Introduction

“By any means necessary.” New acronym, BAMN. This statement of intent has been associated with fringe groups like Antifa and white supremacy groups. We are now seeing it with everything from Supreme Court nominations to climate change claims to everyday politics. Here’s how current process works:

I’m right, so you are clearly all wrong.

You have no clue how important my beliefs, ends, are to everyone--everyone.

The ends justify the means, so our means will be

By any means necessary. 

That is the subject of today’s 10-minute episode.

Continuing

Let’s start with the observation that the ends do not--do not--justify the means. Each end is a mean--a tool to get to another end, and so on forever. The means are ends in and of themselves. Ends and means are one in the same; it follows that the ends simply cannot justify the means. 

Let’s hear from one of my favorites, John Wooden. “You never heard me mention winning. My idea is that you can lose when you outscore somebody in a game, and you can win when you’re outscored.” Wooden was a star basketball player in college and in the  pros, and clearly the best college basketball coach of all time. He strongly believed that if you played your absolute best, there was no shame in losing. And if you did not play your best, there was no glory in winning. What matters is how you played the game. The end was not winning, the end was how you played the game. I doubt that 

Coach Wooden could have gotten the words, “By any means necessary.” out of his mouth.

Let’s back up and take on the first of two points we brought up earlier. “I’m right, so you are clearly all wrong.” Said more completely, “I’m right because I am me, and you are wrong because you are not me.” People, including politicians, perhaps especially politicians, who continue to insist that they are right, are not resting their arguments--if indeed they even have any--on facts and logic. They are making the case that they are right because, well, they get it. And those who dare to disagree, or even fail to agree completely, simply don’t get it. That’s it; their positions, their policies, are as crude as that. For more on this subject, please go to, “You Can Be Right, Or You Can Change the World. (EP. 92)” 

Here’s more about point two from earlier in this podcast, “You have no clue how important my beliefs, my desired ends, are for everyone--everyone.” This is an extension of, “You just don’t get it.” And a dramatic extension, at that. This takes “I am right and you are wrong.” to “I care about the world, and you don’t.” People who question the claims of a climate crisis are climate change deniers. Deniers. Calling someone a denier of anything makes the underlying assumption that what is being denied is real and true. Calling someone a denier is a cheap sway of making your point without actually making a sustainable (pun intended) argument. People who believe that the earth is flat--and I have actually met some of them--are denying that the earth is round. These folks are actual deniers.

In exactly the same way, there are pro-life people who call the pro-choicers “baby killers.” Hurling that accusation does not further the discussion, and certainly does not win anyone over. Can you imagine anyone changing their position after being called a “denier” or a “baby killer?” What I can imagine people is becoming more dug in than ever. 

We have been looking at examples of verbal BAMN--By Any Means Necessary. Toss aside any need for facts and logic--accuse and condemn until we get our way. Because, you know, our way is the right way. Following the ends justify the means trail, it is a small step from accusing and condemning to manipulating the facts and even outright lying. After all, the ends…

And how hard could it be,