I covered Bill Clinton’s speech at Pace University on Sunday. Or, at least, I was there — we elected not to run a story because he didn’t say anything newsworthy. Still, I thought some of what he had to say was interesting and thoughtful (in a non-political sense — this is not a political blog):
This world calls for a little humility and human kindness. We are going to get in a lot of trouble if we make decisions based on the supposition that we are in possession of the absolute truth. That, after all, is what’s wrong with the terrorists.
You know, no matter how sympathetic you are with what their beef is, they don’t have a right to just go out and wipe out innocent people. Why do they think they have a right to do that? Because they believe they are in possession of the absolute truth. And I believe that that is a heresy in any religion. After all— if you believe you can be in possession of the absolute truth, and you can turn it into a political program that’s absolutely true, what do you need God for?
You can laugh, but I’m serious. Whatever your faith, you think about that. All of us are taught to be humble because of our frailties, because of our imperfections. But all of a sudden like a light, we’re in possession of the whole truth, and we have a right to impose it by means of violence on everybody else? That’s the argument that those terrorists make. That’s how they justify, otherwise how can they live with themselves?
And so we all need to recognize that we can’t resolve all these identity conflicts overnight. We may make some mistakes as we go along the way. But we have to know that underneath it all, there are human beings that aren’t so very different from us.
Seems like he did in fact make news: he is saying that we’re in danger of becoming the terrorists if we act as if we have the absolute truths. This should have been a blockbuster story in my opinion.
]] We are going to get in a lot of trouble if we make decisions based on the supposition that we are in possession of the absolute truth. That, after all, is what’s wrong with the terrorists.[[
Why is that not a story?
I have never heard Bill Clinton say anything like that before. Shame it wasn’t published in your paper.
If I say all whales are mammals, does it logically follow that I’m saying all mammals are whales?
It’s not a story because Bill Clinton isn’t president. It wouldn’t be a story if Gerald Ford said it either.
I disagree mofo. Gerald Ford’s wife ain’t planning on running for president and Ford is not being blamed by the Republicans for not getting Osama … like Clinton is.
Well, if Hillary Clinton said it, it would be news. But she didn’t say it, there’s only so much airtime and newsprint allowed, and ex-politicians don’t make the cut. Besides, the Republicans are out to lunch on the Osama hunt themselves– they can blame anyone they want, nobody takes the Administration seriously any more except Rush Limbaugh listeners.
If Hillary had said this (or Dennis Hastert) I don’t think I would have pitched it either, because I just saw this as a call for humility.
B.C. didn’t say anything about Americans being “in danger of becoming terrorists.”