The Mighty and the Righty
Maureen Koplow responded today to my comments on the word benight with a two part question, one philosophical, the other linguistic. Here is part one:
“Could you please shed some light on why so many people think that might makes right?”
In other words, why do so many people find it difficult to understand the difference between having the power to do something and having the right to do it? The fact that we have so many ways of asking the same question indicates that the question is not new but is important.
Now, the fact that these two words rhyme does not mean that they are related. Since they are not related, this is not a linguistic question, so I will put on my raggety moral philosopher’s cap to answer part one of Maureen’s question.
The question keeps popping up to the surface of the sea of life even though we pretty much know the answer. If you are a careful observer, you will observe that the people who think that might makes right are those with might. The decision-makers (or, as our previous president put it, “the deciders”) at Enron, Worldcom, Silverado Savings, Tyco, AIG, Merrill Lynch—to just get the ball rolling—tend to be money addicts unaware of the difference between right and wrong or the fact that right is preferable.
We must include in this group those at the pinnacle of power in governments from the national to the local level, not to mention the individual level, as we see in the murderer of Dr. George Tiller in the House of God on Sunday during services. (“Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.”)
This lot tends to be power addicts (guns are power, too), an angry a lot, bereft of the knowledge that when we lose our temper, our IQ drops 30 points on average. They also suffer a bit from the same congenital defect as the money addicts: the inability to distinguish right from wrong (two antonyms that are related).
Fortunately, Maureen also asked two more questions on a topic about which I know something: “I wonder where the ight ending comes from, and the various meanings of might, as in “I might go” or the “Mighty King Kong” and and various meanings of right as in “that’s right” vs “you don’t have the right to do that.” I will address these questions subsequently, an address that will mark my return to subjects of which I am certifiedly knowledgeable.
I will leave you with a question of my own: Why do we have recovery programs for every kind of addict except money and power addicts?
June 14th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
‘ … not to mention the individual level, as we see in the murderer of Dr. George Tiller in the House of God on Sunday during services. (”Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.”)’
I seem to remember one of the nuns in grade school telling us that even gangsters would pick when to assasinate someone. If they wanted their victims to go to Hell, they’d kill them in the act of committing a mortal sin. If they wanted them to go to Heaven, they’d kill them coming out of Church. Maybe Tiller’s soul will eventually rest in peace.
As to recovery programs for money and power addicts, I assume either that since they are in control they refuse to fund the seeds of their own destruction, or that the powers that be believe their recovery to be a lost cause.