Sheryl Crow quoted at the American Music Awards:
“I think war is based in greed and there are huge karmic retributions that will follow. I think war is never the answer to solving any problems. The best way to solve problems is to not have enemies.” (Associated Press,1/14/03)Crow’s statement is more than stupid; it’s made without any reference whatever to the most obvious facts, which makes it dishonest. Following her lead, we shouldn’t have police, because crime is always the victim’s fault–it’s just karmic retribution for something the victim did wrong. I wonder if Crow thinks rape victims deserve being raped. But of course, she wasn’t concerned with facts or logic when she made her statement.
What motivates such dishonesty? Is it a lack of independence–a desire to fit in by parroting her peers’ party line? Or is it a refusal to accept the morality of any self-interested action, such as attacking Iraq? Such altruism would sacrifice the innocent to the world’s aggressors–a clear case of injustice.
Or is it just moral cowardice–a refusal to pass moral judgment on Iraq and to act accordingly? The only people such “who-am-I-to-judge” tolerationists cannot tolerate are the ones who reject nonjudgmentalism and expect them to pass moral judgment; such people they hysterically denounce while giving a free pass to the Saddam Husseins of the world.
These three possibilities amount to the same thing, the failure to assert one’s judgment of one’s own interests as a moral right. This is the corrupt spirit that permeates today’s antiwar movement.