Knowing Your Limits
  by David Eller

Ward Churchill was scheduled to speak at a conference on "The Limits of Dissent." Although the conference was canceled, it seems that the question has been inadvertently answered.

I am not condoning Churchill's language or opinions. He is a hothead and a bully. However, the reactions to his writings, both his opponents' and his proponents' reactions, have been entirely wrong. His opponents have painted him to be a Nazi (though he was using Nazis as examples of bad, not good) or anti-American or pro-violence. His proponents generally defend his right to free speech rather than his ideas. Both miss the point.

Churchill, in writings composed three years ago, said something in the most disagreeable possible way, but it is something we should listen to. On 9/11 we were attacked. We tend to see this as a totally unprovoked and undeserved act of terror, by evil and uncivilized people. However, as psychologist Roy Baumeister discusses in his Evil: Inside Human Cruelty and Violence, we want to see evil from the victim's point of view. This is not wrong, it is just incomplete. It is also not always very informative. The victim usually feels innocent, and we want it to be so. We want to think of the perpetrator as purely evil, sadistic, and inhuman-all of the things we are not. But all research has shown that ordinary, good, innocent humans will do terrible things in certain circumstances. Further, it has shown that evildoers often see the situation in very different terms.

Churchill said that Americans deserved the attacks, as well as the ones he says are still to come. That is not so much wrong as irrelevant. It does not have to be our perspective. But for us to assume that the entire world shares our perspective is myopic and potentially dangerous. What he might have usefully said is that the terrorists and our international enemies do not see us as innocent victims and themselves as insane devils. There is no doubt that they act out of some motivation. To say so is not to take their side but to realize that there is another side.

It is difficult to hear this, since the victim wants to feel innocent. It is especially difficult during a time of war, when events, people, and ideas become so black and white. But victims do not understand crime in the same way as perpetrators. So it is critically important for us, if we want to stop violence, to know what those who commit violence are thinking. Again, this is not to justify or share their thinking. It is to say that there are other things we need to understand and consider. Understanding victims does not shed light on violence; only understanding perpetrators does.

If there are things that America has done or is doing that incite hatred toward us, that is worth knowing. We may in the end decide to continue doing those things in our own interest, and that is fine. But we must grasp the consequences of our attitudes and actions and proceed in full awareness of them. That includes seeing that others, even enemies, have a point of view that-although we don't like it-affects us greatly.




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