Recently I was reading about the death of Nuon Chea, one of the Khmer Rouge leaders of Cambodia in the 1970’s. The article stated that Nuon Chea never admitted his guilt in the deaths of 1.7 million Cambodians. In an interview with the Associated Press, he stated he and his fellow leaders were not bad people even though they were convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity by a UN backed tribunal. He did admit mistakes were made but he excused those mistakes because they were just trying to improve the condition of the people of his country. [1]
At first, I was incensed that up to his dying day Nuon Chea would maintain his innocence in this genocide. However, the more I thought about it, the more I reconsidered my initial feelings. There are people in this world who so convinced their ideas about how a country or even an organization should be run that they believe the ends in which they so fervently believe will justify any means. The Inquisition is another example. The people of that atrocity had only the welfare of the people they tortured in mind—the eternal salvation of their soul.
What the above types of people fail to realize is that they are not infallible and neither are their ideas. It takes a considerable amount of hubris to believe their ideas are valid for millions of others. They also fail to accept the fact that we all have free will. Using force to persuade another person to violate their principles is morally wrong. If you cannot through argument persuade someone of the validity of your ideas, then maybe you should reconsider your ideas or come to the realization that diversity of ideas is as noble a goal as all the other areas in which we seek diversity.
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[1] Associated Press. “Khmer Rouge ideologue Nuon Chea dies at 93”. Tulsa World, August 5, 2019, p. A8.
