias. If a faculty member dared to object to any action taken by another faculty or administrator, they were doomed, with no recourse. The only option was to quit your job. I did not witness rape; however, I often saw unwelcomed sexual behaviours overlooked in order to keep working. I understand the urge for justice which your hero in "Hunter" implements.
Thank you for your work.
Diane Viewing
@ Mike: That's a brilliant observation. It's one of the myriad contradictions in the leftist Narrative about how the world works.
@ Erne: Glad my advice about pricing is working for you. I'll have to pick up your book. Right now, I've been utterly swamped with both reading and writing tasks, but I'll get to it as soon as I can.
@ Vincent: Dylan Hunter is meant to be a fantasy character. He provides a kind of emotional catharsis for many of us who seek justice in a world where it's so frequently absent. However, Dylan has skills and resources very few real-life people would have. Also, he has a strict code that almost no real-life person has. In reality, such a character is almost certain to swerve off the moral rails and become just a purveyor of arbitrary, unrestrained violence completely disproportionate to the offense -- in short, a symptom of the very injustice he intended to fight. So, I do not endorse or hope for a wave of vigilantism, which would quickly break down into subjective, indiscriminate blood-letting. I hope instead that HUNTER and its hero sensitize society to the need for radical reforms in our legal system -- reforms that would render moot the impulse to seek vigilante justice.
As for "Dexter," I've not watched the show or read the novels on which it is based. I understand that he's a sociopath who targets other sociopaths. Dylan Hunter, by contrast, is completely healthy, psychologically, not a damaged hero or antihero.
@ Diane: It's sickening, of course, that the supposed citadels of civilization -- college campuses -- are so often havens for the lowest scum on the planet. What I hope to do through the HUNTER stories is to shine a light of moral clarity that cuts through the murky atmosphere of pseudo-intellectual excuse-making that originates in the universities and spreads like cancer throughout the culture.
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