People Need to Be Able to Distinguish Between Right and Wrong

I found the following quote in the front pages of a book called Nonviolence. The book is by Mark Kurlansky:

"To kill one man is to be guilty of a capital crime, to kill ten men is to increase the guilt ten-fold, to kill a hundred men is to increase it a hundred-fold. This the rulers of the earth all recognize and yet when it comes to the greatest crime—waging war on another state—they praise it!"

"It is clear they do not know it is wrong, for they record such deeds to be handed down to posterity; if they knew they were wrong, why should they wish to record them and have them handed down to posterity?

"If a man on seeing a little black were to say it is black, but on seeing a lot of black were to say it is white, it would be clear that such a man could not distinguish black and white. Or if he were to taste a few bitter things and were to pronounce them sweet, clearly he would be incapable of distinguishing between sweetness and bitterness. So those who recognize a small crime as such, but do not recognize the wickedness of the greatest crime of all—the waging of war on another state—but actually praise it—cannot distinguish between right and wrong. So as to right or wrong, the rulers of the world are in confusion."
—Mozi, China, Circa 470-391 B.C.


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SO: Why do we have rulers in this world whom are either unable to distinguish between right and wrong, or uncaring about perpetrating wrongful (i.e. harmful) acts?

Olympia Harbor in 1856

view larger: Olympia Harbor

Washington did not become a state until 1889. Washington was the 42nd state to become part of the United States.

In 1856, over 30 years prior to Washington becoming a state, the landscape around Olympia was very different than it is today, in 2010.

I imagine that the environment was much healthier back then, with great flocks of wild birds, and a bounteous feast accessible for harvest from the waters of the Salish Sea.

Recommended Reading: Zarafa

Zarafa by Michael Alinn; I give it two thumbs up and a hearty recommendation as an enjoyable and provocative read. An interesting and compelling historical narrative, Allin weaves the tale of a Giraffe sent from Africa to France in the early nineteenth century. Crossing the paths of important historical events and figures of the day, the book follows the Giraffe, dubbed "Zarafa", on a many thousands miles journey from Sudan to Paris. There's more from Wikipedia:

Zarafa (?1824-12 January 1845) was a giraffe in a menagerie in the Jardin des Plantes in Paris for 18 years in the early 1800s. She was one of the first three giraffes to be seen in Europe for over three centuries, since the Medici giraffe was sent to Lorenzo de' Medici in Florence in 1486. In her lifetime, the giraffe seems not have been given a name, but was referred to as "the giraffe". Nowadays she is known by the name Zarafa (Arabic for "charming" or "lovely one"), a name given to her by the writer Michael Alinn in his book Zarafa.

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