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Moral certainty is a threat to us all
argues Bonnie Greer, writer and broadcaster
| | |  when is right wrong?Do you agree? Join the discussion by calling 0870 010 0444, lines open at 1.30pm. | |
The one weapon of mass destruction that is never talked about in the corridors of power or fretted over in the media is the notion of right.
"I am right" is the one idea that Osama bin Laden and George Bush have in common, that Tony Blair and Saddam Hussein both tell their people. right and righteousness have been the creators of more misery, confusion and death through the ages than any other stance ... any other concept.
Too often, we use right as the justification for our murderous aggression, our fear of those different from us, our naked greed, and that need for instant gratification that defines us as "homo sapiens".
But until we abandon this, we will continue to be only a little more civilized than our ancestors who ventured out of caves to bang one another over the head with clubs and hurl about their precious resource of fire.
You may say that in my urging us to get rid of right, that I myself think that I am right. But this simply shows that we have not developed a mind that can embrace contradiction, that can embrace ambiguity, uncertainness.
After all this time, we still don't seem to understand that the world is not black and white, not clear, and in our pitiable attempts to "pin it down", and make it conform to the way we see things, that we are, in the long run, doomed to failure.
The spawn of right is fundamentalism, the first plague of our new century. Fundamentalism is everywhere: Islamic fundamentalism destroyed the twin towers and took the lives of over three thousand people one sunny September day.
Jewish fundamentalism justifies the settlements beyond Israel's legitimate borders. Christian fundamentalism is behind the "you're either with us or the terrorists" statements of the President of the United States.
In fact, we are so sure about our own Christian, Western values, our world view, as being right, that we are willing to enter into an alliance that may destroy the world as we know it. How crazy is that?
I remember a scene from a film about World War Two. The Allies were shown praying to God to give their side a righteous victory, and then the next scene showed the German Army praying to the same God and asking for the same thing.
Who is right can no longer matter.
This month marks the thirtieth anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. The people of Vietnam saw and still do see this war as a war of liberation against an invading colonial power.
In the name of right, the victorious Viet Cong sent thousands of their own people, people who had not adhered to the righteousness of their cause, to their deaths. For the West, especially America, this month marks the anniversary of an ignominious defeat, a defeat against right.
It is by abandoning right that we can develop the intelligence to live in peace, make our lives better here on earth.
Do you agree?
Join the discussion by calling 0870 010 0444
lines open at 1.30pm.
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