Crusaders

One dictator is about like another.

The proponents of fascism and communism may insist (rightly) that their doctrines come from different, even largely opposite ideological foundations.  But they have one gigantic thing in common with each other, and with many other crusades ancient and modern: they both believe (fervently) that the ends justify the means.

This belief is the deal breaker for both, and for so many ongoing crusades.  Because the core of the movement is an ideal which is held to be ultimately righteous. it is believed to justify (morally and practically) whatever steps are taken to achieve that ideal.  Anyone who opposes the means is shouted down and reviled, accused of opposing that righteous end.  Why do you love lung cancer so much that you don’t want it eliminated?  Why don’t you want America to be Great?  Why are you against families that you don’t want babies to be born?  Thus, consideration or criticism of the actions of crusaders – on practical, legal, or moral grounds – is completely shut down, and anyone who asks questions is automatically locked out as an 'enemy'. 

One crusader is about like another.  Because crusaders come to believe their actions are above criticism. they will progressively find reasons to take ever more radical actions to further their cause.  The first steps seemed reasonable, but did not finish the project; more and more severe measures will be needed… until the slaughter of innocent thousands or other atrocities can feel like reasonable and necessary measures to the crusader.  Soon enough, the crusader is willing to unleash deadly contagious diseases, or bomb hospitals, or arrest all dissenters, or persecute journalists, or lock up children in kennels, or whatever. 

Sooner or later, all crusades devolve into oppression, cruelty, and untrammeled evil.  Somewhere in the process, inevitably, the movement leaders will come to realize that they need to hold absolute power in their own hands – unopposable, unaccountable, unrestrained and soon unhinged.  And then, step by step, the parade of evil marches on.  Because they believed that the end justified the means, they have settled into the same means shared by all of history’s monsters:  cruelty and lust for ever-increasing power.

One dictator is about like another.  Left, Right, This religion, That religion, this culture, that nation, all of these details fade into the general picture which turns out to be the simple cement wall of megalomania.   Not because the idea systems are all the same, or all wrong, but because the people working to bring them about choose the same bad means to do so.

Would you like to do some good in the world?  I would too.  The answer is as simple as it is difficult:  keep remembering always that the end never justifies the means.  Keep insisting that the strategies and actions you take must always be able to stand under moral and philosophical scrutiny.  There is no such thing as achieving good by doing evil – even if the good seems enormous and the evil seems tiny.  Morality and Truth always supersede our own agendas, no matter what they are. 

And in some ways, the best news is exactly this: you don’t have to be an all-powerful dictator to achieve good.  In fact, almost all of the good that has ever been achieved in the world was accomplished by little people – the ones being ruled, not the ones doing the ruling.  No one need wait for a righteous King to take the throne in the future – rather, it is for each of us to do Good in our own lives, in our own worlds, in the present.

What does the LORD require of you but to do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with your God. – Micah 6:8

2026-04-24