Morality, Crime, and Politics

  

Morality, crime and politics

Peter Schultz

 

From The Half ... Never Told: "Moral discomfort and political

interest did not coalesce into a lasting opposition to [slavery's]

expansion." (158)

 

Of course not because morality provides little guidance for politics.

Consider "war crimes." They don't coalesce into a lasting opposition

to war because they are usually committed by those who are making

war for the sake of socially approved and acceptable ends. They are

just like Tony Soprano, whose crimes were means to socially

acceptable ends, wealth and status for him and his family. (Ditto for a

small time hood like Malcolm Little, later known as Malcolm X.)

 

Ditto with immorality. This is why Trump's immorality doesn't lead

many decent, moral Christians to reject him. Trump's immorality is

not significant because his political ends are in the service of what

they deem to be socially approved ends.

 

What's most important politically are the ends being pursued; the

means are of decidedly secondary importance. Which helps explain

why the political is so often intertwined with immorality, injustice,

and repression.