Bob's Links and Rants

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Monday, July 10, 2006

Generosity kills

Jonathan Schwarz reminds us that the most dangerous people in the world are generally those claiming to be generous. He cites a recent Michelle Malkin comment:
The manipulative detainees at Guantanamo Bay reportedly used the generous civil liberties protections we gave them to plot their suicide pact. Are you surprised?
Schwarz refers to a previous post of his on The Iron Law of Generosity, which features these incredible quotes from the self-anointed kings of generosity:
"Rightly considered, the policy of the General Government toward the red man is not only liberal, but generous." -- President Andrew Jackson, 1830

"In [our] treaties we have been more than just to the Indians; we have been abundantly generous... No other conquering and colonizing nation has ever treated the original savage owners of the soil with such generosity as has the United States." -- Teddy Roosevelt (and if you've ever admired TR, reading a few paragraphs from that link should cure you of that affliction)

"What the United States is doing in Vietnam is the most significant example of philanthropy extended by one people to another that we have witnessed in our times." -- David Lawrence, editor of US News & World Report.

"If we Germans have a fateful flaw in our national character, it is forgetfulness. This failing speaks well of our human decency and generosity, but not always for our political wisdom or intelligence. We think everyone else as is good natured as we are." -- Joseph Goebbels, 1943.
Jonathan concludes:
[W]hen people get righteously worked up about how wonderful they are, and their enemy's lack of gratitude, you really need to keep an eye on them.