Blind Faith in Government
by Virginia Curran Hoffman, PhD, a senior lecturer at Loyola University Chicago

There’s a tendency to believe that those we identify as our own would never do something heinous or despicable. They are, after all, who we are, their essence is the core of our being, and since we could never imagine ourselves doing such things, no one in our core group could possibly deviate so far from what we all hold dear. History, if it’s gleaned from multiple sources (not just the “winners”), if it includes the wanton carnage as well as liberation, torturers and rapists as well as heroes, is a sobering study. It takes away the easy certainty we had as children, that our people are always right, that all they do must be for the greater good, and that everyone they label “enemy” is less human and has no valid cause. It takes away the comfort of settling down in an easy explanation, since in the past those have covered some ugly deeds.

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