Glenn Beck

I haven't done a whole lot of political thinking lately. Mostly I've been tied up with thoughts of how to get 6 year olds interested in square dancing but that's for another time.

Have you ever watched Glenn Beck on CNN? He has a national hour long program on CNN each night of the week where he talks at you about various topics of interest. I was recently asked what I thought of Glenn's desire to have Iran labeled as evil. He's not the only one mind you, but he does like to spend much of his air time devoted to the coming holocaust that is Iran. If you don't know what I mean check this out.

Now I'm sure that there are quite a few people out there that agree with Glenn and his opinions on many issues. He is a self professed conservative republican and makes it well known on his show. But I have to wonder about his penchant for labelling Iran as evil. Especially when he goes about trying to convince others that they too should label Iran is evil.

What does labelling Iran as evil mean? What are the effects of such an action? I think that bringing terms like evil and hate into a political discussion is meant to bypass logic and make a more emotional connection. People have a much more emotional or visceral reaction to things that they see as evil and it tends to polarize a discussion.

IF Beck is right then how can one argue against evil? If you do of course then your supporting evil, are you evil then? Such polarized good and evil debates are good in Star Wars but don't much place in the realm of politics. In this case, what are the ramifications of accepting the notion that Iran is evil? Does America simply sit back and allow evil to exist or does it take up the holy crusade to eradicate evil? If it does decide to eradicate evil then surely a military invasion is in the offing and who will pay the price of that? Is every person living in Iran evil?

If Saddam was evil what does that make Iraq? Was Iraq evil or was it a small number of people at the top? The US decided to invade and end the evil that was Iraq but who is paying the price? The tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis who have died over the past 4 years who wanted nothing more than to live their lives.

Glenn Beck's insistence that we use the term evil only serves to shortcut logical and civil discussion and replace it with emotional finger pointing. If you want to see an example of how this works look no further than America. You are either for the war or your not. There is no room for a nuanced or multi-facted position on such a complex matter. It is a simple decision. Your either for the war or your for terrorism. Which is it?

That is what is happening here. The drums of war are beginning to beat and people like Glenn Beck are taking up the tune.