Marc Abear: 'Nice' does not preclude abetting evil

To The Daily Sun,

America is being destroyed by vile doctrines supported by a lot of nice people. Millions of nice people support those who believe nihilistic, anti-American, anti-human ideas. Leftism and liberalism have almost nothing in common. Still, loads of nice liberals support the left — maybe it’s because they are bipartisan?

So let me ask: What is wisdom? How do we gain wisdom? Isn’t it a process of acquiring insights into some dark parts of life? Dennis Prager says there were “undoubtedly many nice slaveholders.” But isn’t he observing what we all instinctively grasp? A lot of evil is done with nice people complicit.

Nice people conduct themselves in socially acceptable ways. Don’t we call people “nice” if they are friendly to strangers, are honest in their dealings with others, take care of their families, support friends, and are pleasant to be around? Isn’t that nice?

“Nice” refers to the personal. It does not imply anything about the views and values we hold about moral and social questions. A good human being is both socially nice and morally and ethically good. The point is we can be nice and hold awful values for society. And conversely it is quite possible to have excellent values while being a horse’s backside around others.

Communist regimes killed some 100 million noncombatant people in the 20th century. Add to that the devastated lives, the friends and family of the murdered, the deprivation of human rights, the people imprisoned and tortured, and you have a pure evil.

You might think no one who supported communism was a nice person. But you would be wrong. There were and still are many nice people who support communism. There were even nice people among those who provided Josef Stalin with the secrets of the atom bomb. Just think about it.

Marc Abear

Meredith