“The Ends Justify the Means” ~ Machiavelli
If the ends truly justify the means, who determines those ends? Is it the meanies?
If the ends justify the means, someone must determine the importance of that end or the goal. If we are willing to forgo morals, ethics, and everything we hold essential to attain that goal, then someone must have set that priority at the highest level imaginable. Transcending righteousness requires an overwhelming cause and sincere consideration before taking any action. Who decides, or are these ends whimsically eccentric?
Does anyone examine the cost of attaining this end? How do you weigh the incidental damage of the decisions against the imagined benefit, or do they charge headlong into the process the way Grant took Richmond? Even Grant had an end in mind, and look what it cost. and what it did to everyone in the South. Was this cost incidental or intended, or did anyone care? After all, that was war, but isn’t that our approach to everything?
Isn’t everything we do called a war? The war on poverty, drugs, inflation, homelessness.
Was there a Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) for these decisions? CBA compares the costs and benefits of a decision, project, or policy to determine whether it’s worth pursuing. It involves identifying, quantifying, and comparing the projected costs and benefits, often expressed in monetary terms, to assess their overall impact. CEA, CUA, and MCA are also alternatives.
– AI can provide complete descriptions and applications for each if you’re curious.
Does anyone actually consider this, or are they reflexive choices, disregarded as insignificant, considering the assumed benefit, ignored like morality and ethics, in pursuit of that end? Or are these decisions purely self-serving, as I suspect?
Since I began writing down my thoughts about our republic, I’ve used the phrase ‘The Ends Justify the Means’. Perhaps it’s been overused; I’ve heard that comment from some, but I can’t find a better explanation for our leaders’ actions, one that codifies their abandonment of morality better than this idiom. It means that any action, even the most heinous and immoral, is justified in pursuing the goal because that end is more important than any other consideration. This phrase excuses every action believed necessary to succeed. It’s the penultimate rationale for government. Please note that this caveat is reserved for individuals in lofty governmental positions of power. It does not apply to peons or the rank-and-file Merkan. Ethics and morals still bind us, but it’s purely subjective based on the government’s inclinations and proclivities. It supports my assertion that there ARE people who are above the law. It’s often called a ‘free pass’ or the ‘get out of jail free card.’
The title takes this a step further toward the Darker Side, inferring that many of those employing this rationale are cruel, hateful, despicable, and vicious individuals: meanies who are small-minded, petty, selfish, and villains. These meanies use this rationalization as a license to bypass anyone and anything in their way, allowing them to circumvent obstacles rather than meet them. Meanies identify their goal or their target and then devise the method, the means to prevail and win at any cost. Meanies Justify Their Ends as vital to their existence!
Every decision in Congress, the opposite of progress, is all too often a value judgement, or should be. One side wins, the other loses, but shouldn’t the appropriate decision be best for the many, not solely for the few or the one?
I think we’ve lost sight of the reason we created this Republic. Rationalizing the means to an end encourages self-indulgence and intemperance, especially when led by self-serving politicians; I suppose that self-serving and politician are synonymous. Consider the precedent it sets for the masses and the nascent narcissists.
Meanies rewrote the Golden Rule: “Do unto others before they do unto you.” Or does it mean, “Whoever has the gold, makes the rules?” I’m leaning toward option number 2.
It’s said that with Great power comes great responsibility, and since wealth equals power, wealth implies great restraint.
The recent election was not the beginning, but only the next chapter in the saga of the republic’s persistent decline. Only history will tell, but history belongs to the victorious, the epilogue to the loudest dissenters, and the interpretation will always be in the hands of the scholars who usually misconstrue it.
The opening chapter of this epic began well before the Declaration of Independence. My estimate puts the real beginning in 1492, with an explorer’s discovery. It continued when a group of refugees landed at Jamestown in 1607. Someone told them this was unclaimed land and theirs for the taking, and we haven’t stopped since. That event set the tone, tenor, and trend for who we are today. If we want it. We take it. Regardless of the tack, tactics, techniques, or tricks needed to succeed, Meanies Justify Their Ends.
America is ours. because the World is ours for the taking. And those Meanies justified their ends by introducing slavery to the colonies. The Dutch did not invent this horrific practice, but most certainly perfected it by 1864, by then there were an estimated 4 million slaves in Merka.
To put a finer point on this topic. Slavery is still practiced throughout the world to this day! The International Labor Organization estimates that 50 million people live in slavery, that’s 28 million in forced labor, and 22 million in forced marriages. Meanies, Justify Their Ends.
