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SUNDAY SPECTATOR
September 23, 2001
The moral fog
Perhaps the most unpopular column I ever wrote was many years ago after the Marc Lepine killings. This demented man this psychopath had walked through the corridors and into a classroom at the University of Montreal shooting down women as he went along. There was a national outpouring of grief and outrage during which the most extraordinary things were said. What caught my attention was the argument that we had seen something emblematic of male attitudes -- in Marc Lepine. There was nothing representative about this man. He was a psychopath. The average man is not. The attempt to portray him as somehow "representative of the deep-seated misogyny in our society" was itself demented though in a much different way. It was a statement that showed no comprehension of elementary reality. The idea was reinforced in countless "women's vigils" from which men were barred. A demented idea was made almost respectable by the awed tone of coverage in our media. The point of my column so many years ago was that we had indeed seen a glimpse of depravity in the modern male. But this was not in Marc Lepine -- for there is nothing especially modern about mental illness. Instead the revelation was of several dozen young men who let the crime happen. None were asked by the media why they had failed to intervene the question was considered too "insensitive". And yet the surviving witnesses to this crime -- one young man after another -- felt the need for some kind of public vindication. Almost every one of them said in the same words What could I do? He had a gun! This was not an acceptable answer -- to the question it seemed only they were asking (another sign of the times). I'm not even sure it would have been acceptable had the assailant only been robbing a bank; but at least that would have been a "judgement call". In this case he was killing women before their eyes. It was incumbent upon them to intervene -- to jump this butcher or to die trying. I knew these boys would carry the "trauma" of their cowardice through their lives even though it might never be publicly confessed or recognized for what it was. But I did not think still don't think that anyone should empathize with them. Their shame was natural it was earned deserved. I could not imagine that men of the previous generation would have behaved as they did when put to the test; that there would have been no heroes only people mouthing What could I do? That our defence against monsters such as Marc Lepine should consist exclusively of feminist platitudes. And I was quite frankly relieved in the upshot of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington to learn that we still have heroes. The firemen hundreds of them killed many of them pouring into the one standing Tower when the other had collapsed. And the marvellous answer given by a surviving fireman to the question why his companions continued running to almost certain death -- who said in his magnificent Bronx accent Fiyemen run intta buildings; fiyemen don't run oudda buildings. We all have by now some gist of what happened on one of the hijacked planes to bring it down over Pennsylvania; and on the plane that slammed into the helipad at the Army end of the Pentagon but had been looking for the White House. Passengers decided to put up a fight -- albeit after they'd been tipped off on cellphones about what had just happened in New York. But these were people not trained as firemen. They would not ride quietly to their deaths or to the deaths of others. New York generally -- under its illustrious mayor -- has behaved in a signally inspiring way. The workers of Manhattan -- so often mocked as decadent selfish and unfeeling -- have shown extraordinary character. Those who mocked them stand exposed. A friend of mine -- someone with whom I tend to disagree about everything except the divinity of Christ -- asked me to write a column about what people should do. The implication was You're a 'libertarian', you don't believe in big government, I would really like to know how you think people should deal with threats like this. Now before allowing the inference to stand let me remind my reader that the very roles I have always assigned to central government are law enforcement and national defence. Part of my irritation with our own national government is that it is very lax about these real and crucial responsibilities -- functions only it can provide with its legitimate monopoly on public force. But instead of tending to its responsibilities it taxes and spends extravagantly in so many areas that should be none of its business fussing with the particulars of our private lives. But while governments must carry this responsibility in the main the first and last line of defence will always be the people. There may always be circumstances in which we cannot merely wait for the police or for the army. In the light of what has recently happened and the very real preparations for war (though our government still thinks it is not seriously involved still assumes this is basically an American problem) -- in the present circumstances every citizen has a duty to be prepared for the worst. We have to know in our own hearts that we will be ready. That there can be a moment when What could I do? will not serve as an answer. I am in some sense a libertarian. I believe we are each answerable to God even for the safety of our neighbour. I believe that each is endowed under the fog of his delusions with some knowledge of what we have to do in extreme just as in normal situations. To know it we do not have to be taught so much as to disperse the moral fog that is everywhere around us. Our job is to defend when we are attacked and to defend our neighbour as a mother would her child. To refuse surrender. Had no one been living in a dense moral fog the terrorists would not have succeeded in hitting a single one of their targets that Tuesday. They were not even armed with guns only with the belief that no one would resist them. The beginning of the end for them for the terror networks generally was when some people did. David Warren
© Ottawa Citizen
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