When terrorism begets nationalism...

Jonathan Schwartz, a progressive blogger who has commented recently at The Reaction (see here, for example, where he defends the primacy of the rule of law), offers a thoughtful take on good and evil, terrorism and nationalism at Moral Questions: see here. Key passage:

When you see things in terms of good and evil, you are forcing yourself into some very small boxes in terms of your ability to act. You certainly cannot negotiate with "evil personified". You are virtually forced to act with a heavy emphasis on force. So when we finished with the Taliban, it still, of course, was not enough to make us feel safe. We decide to go by force to eradicate our enemies, to hunt them down if we could in the region of the world where they lived. To destroy, we hoped, what it was in them -- "the evil" -- that we feared, and to make them like us. For that, in the end, is what fanatical nationalism cames down to: the belief that what is in our interest is good, and what is against our interests is evil.

With the London bombing, I have to wonder how much longer it will be before America itself is attacked again. And when that happens, I do fear how powerful nationalist appeals will become again. Indeed, a cynic would say that nothing could be better for Bush's stalled second term agenda. I just hope that if and when that time comes, we keep in mind the words of no less an arch-nationalist Republican than Abraham Lincoln: "with faith in the right, as long as God gives us the ability to see the right."

Good stuff, Jonathan. A lot for us all to think about.