The 2003 single “Peacekeeper” by Fleetwood Mac is, to date, their most recent entry on the Billboard Hot 100. The song, written by Lindsey Buckingham, was widely considered to be an anti-war song somewhat critical of the American efforts against Iraq. Yet the song itself is capable of many interpretations, as some of the lyrics strike the listener as particularly bloodthirsty–not that this is necessarily a bad thing. In particular, a couple of times the post-chorus of the song urges the titular peacekeepers of the song to take no prisoners, only kill, and the song itself ends on those portentous lines. It is of interest here that when the song was performed live, those last two words were replaced with the less inflammatory “break their will,” which preserves the rhyme and syllable pattern but which makes the point somewhat less provocatively.

It may have been thought to have been an exaggeration to sing of bloodthirsty people fighting in the Middle East who do not take any prisoners except to kill them in the most brutal and horrific fashion, but as is sadly the case, there is no satire that cannot be matched by the brutality of reality. Nor is there any brutality or evil so gross that someone will not support it for political reasons, as we have seen in the case of the recent war which broke out about a week ago between Hamas and Israel. The problem is that the depravity of the human heart is at such a high level that there is no exaggeration that can outstretch it. Indeed, efforts at satire can serve as an inspiration to people who see it as something to emulate rather than something to recoil in horror from. I am not speaking here to those who are humane and kind in their natures, but rather to those who have allowed themselves to be poisoned by hatred and bitterness against others, and who do not see any limits to the violence and hostility that they are willing to inflict upon those whom they hate and hold in the highest contempt. None of us, no matter how humane and civilized we may be, is entirely immune from the tendency to view other people as less than human and to act accordingly. Regrettably, this tendency is heightened by the intensity of the conflicts of our contemporary age and by the ugliness of rhetoric that we constantly hear all around us concerning enemies abroad and at home, as well as political cleavages that are exacerbated by the abuse of power by governments against those who are (temporarily) out of office.

Indeed, to the extent that one group of people sees another as less than human and worthy only of the harshest acts of violence and dishonor in order to humiliate them and exterminate them, those who are targeted by violence can easily adopt a policy of lex talionis and repay others an eye for an eye, a life for a life, an atrocity for an atrocity. The fact that people can often feel a sense of satisfaction for having avenged their fellow citizens, neighbors, and relatives only makes such vengeance a more common feature of the most intractable conflicts humanity has found itself involved in. Such acts of vengeance can often be a race to the bottom, as each group can use the brutal treatment another inflicts upon someone as justification for their own brutality, and others in turn can view the spreading brutality as a cover for their own. The lack of restraint within people towards committing violence is easily imitated, and the anarchical bloodlust that is satisfied through acts of wanton destruction and carnage can easily lead to wars where this carnage is visited upon many millions of people in battlefields and in besieged cities where no distinction is made between combatant and civilian, and no one is given any sort of respite from the horrors that can be visited upon humanity by other humans who have, for whatever reason, ceased to be human by their viewing others as inhuman or subhuman. Unfortunately, the dignity and honor we have as people is not based on the treatment that we are given by others, but rather is based on our own treatment of others. We show ourselves to be people of kindness by acting kindly, not by being treated kindly. We show ourselves to be people of honor by showing honor, not by receiving it. The same is true, on the negative side, in that we show ourselves to be monstrous by behaving monstrously towards others, not by being treated in a monstrous fashion by others. What others do to us only communicates what is in their own heart. It is how we behave ourselves that shows what is in our hearts.

This leads to a very important problem. When we are faced with the immense evil of others around us, especially those who would view us not as people who are worthy of respect and justice, but rather as cockroaches deserving nothing better than the most brutal and horrific ends, the natural question is how such atrocities are to be responded to. It may, regrettably, be necessary to combat violence with violence in order to limit its spread, even though such violence may jeopardize our own humanity. How are we to distinguish between our own reluctant and measured violence against unrestrained evildoers and the horrific and brutal violence that was directed first against us? How is the violence of capital punishment or of a just war to be distinguished from the violence of a murderer or of a terrorist? The end is the same, in death. It is not that one death is visited by agents of government while others are not, because there are regimes that sanction violence against people and property, piratical and bloodthirsty regimes that regularly operate in violence against peaceful civilians. Indeed, in the 20th century (and so far in the 21st century), the vast majority of all wrongful deaths were inflicted by regimes, usually against elements of their own people. Frequently, the lives and well-being of ordinary tourists and humanitarians abroad has been endangered by the previous behavior of military and intelligence forces of the governments that rule over such people, and which the ordinary people had little say in directing or little knowledge of or support of. Common people often suffer as a result of the evil deeds of their governments, whether they live in the United States or the Middle East or anywhere else. It is all too easy to lament that this is the case, but what is to be done about it is far less obvious and far more difficult to implement.