The title of this week’s J. P. Linstroth Epochal Reckonings Podcast borrows from the rock band, U2’s song, “Pride (In the Name of Love)”, commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the resounding lyrics: “One man come in the name of love…what more in the name of love? In the name of love…” Indeed, these words resonate with me in more than one way and echo in my mind. So too, I hear King himself stating the prophetic words: “…Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.” Perhaps we need some Promethean light for an expansive examination of these very human thoughts on “LOVE”. As such, there are two primary directions for this essay. In one direction, I wish to emphasize the necessity for politicians and others to be “love” directed in their thinking in order to adopt policies of “empathy” and “empathic politics” which in turn inform how to overcome some of our worst social problems. Secondly, I wish to explore ideas of “love” from Buddhist and Christian points of view, thereby allowing us to contemplate where we go from here.

The J. P. Linstroth Epochal Reckonings Podcast reviews the controversial issues surrounding the history of racism in the United States. The issues of ‘race’ and ‘racism’ have been with us since the founding of our august republic. Unfortunately, they are perniciously still with us today. They were the reason we fought the Civil War (1861-1865) and have mired our history throughout. There is no period in our history, the history of the United States, when ‘race’ has not been significant in some profound way. For many reasons too, the American Civil War is still with us today. It is still with us in every racial conflict we have had since. It is still being fought, perhaps unknowingly by many African-Americans, who have experienced ‘structural violence’ in some way, whether in terms of wanting better education, better housing, or a better job, or even rights for a normal life. Racism is an American story, even though it is everywhere in the world. American racism has its own malignant history. But we have to rid ourselves of this sickness called “racism” once and for all in America. We need a sea change, the type of civil rights legislation we saw in the 1960s under President Lyndon B. Johnson. Maybe like the President LBJ Administration not only do we need a new “War on Poverty”, but we need a “War on Racism as well?” Coming to terms with our social divisions, especially over racism, means understanding our long history of racial discrimination and our long history of racial violence.

In a recent Op-Ed article, J. P. Linstroth, discusses how late philosopher, Hannah Arendt's concept of the "banality of evil" may be applied to society today. He argues the banality of evil is not inevitable. In fact, group conforming violence may be avoided. We do not have to succumb to the mob but we know group violence exists on many levels and for many reasons. The My Lai Massacre in Vietnam, was halted for example by an American helicopter pilot, Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson, Jr. and his two-crewmen, Glenn Andreotta and Lawrence Colburn. “Hugh Thompson landed his helicopter between the villagers and the soldiers, and with his machine guns oriented toward his fellow Americans, ordered his crew to mow them down if they attempted to further harm the villagers” (from Robert Sapolsky, 2017 book, Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worse, p. 658). Many Vietnamese villagers at My Lai were subsequently airlifted to American field hospitals and further search and destroy missions by the U.S. military were halted as a result. So, in sum, we need to understand for example how someone like Tyre Nichols may be beaten to death by some policemen in Memphis, or how someone like George Floyd may have their life taken away by some policemen in Minneapolis. As I have tried to do here, by asking what questions may we raise from these murders beyond the norm—in other words, what does science say? How may violence become banal? So too, we need to understand how “social conformity” allows for such violence. After all, some social conformity may lead to genocide. Some social conformity may lead to a Reign of Terror (La Terreur, 1793-1794) as happened during the French Revolution. Some social conformity allowed for the Nazis to rise to power and the Holocaust. If we understand the institutionalization of violence or how it is brought about, perhaps we may overcome the banality of our evil.