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Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Interesting moral calculus

“This is a historic event,” said Richard Holbrooke, who brokered the agreements in Dayton, Ohio, to end the war in Bosnia in 1995. “Of the three most evil men of the Balkans, Milosevic, Karadzic and Mladic, I thought Karadzic was the worst. The reason was that Karadzic was a real racist believer. Karadzic really enjoyed ordering the killing of Muslims, whereas Milosevic was an opportunist.” - New York Times, July 22, 2008
This reminds me of a debate I had with senior colleague some years back about whether it was worse to be demonic or diabolical. I'm not saying it's wrong, but I doubt Dante would agree with the ordering.

(The debate arose after the partner came into my office and asked "Have you read the Management Incentive Plan? It's diabolical." We concluded that it was worse to be diabolical than demonic. Our thought was that demons are evil in their nature without necessarily having a choice in the matter, whereas devils—or at least The Devil—did have a choice. We agreed that it was worst of all to be satanic, since that meant "like Satan", making a direct comparison with that fairest of angels who elected to become The Evil One.)


posted at 12:53 AM

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