Moral authorities justify effective violence despite logical contradictions

Evidence

It is interesting that he sanctified suicide bombing even though Islam morally and legally forbids suicide. The contradiction probably has more to do with the relative effectiveness of different pernicious means than with inherent theological nuance. Being a moral authority is not an easy job, especially when one must justify violent means that prove effective in advancing one’s cause. Moral compromises create logical paradoxes. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2242 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

It is interesting that he sanctified suicide bombing even though Islam morally and legally forbids suicide. The contradiction probably has more to do with the relative effectiveness of different pernicious means than with inherent theological nuance. Being a moral authority is not an easy job, especially when one must justify violent means that prove effective in advancing one’s cause. Moral compromises create logical paradoxes. Hezbollah militants eventually stopped taking hostages because they came to regard it as harmful to their cause, tarnishing the image of Islam with few benefits to show for it. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2242 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Nietzsche’s morality of the strong reduces justice to survival and power — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 85; Moralistic bourgeois rhetoric can be backed by hidden violence and therefore never trusted — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 459; Vigilante justice enforced elite moral codes rather than neutral popular will — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 2152 (+14 more)

Broader Connections

• Moral authorities sanction effective violence even at the cost of theological contradiction #corroborates (0.98) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2242
• Moral authorities bend religious norms to serve effective violent means #corroborates (0.94) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2242