BillsArticles

BillsArticles may be further subdivided into five types of writing: legal articles, professional biblical studies articles, editorials published in the Oregonian during 1985 (below), miscellaneous articles and what I call BillsNotebooks. The last is a collection of 15 notebooks I have kept over the years, beginning in 1980, recording my thoughts on a variety of subjects. This page will be devoted to my Oregonian editorials. Click on the links above for information and excerpts from these other works.

I tell the story both in 39 and Lost in America and 52 and Strangely Found of how I got a job writing editorials at the Oregonian. I began work about July 1, 1985 and continued until late October of that year. During that time I had 64 editorials published. I have the entire collection in a notebook at home. Below are three of those editorials illustrating, respectively, the "moral" or "ethical" flavor I was hired to bring to editorial writing, the "humanities" dimension I was also asked to give and a "humorous" dimension, which no one asked me to provide. As I re-read the other editorials in preparing this page, I also noted that I was "ahead of the curve" on a few issues--writing on such subjects as animal rights and the nature of Islam when those subjects were not yet on the radar screen of many Americans.

Editorial: "Depth of Human Evil," lead editorial July 27, 1985

"Josef Mengele, the 'angel of death,' the doctor responsible for the deaths of more than 400,000 persons at Auschwitz concentration camp, is dead. As a case study in the nature and expression of human evil, Mengele, even in death, teaches us at least three things: (1) Human evil is fostered by an unyielding commitment to an exclusivistic ideology. (2) It is manifest in a malignant self-love, or narcissism. (3) It is triggered by the delgation or assumption of absolute or near-absolute power.

"An exclusivistic ideology is a view of the world that excludes most from sharing its vision. Such an ideology encourages favorable treatment of those who share desirable characteristics, but it sees others as outsiders who are candidates for conversion, exile or extermination. The establishment of a pure race was the goal of the Nazi ideology. Exile and extermination were the only options for those who did not share the characteristics desired by the Nazis.

"In People of the Lie, a best-selling study of human evil, psychiatrist M. Scott Peck has defined malignant narcissism as overweening pride or an arrogant self-image of perfection. Such narcissism allows no room for the possibility of error. An admission of personal error would be tantamount to a recognition that the ideology is flawed. Ideology and believer become almost inseparable. The danger of this attitude, demonstrated amply in Mengele, is that critical self-reflection is considered weakness and an assault on the ideology.

"When these assumptions are combined with the assumption or delegation of total authority, the stage is set for conflagration. What previously had been embraced only as an idea now can be pursued without inhibition. The enemy in thought becomes the enemy in deed. A vast laboratory is now at one's disposal for the confirmation of one's ideology. Opposition becomes an obstacle that needs to be overcome rather than legitimate controversy to be debated. The true believer must press on.

"In the case of Mengele, the results are patent. His 'artistic cruelty,' to use Dostoevski's phrase, resulted from the unparalleled opportunity to put his research interests in the service of his iedology. By doing this, Mengele has merited an eternal entry in the lexicon of opprobrium."

Editorial: "Whoa to Speed Learning," July 16, 1985

"Taking his cue from Emerson's statement that 'thoughts rule the world,' Gilbert Seldes has produced a best-selling paperback entitled The Great Thoughts, which claims to present, in one volume, the ideas that have shaped the history of the world. In publishing this book Sledes has shown his profound ignorance of what an idea is. By buying the book millions of Americans have succumbed to the erroneous notion that absorbing vast amounts of unrelated knowledge means that learning has occurred.

"Seldes arranges his book by quoting 'great thoughts' of people from Abelard to Zola. The only information given about the author is his or her birth and death dates and the work from which the quotation was taken. The only criterion for inclusion of quotations was that they have been meaningful to Seldes.

"Since figures like Jesus and Mohammad have no separate entry and Isaac Newton, arguably the most significant scientist in the West, has about as many quotations as Richard Nixon and fewer than the 16th century alchemist Paracelsus, one could argue that Seldes has made the whole idea of 'great thoughts' meaningless. A curious irony. More significant is his failure to recognize that thoughts without context, historical and literary, are at best weak thoughts and at worst complete distortions.

"Buyers of the book, knowingly or unwittingly, show that they think there is a shortcut to knowledge and understanding of ideas. Just as fast food, fast marriages and fast divorces have become common in America, so now there is the attraction for fast knowledge. There are certain things, though, that only time can produce. Time may bring gray hair and wrinkled skin, but it is also required for idea comprehension and historical awareness. The game of thought has no instant winners."

Editorial: "Which is a Witch?" August 4, 1985

"In attempting to help revise the complex federal income tax code and raise additional revenue, Rep. Robert Walker, R-Pa., has put forth, at least in his own mind, a bewitching suggestion: to take away tax exemptions from religions based on witchcraft and from contributions to those religions.

"The major problem in formulating the idea was the definition of witchcraft. As one Walker aide remarked, 'What is one man's nonsense is another man's religion.'

"Nonsense, claimed Walker. Witchcraft, according to the language of a bill that he intends to introduce, is 'the use of powers derived from evil spirits, the use of sorcery or the use of supernatural power with malicious intent.'

"Though the definition would have been understood by Cotton Mather and his coven of Salem pastors in 1692, it conjures up enforcement difficulties in our context. How does one determine who is a witch? Should one start a witch hunt or wait for them to come out of the closet?

"Because of support from many House colleagues, Walker is hellbent on resolving this issue before much longer. However, judging from congressional reticence to enter into religious controversy, Walker will have to demonstrate spellbinding oratory and considerable charm for his proposal to succeed."

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