In the early years of the thirteenth century soldiers of the Fourth Crusade acquiesced to demands by Venice to attack Zara (currently called Zadar in Croatia) as payment for the use of Venetian ships. Zara was a Christian city, once part of the Venetian republic, but it had rebelled. It was a highly fortified city, too well fortified for the Venetians to retake their possession. Thus, the deal with the crusaders who didn’t have the funds to pay Venice: “Help us take Zara,” the ship owners said, “and we will transport you to the Holy Land.”
They did. That is, the crusaders helped the Venetians; Christians attacked Christians. Now for those promised ships. Oh! Another negotiation. What about Constantinople? Hey, it’s on the way to the Holy Land anyway. Another attack on another Christian city, and another victory for the crusaders—against Christians. What choice did they have? They wanted ships for transport.
Too bad for the residents of Zara and Constantinople that Teddy Roosevelt wasn’t around. As he once said, “No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expediency.”
Maybe not evil, but haven’t many of us done something that compromised our principles or intentions? I’m not accusing us of being thirteenth-century crusaders who broke their pledge to do no unnecessary harm on their way to, at, and from the Holy Land. Just little things for the sake of expediency.
I’m not making a checklist for any of us. It’s just that, in review, we might see something regrettable that we did on our way to accomplishing some presumably noble goal. I’m also not casting blame. Actions borne of the moment don’t have the advantage of moral oversight that hindsight brings.
Dropping the bomb on Hiroshima supposedly saved a million casualties. That is, of course, an arguable statement. Would the Japanese military have surrendered had the Enola Gay dropped Little Boy on the top of Mt. Fuji just as a demonstration? Maybe no one at the time either thought of that option or considered anything less than destroying an important military target, regardless of the civilian casualties. Dropping the bomb on Hiroshima was, as those in charge might have argued, the lesser of two evils.
Now, I know that you weren’t the one making the expedient decision to drop the bomb where it was dropped. So, let’s take it down a notch. What, we can all ask ourselves, have we done for the sake of expediency regardless of the cost, large or small, to others? If we can truly answer “nothing,” we’re living an ethical life.
They did. That is, the crusaders helped the Venetians; Christians attacked Christians. Now for those promised ships. Oh! Another negotiation. What about Constantinople? Hey, it’s on the way to the Holy Land anyway. Another attack on another Christian city, and another victory for the crusaders—against Christians. What choice did they have? They wanted ships for transport.
Too bad for the residents of Zara and Constantinople that Teddy Roosevelt wasn’t around. As he once said, “No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expediency.”
Maybe not evil, but haven’t many of us done something that compromised our principles or intentions? I’m not accusing us of being thirteenth-century crusaders who broke their pledge to do no unnecessary harm on their way to, at, and from the Holy Land. Just little things for the sake of expediency.
I’m not making a checklist for any of us. It’s just that, in review, we might see something regrettable that we did on our way to accomplishing some presumably noble goal. I’m also not casting blame. Actions borne of the moment don’t have the advantage of moral oversight that hindsight brings.
Dropping the bomb on Hiroshima supposedly saved a million casualties. That is, of course, an arguable statement. Would the Japanese military have surrendered had the Enola Gay dropped Little Boy on the top of Mt. Fuji just as a demonstration? Maybe no one at the time either thought of that option or considered anything less than destroying an important military target, regardless of the civilian casualties. Dropping the bomb on Hiroshima was, as those in charge might have argued, the lesser of two evils.
Now, I know that you weren’t the one making the expedient decision to drop the bomb where it was dropped. So, let’s take it down a notch. What, we can all ask ourselves, have we done for the sake of expediency regardless of the cost, large or small, to others? If we can truly answer “nothing,” we’re living an ethical life.
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