by Ignacio Gutierrez

Created on: March 22, 2009

Societies function much more effectively, efficiently, and responsibly when politicians and elected officials are expected to follow the "rule of law" more so than the rather subjective definition of a "higher moral standard".

Morality is a conveniently malleable term to begin with, one which could be stretched and sculpted according to most anyone's ulterior motives. This in turn renders moral standards almost completely irrelevant and they should be regarded with skepticism, especially when it comes to those in power. Because what is moral behavior to one person, is an indignation to another.

After all, how can so many people glamorize Che Guevara and his noble and "moral" legacy of fighting for social justice, but turn a blind eye to his ordering the execution by firing squad of hundreds of people, including innocent student protestors, without the due process of law in a single month at La Cabaa prison 50 years ago? And what else other than moral relativity could explain why so many of his T-shirt wearing acolytes claim to be "morally outraged" by former President George W. Bush's similar crime of the suspension of habeas corpus for Guantanamo Bay prisoners, of which none were executed?

Just like the reinterpretation and rehashing of religious beliefs, horrid atrocities have been committed by governments, especially military regimes, under the guise of "morality". It serves as a perfectly rational excuse for megalomaniacal leaders to achieve absolutist power for as long as they can usurp it. Over six million Jews were systematically tortured and executed under the orders of Adolf Hitler for his shamelessly morbid goal of achieving a perfected race, of which he himself did not quality for. Yet many tend to forget that Mao Zedong and Joseph Stalin are directly responsible for the deaths of just as many Chinese, and three times as many Russians, their very own people, under the moral ruse of communism and their battle against the purported immorality of individualism.

Which is why the rhetoric and pseudo-philosophizing of morality is still popular in communist nations such as Cuba whose totalitarian regime continues to push the false and deluded hope that communism will one day triumph again for those with the "moral courage" to endure needless sacrifice. This "morality above reality" mindset and rationale is explicitly illustrated in archived film footage where Fidel Castro was asked if he wore a bulletproof vest considering the various attempts on his life.

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