Why is the ticking time bomb question so universally irresistible?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Answer: Because we are terrified of 9\/11 and would crawl through sewers to avert another one.<\/p>\n
It owes something to the psychological logic of Moloch-worship, the notion that getting morally and spiritually serious <\/em>means being willing to sacrifice what makes you most human in order to placate the hard gods of this world and survive. I highly doubt the practitioners of ancient human sacrifice *liked* what they were doing. But they formed the notion that you had to \u2018ow you say, \u201cgo to the Dark Side\u201d in order to \u201cmean business\u201d. <\/p>\nI recall a priest once mentioning \u201cthe pride that is the opposite of courage.\u201d It is an arresting remark. There does, in pro-torture rhetoric, often occur the refrain of \u201crealism\u201d (meaning \u201cfantasy scenarios\u201d) and \u201ccourage\u201d (meaning \u201csteeling yourself to be brutally immoral\u201d). I remember reading over Himmler\u2019s speeches to SS troops, urging them on to have the \u201ccourage\u201d to continue slaughtering innocent people in hypothermia experiments because the needs of the war effort demanded that it be done for a good end (saving German pilots from hypothermia). He tells them not to listen to the pantywaist counsels Christian moral exhibitionists who don\u2019t understand that such things *must* be done in war, etc. I was struck then, as now, with the odd confusion of courage with brutal immorality.<\/p>\n
Reminds me of Pieper\u2019s comments on the four cardinal virtues and the order in which they are prioritized. Without prudence, justice and temperance, fortitude can be a real killer.<\/p>\n