Break-Through (The Joyous)

He says a stupid man gives advice when no one is listening, so it’s useless to advise him, although he speaks of his enemy. He thinks being right about one thing means he’s right about another. He says you can’t compromise with evil so we must overthrow it by force. And what is evil? Misuse of force. Sympathetic minds want to help, and superior positions are plentiful. One says he has an inferiority complex; only a man who thinks his penis is too small would be so rude. One says he’s paranoid; his mind is destroyed by alcohol, so his opinion of others is as dismal as his hopes for himself. One says he’s a lap dog of the rich, whose short-term profits are paramount. One says we must treat him like a child; he doesn’t see how his wars decrease our security. They say we need to explain why suffering quietly and becoming blameless is our best defense. But a single force undercuts our idealism— worse than apathy, worse than fear of failure, worse than being unrealistic. Secretly or openly, like all Americans, we care less about being right than about being on top. One idiot in power draws out the idiocy in the rest of us. They say the devil stabs his tail with his own fork. Suppose we overthrow the evil dictator after a fierce bombing and invasion. He has argued this must be done to oppose threats from weapons. Now our weapons have made us the dictator. Thus we see the supremacy of self-righteousness. Our conviction overcomes our recognition of irony.