Re: March against neo-Nazis tomorrow, Flash news, November 8, 2005
There's no contradiction between "root causes" and individual responsibility. Each person is responsible for the choices he or she makes and there are many poor people who have made the world a better place rather than resorting to violence, and we should celebrate people like that.
However, no one makes moral choices in a vacuum and doing the right thing requires greater courage if there is a small chance of a reward and there aren't lots of people around to praise you for doing the right thing or to blame you for doing bad.
You think you will terrify the "lower orders" into doing your will by staging some elaborate show of justice and punishment, and it will work, for a time. But the only way to be sure that people choose well is to ensure that they have some hope of respect and tangible progress if they make the right choices.
It's not about being sorry for these killers. They may be broken beyond repair. It is about the children who come next and who we might be able to save.
Roger,
Žilina, Slovakia