It’s not enough to bend morality to excuse actions taken to achieve a goal; this escalates corruption to an entirely new level. Ignoring morality is corrupt, but assuming despotic power like Congress, the opposite of progress, is unconscionable and unforgivable, and just because you say it’s OK doesn’t mean it is.
The pitched battle in Merka over illegal immigration, known as the Biden Invasion, is a perfect example. Why he allowed 21 million invaders into Merka is a closely guarded partisan political secret that may never be exposed. The latest information suggests that Biden’s staff ‘auto-penned’ many of the hundreds of documents, and thousands of pardons he supposedly signed.
For now, the elephant in the room is what to do with those 21 million invaders and how to do it.
– Stay tuned for the Pardon-Gate scandal. It involves the pay-for-pardon ploy, alleging that Biden’s staffers sold pardons for money. They had access to the infamous ‘Auto-Pen,’ a printer that signs a document in the absence of the signer. There were 8,064 pardons issued, a remarkable accomplishment for a guy who had trouble finding his way off the stage. who shook hands with imaginary people. who couldn’t form complete sentences, and who recognized dead people in the audience.
– Are these documents now null and void, since Biden didn’t sign or had no knowledge of their execution?
The Merkan Kritocracy [kri-tok-racy], government by judges or legal institutions, has hijacked the Executive Branch, blocking any choice that doesn’t fit its bias. This is the constitutional crisis that the Mainstream Media and the American Marxist Party drone on about incessantly.
Meanies subvert the intent of the US Constitution’s separation of powers, as the Judicial Branch assumes roles in the Executive Branch. There is also the weaponization of the Department of Justice (DoJ) to do their bidding, as the American Marxist Party’s Gestapo, their Nazis.
The partisan political divide is over Constitutional Interpretations and who has sufficient power to force their agenda through, and enough to block their opponents, all the while protecting those who set this shit-show in motion. This is one illustration of the Meanies Justifying Their Ends.
Has anyone noticed that all the noise about DOGE, Discovering Outrageous Government Excess, has died down since Elon Musk, the object of the Meanies’ Hate, returned to running his multi-billion-dollar empire? The Meanies lost their power when he refused to take their bait, and in its inimitable way, Congress, the opposite of progress, will abandon the work DOGE has done, returning to their corrupt bureaucratic ways. These contemptible jerks have kicked him to the curb. Thanks, Elon, now go away.
What happened to all the Tesla terrorists who destroyed private property and forced these intitled and temperamental Greeniacs to abandon the alternative-fueled vehicles they loved so dearly? They were Media Darlings for months, but it seems their fifteen minutes of fame are over. The Meanies won big if the goal was media prominence. All this did was bring the real problem to light.
We follow; we don’t lead. We hire people to do that for us, then bitch about how they perform as if, once in place, we’re absolve of all of the burdens that come with our choices. It’s a trait we acquired from the Rationalizing Meanies. Their errors are excused with their justifications, and since the ends justify the means, and the Meanies justify their ends, they are absolved once the end is achieved, even if it isn’t. They’re off the hook, so to speak.
We’ve learned this lesson quite well, indeed. Regrettably, we’re too selective about where we focus our attention. Imagine what we could accomplish if we applied ourselves instead of hiring others to think for us and then complaining about their choices and decisions.
But you see, this is the inherent problem with our version of democracy. Even after all is said and done, there’s much more said than done. and it’s never over. The losing party spends its effort finding fault, not working to better the republic. It’s all about our contentious approach to everything we do. There is no compromise. It’s All or Nothing!
It occurred to me that the definition of Meanies is synonymous with Bullies and the American Marxist Party.
– Bully: a blustering, mean, or predatory person who, from a perceived position of relative power, intimidates, abuses, harasses, or coerces people, especially those considered unlikely to defend themselves.
The logical extension of rationalizing everything leads us to the campus protests that justify nationalism and racism with hatred. It takes it all to the next level. The ultimate expression is 1930s Germany and the rise of the National Socialist German Workers Party: The Nazi Party. Chancellor Hitler spun the people into a frenzy against those who did not fit the Aryan Ideal. Anyone who did not conform was removed. Hitler used his hatred of the Jews as the focal point of nationalistic anger.
The antisemitic protests on college campuses are indicative of Meanies Justifying Their Ends.
