I recently read a YA book called The Genius Wars by Catherine Jinks. In the book, a young lad, Cadel, is raised by a criminal to be the ultimate modern day criminal. Cadel's mentor is on the run, and he's rehabilitating into a normal life when suddenly out of the blue all the former hijinks of his youth have come back to haunt him. He decides with each of his friends and family being picked off, he needs to find his mentor and end this problem by any means necessary.
This got me thinking about what the phrase "by any means necessary" and, by association, "the end justifies the means". They are very closely related to one another in that they both essentially are a measure of one's personal convictions in a matter.
According to Wikipedia, The phrase is
translation of a sentence used in French intellectual Jean Paul
Sartre's play Dirty Hands:
I was not the one to invent lies: they were created in a society divided by class and each of us inherited lies when we were born. It is not by refusing to lie that we will abolish lies: it is by eradicating class by any means necessary.
—Jean Paul Sartre,
Dirty Hands: act 5, scene 3. 1963
We declare our right on this earth to be a man, to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary.
—Malcolm X, 1965
Strictly linguistically speaking, these beginnings suggest that only the noblest of causes should gallantly turn to these phrases. But, a cause is neither wrong nor right, just a play for power. What is a good cause for one is may not be a good cause for another.
This, of course, brings up questions of character. What can, does, or will happen to the people in and around this sort of situation? Are they the type to arm themselves and fight with violence, or do they turn toward the collective and fight with a hive mind and the power of many? Will they fight with love and forgiveness? Will they become stronger? More cynical? Or will they break? All that is a post for character development in my other blog. ;)
This, of course, brings up questions of character. What can, does, or will happen to the people in and around this sort of situation? Are they the type to arm themselves and fight with violence, or do they turn toward the collective and fight with a hive mind and the power of many? Will they fight with love and forgiveness? Will they become stronger? More cynical? Or will they break? All that is a post for character development in my other blog. ;)