FundamentallySound Blog

Germany's highest court, last month, struck down a law which would have allowed fighter jets to shoot down hijacked planes if they were to be used in a September-11 type attack. The court's logic was to the effect that by allowing the planes to be shot down, the passengers would be reduced to mere objects and this was incompatible with basic human dignity.

My first reaction upon reading this was one of respect, finally a government has articulated in a clear way what should be common sense. Of course Air Force planes should not be shooting down passenger jets. If it has to come to the point where this is so easily morally acceptable then something is extraordinarily wrong with the culture. I think, to Americans, the idea of inherent human dignity and the notion that we have inalienable rights (even to life itself) has receded so far back in our collective consciousness that we have completely forgotten what was at one time a basic tenet of the culture. We seem to now be ready to accept a government that will decide which of us are allowed to live and which should die, whose lives are more important than others.

In a recent episode of 24, a frightening series about a rogue but "good" US anti-terror agent, the question was put to the viewers in a very vivid way, if you can save more lives in the end by allowing some to die now, what would you do? The question was presented in such a way that the obviously rational answer was, of course you just allow some to die now. (By the end of the show, happily, everyone was saved, in Hollywood style). It's as though the culture has accepted that these are normal decisions one has to make, the world wants to kill us so we will slide down this slippery slope of ethical compromise and extraordinary cynicism as far as we have to. We will accept that torture is necessary, we will trust our government to kill the "insurgents" without ever even being curious as to how many truly innocent people have been killed. Or even how many "insurgents" are completely innocent. And we should never ask why so much of the world hates this country to begin with, that would lead to a self-questioning which is positively un-American.

I applaud Germany in its uncompromising stance, it gives me hope to know that there is at least one part of the world where the majority of the population seem to have their thinking put together in a rational way and are not interested in moral compromise and cold, cynical decision making.