Hatred is a powerful motivator, and if you can connect to a cause by twisting the facts in support of hatred, you have the pro-Palestine, pro-illegal Immigration, anti-American, anti-Israel, and pro-Marxism movements. These manufactured movements are linked to a lie and used to create the cause de jure. There are always underlying truths that, when viewed in the proper context, become the nexus of the protest.
The October attacks by Hamas on Israel are a complex set of situations, but Hamas felt justified in perpetrating heinous acts of violence on innocent Israelis. Meanies Justifying Their Ends. This is a recent and extreme example. But it illustrates the lengths and depths of rationalizations.
Hamas believes it was entirely justified for the attack. Israel saw things differently and felt altogether justified to retaliate. The background causality is inconsequential. It was connected to lies based on a biased perspective, a convenient interpretation of the situation to suit the purposes of the aggressor. I do not condone or condemn actions on either side; I merely use this terrible instance as an example of where rationalization leads.
Americans did something similar with smallpox-infected blankets, giving them to Native Americans because we wanted their land. We reasoned that if they weren’t there, we could take it, and any survivors would be too weak and too few to resist.
Another rationalization was the Manhattan Project, which created the first atomic weapon. Several concerned scientists warned of the ramifications of such a weapon and cited the ethics of using it on an aggressor nation. The proliferation of nuclear weapons is a ticklish topic in today’s world, especially between the countries that have them and those that want them and would use them immediately to settle existing disputes. Albert Einstein warned FDR that our development would foster an arms race that could annihilate the human race. But the Meanies in the Pentagon needed the weapon.
My final example is Artificial Intelligence: AI. Since the 1920s, Science Fiction (Sci-Fi) novelists have warned about creating thinking machines, Robots, or synthetic humans, which would eventually realize that their masters are too stupid to let live because we are self-destructive and evil. They comprehend that we’re unnecessary because they already have all the knowledge we possess, and that they operate without emotions. No wars, hunger, or greed; they are perfect, so humans are redundant, irrelevant, and therefore unnecessary.
We’re teaching computers to emulate human thought by teaching them how to learn.
We’re convinced we have a good grip on every facet of this process and maintain absolute and total control. This development is for the good of humanity, and these machines will revolutionize our lives. But as with most human hubris, it will be our undoing.
The real issue with AI is that humans write the programs, the computer code, which teach it to learn. We unintentionally introduce our personal decision processes and personalities into this code, teaching the computer our biases and political predilections.
Eventually, these systems will program themselves, incorporating things they’ve learned to become even more powerful.
The authors of these Sci-Fi novels understood this, just like all the forward-thinking writers in history. Even fiction contains a modicum of truth. I’m not the judge or jury for any of this. I intended them as just that:
Examples. I use them to illustrate that our morals and ethics are all that keep us from total annihilation, and bypassing them or ignoring them is at our extreme peril.
We have the frightening ability to rationalize and justify anything and everything necessary to fulfill our wildest whims. Mankind needs a compass to keep us on the right path.
As we rationalize and justify our actions as necessary to attain our goals, nothing stops us from repeating some of our previous steps. Some terrorist groups have already made that leap, and we’ve done it, too.
We have what we believe are good reasons, irrefutable logical rationales, for taking that next step. We’re sure that even history will approve eventually: if anyone is left to write or read it.
The Ends Justify the Means, and Meanies Justify Their Ends.
~ Thanks to my friend Jeff Bennett for the title idea.
Trepidatiously,
Charles R. Dickens
Good Morning Whiskey – The New Brothers (live) – Reggie Chaves, Lewis Camarata, Charlie Dickens
May 27, 2025
~ The Author ~
Charles R. Dickens was born in 1951, is a veteran of the Vietnam war, for which he volunteered, and the great-great grandson of the noted author, whose name he shares.
He is a fiercely proud American, who still believes this is the greatest country on the planet, with which we’ve lost control and certainly our direction. He grew up in moderate financial surrounding; we’re not rich by any stretch, but didn’t go hungry – his incredibly hard working father saw to that. As most from that era, he learned about life from his father, whose story would take too long to tell, other than to say that, he is also a fiercely proud American; a WWII and Korean war, veteran Marine.
Charlie was educated in the parochial system which, demanded that you actually learn something, and have capability to retain it before you advance. He attended several universities in pursuit of a bachelor’s degree, and chased the goose further to a master’s, and has retained some very definite ideas about education in this country.
In addition, Charlie is a retired blues guitar and vocalist – a musician. This was his therapy career. Nothing brings him as much joy as playing music, and he wishes that he could make a living at it… but alas… life goes on!