"What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary."
That men are not angels, even when those men are U.S. citizens, was brought home this morning in two stories on NPR describing our torturing of terrorist suspects in prison. We do horrendous things to people and then call our actions "humane" and "justified." We convict innocent people and execute them or put them on death row, where later DNA tests save a few. We make a lot of mistakes.
The genius of the American System is not that we are better than other folks but that we have better tools for correcting our mistakes. We have government officials who are as sadistic and self-serving as any fascist dictatorship but we also have tools -- laws and institutions -- that permit a redress and correction, however painstakingly slow, of wrong behavior, however horrific. It ain't perfect but it's about as good as humans have gotten. This is why any eroding of human rights is so dangerous: it's the only thing that keeps us from joining the butchers of history. Our American character, the evidence says, cannot be trusted for moral or even legal behavior. We're no more angels than the bad guys are. In the short run, no better. It's the long run that saves us. It's the long run that can correct the errors of human nature -- as long as we have the laws and institutions that permit this. Human rights always must come first.
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