A Bold, Fresh Piece of Humanity - Bill O'Reilly

As a bit of background, growing up I was not very political and took no part in any kind of student government. For whatever reason it just never really stuck. But in my senior year of college, enter The West Wing.

After burning through all seven seasons, I began consciously paying attention to what was going on in our government - mainly federal. The complexities of government, its responsibility to the people, and all of the opportunities for much needed improvement sparked my interest and pushed me to expose myself to more and more political or governmental content. Enter Bill O'Reilly.

Initially, I did not seek out Bill O'Reilly's opinions. I knew of his work, knew of his reputation as a hard-line conservative, and knew of the passionate disdain many liberals held for him. If he had not posted an hour of his radio broadcast on iTunes, I probably would have never started listening to his commentary on a recurring basis. Since I already had some decent exposure to liberal opinions, I wanted to start balancing my intake.

While Bill is definitely a traditionalist and conservative, he has not left me with the impression that he is a right-wing loon. Generally, he tries to keep his analysis objective and unbiased - often acting as a contrarian for argument's sake (this isn't always the case, but more often than not). All of this said, Bill and I definitely have our differences. But to keep this post brief, I'll exclude them here.

On the book itself, I thought he did a really good job. All throughout he mixes arguments or lessons into the fabric of his childhood and early professional years keeping the storyline both interesting and useful. And as a person that finds a 'bold, fresh approach' entertaining, I laughed out loud a few times.

In one section, Bill outlined five scenarios or questions to explore the complexity of 'evil' and outline some of the key differences between himself and many folks in the left wing. Quite interesting:

Explicit rap songs: "According to many teachers and child psychologists, explicit raps songs can, and do, negatively influence some children. Are these musical works and those who profit from them evil?"

While I definitely agree that music glorifying these acts is detrimental, laws inhibiting freedom of speech would be far more detrimental in the long run. This should be left to families. Institutionalizing (with law) the failure of families does not solve the root problem.

Horror movies (like Saw) that emphasize sadistically violent scenes: "...some sociologists believe a diet of this stuff desensitizes people, making them less likely to sympathize with the real-life suffering of others. So are the people profting from torture movies evil?"

Similar to my response to explicit rap songs, I think these types of movies should be eliminated through education. (e.g. making our population smart enough to see the stupidity or uselessness in these types of movies - or at least to practice moderation). Regulation or dogmatic encouragement to prohibit them from the family are caveman approaches - they don't solve the problem.

Child abusers: "Not surprisingly, studies show conclusively that much of the abuse and neglect is the result of persistent intoxication on the part of parents or guardians. Are child abusers evil even if they have a substance problem?"

Without question, these folks are not fit to parent a child and should spend time in jail or a correctional facility. Parenthood is the most important function for an individual. Why isn't there an institutionalized 'parent school' or 'parent apptitude test'? It should be free and universally accessible teaching folks everything they might need to know.

Terrorists: "Terrorists around the world are responsible for killing and injuring hundreds of thousands of human beings. Are all terrorists evil?"

Terrorists, murderers, rapists, and child abusers all commit equally pure acts of evil. While I don't think the people in which that evil is embodied are themselves inherently evil, they have been overtaken by it. They deserve to be punished to the fullest extent of the law - including the death penalty.

The Catholic Church: "Hundreds of Catholic priests have been found to be child molesters. In some cases, high-ranking Church authorities protected pedophile priests by preventing the authorities from discovering evidence. Is the Catholic Church evil?"

The folks involved in the cover ups and the acts themselves should definitely face consequences. But generalizing to the entire Catholic Church is unreasonable for this single case. That said, there is much more I could say here - but that would deter from my focus on Bill O'Reilly and this book.

One problem or characteristic I have with Bill O'Reilly is how quick he is to jump to a generalized conclusion or use generalizations in his arguments. As an example, Bill is a self-proclaimed warrior against all things evil. What is 'evil'? According to Bill, "if you knowingly hurt another human being without significant cause, like self-defense, you are committing an evil act. And if you do this as a matter of course, you are evil." Okay. But that seems like a pretty broad category and open to a lot of interpretation - hence many of the disagreements I have with Bill on a smattering of different issues. Fundamentally, I believe that people are inherently good. Evil is a characteristic, emotion, or mentality that is picked up from outside catalysts. Sure, some people are more prone to picking up evil tendencies just as some are more prone to catch the common cold. And just like some diseases, there are many cases when you've simply become too sick to recover. So in my mind, the cure for 'evil' is not regulation, blind and dogmatic rejection through family values, or another evil act. Rather, it's through education. Teaching people what is right and wrong from the get go; using our efforts to promote and encourage good acts (rather than focus on punishing the bad); And develop an atmosphere that incentivizes individuals to train, educate, and develop themselves and the people around them rather than leaving these opportunities to chance or underdeveloped systems.

"You either fight active evil or you accept it. Doing nothing is acceptance. there is no in-between." Okay Bill. I agree with that. But why should we focus so much of our energy to reactively fight evil, rather than proactively eliminating the root cause of evil - misunderstanding and ignorance.

Highly recommended.