Much of today's political discourse, regardless of faction, is +focused on presenting one's own faction as being pure and +impeccable, while presenting any other as either innocently cooperating +with evil, or directly malicious. That is to say, all atrocities +committed by the faction we favor must be either justified or denied, +while all atrocities committed by opposing factions must be emphasized, +exaggerated, or even fabricated.
+ +If this behaviour is viewed with (a lot of) charity, it could be +viewed that the denial of the evils our factions commit is because we +recognize that it is evil, and the emphasis on the evils of the other +factions is precisely to show the dangers of those ideas. But the +problem with this kind of strategy is that absolutely every faction, +even the ones we believe to be the most benign, is riddled with a +history of atrocities and evils. Even our modern-day Liberal +Democracies, which we put on a pedestal as the most humane of +systems of governance was only able to come about through violent +revolution, mass executions, and persecution of the Church. Even today +we see its violence in the form of the killing of children in the womb +and of the elderly or sickly (i.e. abortion and euthanasia).
+ +The truth of the matter is that atrocities and violence are not +particular to any given faction or ideology, nor are they absent in any +faction or ideology. The only ideologies without a history of violence +are those which have never had the opportunity to act. This is because +violence is the result of the fallen human condition. It is but a naïve +dream for anyone to believe that their particular solution for the +administration of the public sphere (i.e. politics) will be free of any +kind of violence. Truly, it is the silly dream of those Utopian +Socialists who aimed to create a Kingdom of God on Earth. For +only through Christ's Parousia will we reach such a state. Any +other attempt to do so, being only by the strength of Men alone, will +ultimately culminate in disaster.
+ +All this does not deny, certainly, that certain ideologies lead to +more violence than others - or simply ideologies in general. It is +undeniable that certain ideologies have founded themselves upon the +justification of violence by denying that it is violence to begin with. +But to simply say that there are worse ideologies out there is no excuse +for the violence committed by another.
+ +All this is very much akin to Puritanism. We portray ourselves as +pure and impeccable. An inherently Pelagian idea. Therefore, to say that +a given faction is worse than our own because it has more atrocities, +while all of ours are justified, is negligent and a justification for +violence in and of itself. The argument means as much as a drop of water +in the desert.
+ +So how should we approach atrocities? Because obviously they are +evils, and we should denounce them and try to avoid them. Firstly, we +must refrain from comparisons. To compare our evil with the evil of +another does nothing more than to confirm the human condition. It is +another thing if another is purposefully justifying evil, which is +condemnable. But we must refrain from a holier than thou +attitude in this regard. But secondly, and perhaps most importantly, the +solution to Puritanism in the political sphere is exactly the same as in +the personal sphere (as with so many other things): the great virtue of +Humility.
+ +Yes, we must denounce our own atrocities and violence. We must +confess them, and as they are political (i.e. public) in nature, our +confession must also be public. Let our opponents not have a single evil +to hang over our heads, as we ourselves have put them there for the +world to see. This is ultimately needed so as to avoid making the same +mistakes again. There are five steps to the Sacrament of +Penance:
+ +We must do this as a society as well, and not be driven by pride.
+ +Ultimately, as mentioned before, violence is a result of fallen human +nature. So long as we live on this Earth over which the devil has +dominion, we will suffer violence. Our objective as a society should be +to work towards helping to diminish these acts of violence, these +assaults on the dignity of Man, such that every man, woman, and child, +from their conception until their natural death, may live a life in +accordance to their innate human dignity, which all Men have, being made +in the Image & Likeness of God.