Ideology: Evil's "Long-Sought Justification"

Reflections on Charlie Kirk and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Last night I was repeatedly awakened by images of Charlie Kirk being shot in the throat. Many have suggested that one shouldn’t view such imagery, but I believe it is important to SEE expressions of evil rather than just hearing verbal descriptions of it.

Police are saying they have found “a high-powered, bolt-action rifle” in nearby woods, and that the shooter perched on a roof about 100 yards from the stage. This indicates the murderer carefully planned the assassination and carried it out with calm precision.

Utah DPS Commissioner Beau Mason said that the suspect "appears to be of college age.” Even if the shooter proves to be a professional killer with no ideological convictions, it is likely that whoever is behind him is possessed by ideology of the Leftist sort.

What would motivate someone to shoot a gentle, 31-year-old man, husband, and father of two small children? When thinking about this, it is useful to consider the reflections of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who knew whereof he spoke and wrote.

Ideology – that is what gives evil doing its long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination. That is the social theory which helps to make his acts seem good instead of bad in his own and others’ eyes, so that he won’t hear reproaches and curses but will receive praise and honors… Thanks to ideology, the 20th century was fated to experience evildoing on a scale calculated in the millions. This cannot be denied, nor passed over, nor suppressed.”

―Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn,The Gulag Archipelago

Because young people know nothing, they are very easy to infect with the cancer of ideology. This is why college campuses are hothouses of ideological possession.

Philosophers have long observed that evil is rarely perpetrated by rebellious hell raisers who revel in being villains. We find such characters in literature fascinating because they are extraordinary and larger than life. I am thinking of Shakespeare’s Iago and Richard III, Milton’s Satan, and modern iterations such as Leonard Smalls and Anton Chigurh in Cohen Brothers films.

While these characters are fascinating, they do not accurately represent real world evil doing, which is almost invariably committed by ordinary, weak people who are animated with self-righteous feelings. They are willing and even eager to do terrible things to people because, in their minds, such people deserve to suffer and die. They genuinely believe that hurting people is praiseworthy.

In videos of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, one can see young men erupting in jubilation seconds after they witnessed the violent death. They found the spectacle that haunted and terrified me last night to be cause for joy.

Such people are possessed by the demon of ideology. While they are unlikely to hold leadership positions in a tyrannical regime, they would likely serve as foot soldiers and camp guards.

The most astonishing expression of this phenomenon was the statement of MSNBC commentator, Matthew Dowd, who said upon hearing of the shooting:

[Charlie Kirk] is one of the most divisive, especially divisive younger figures in this, who is constantly sort of pushing this sort of hate speech or sort of aimed at certain groups. And I always go back to, hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions.

In other words, Mr. Dowd thinks that Charlie had it coming.

Heaven help this country if guys like Mr. Dowd ever assume positions of power, for they are by far the most dangerous people on earth.