Some of you who haunt the Catholic blogsphere may remember that last year, when people weren’t completely losing their shit over Trump, a big topic was ‘lying’.
Just to make sure everyone is on the same page, in Catholic moral teaching, it is never acceptable to choose to commit an objectively evil act, even if the goal of doing it is laudable and good.
Anyway, the big example was, of course, what would you as an American do if the Gestapo came to your door and asked if you were hiding any Jews (the assumption being that you were). There was much debate going back and forth of minutiae, touching on aspects like ‘the Gestapo here has no right to the truth due to their intentions’, some people claiming that you had to tell the truth, but in some way that wasn’t a direct lie, etc.
First, let’s be clear: In that situation, most every single of you reading this would lie, end of story. This is not because you are evil, or want to choose to commit an objectively immoral act, but rather your human reaction would simply be “SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT, if they find that family hiding in the concealed crawlspace area in the back of the basement we’re all dead!” and you’d simply say “Uh, no. Nobody lives here but me.” That’s just the way people are, in general, wired when exposed to something stressful like that.
Some people in the various arguments even mentioned that, then proceeded to go back and forth with if that was a valid response, if you had sinned, etc.
I’ve never seen so many pixels used for so little reason and to such little effect (aside from this year when people are trying to convince others that the latest Star Wars movie isn’t complete trash). Everyone seemed to miss the point that we’re Americans in that situation. That simple realization would have a saved a lot of time and gigs worth of posts. So what would be the correct response?
“Good afternoon, herr citizen. I am Lieutenant Klaus von Butthole vith ze Gestapo. My associates and I are here to check if you are hiding any Juden in your house. We need zem all rounded up you see. You aren’t by any cha-“
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! . . . . BANG! . . . . BANG! BANG!
*drop empty mag and insert full one. Drop slide. Check for any still alive. *
BANG! BANG!
Problem solved.
This may seem like nothing but bravado to many, and I don’t intend it as such. It’s really the most effective, moral answer.
“But they will just keep coming.” some say. Maybe, but that depends on how many Gestapo want to die, doesn’t it?
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a man who actually lived through a similar horror as opposed to just some blogger writing about nebulous ‘what ifs’ and wondering if the enemy had a ‘right to the truth’, had this to say in The Gulag Archipelago:
First, let’s be clear: In that situation, most every single of you reading this would lie, end of story. This is not because you are evil, or want to choose to commit an objectively immoral act, but rather your human reaction would simply be “SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT, if they find that family hiding in the concealed crawlspace area in the back of the basement we’re all dead!” and you’d simply say “Uh, no. Nobody lives here but me.” That’s just the way people are, in general, wired when exposed to something stressful like that.
Some people in the various arguments even mentioned that, then proceeded to go back and forth with if that was a valid response, if you had sinned, etc.
I’ve never seen so many pixels used for so little reason and to such little effect (aside from this year when people are trying to convince others that the latest Star Wars movie isn’t complete trash). Everyone seemed to miss the point that we’re Americans in that situation. That simple realization would have a saved a lot of time and gigs worth of posts. So what would be the correct response?
“Good afternoon, herr citizen. I am Lieutenant Klaus von Butthole vith ze Gestapo. My associates and I are here to check if you are hiding any Juden in your house. We need zem all rounded up you see. You aren’t by any cha-“
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! . . . . BANG! . . . . BANG! BANG!
*drop empty mag and insert full one. Drop slide. Check for any still alive. *
BANG! BANG!
Problem solved.
This may seem like nothing but bravado to many, and I don’t intend it as such. It’s really the most effective, moral answer.
“But they will just keep coming.” some say. Maybe, but that depends on how many Gestapo want to die, doesn’t it?
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a man who actually lived through a similar horror as opposed to just some blogger writing about nebulous ‘what ifs’ and wondering if the enemy had a ‘right to the truth’, had this to say in The Gulag Archipelago:
“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?... The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”
In the described situation, the Gestapo may or may not have a ‘Right to The Truth’. I don’t know. I don’t really NEED to know. What I do know is that they would have a Right to Lead, and I think people should be willing to fulfill that right if necessary.
Best answer.
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