Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Latter-day Saint
On condemning Napoleon

On condemning Napoleon

Last updated on: May 8, 2020 at 3:57 pm by Dan Peterson

On condemning Napoleon 2020-05-08T15:57:54-06:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

“El tres de mayo de 1808 en Madrid,” by Francisco de Goya (1814), depicts some of the hundreds of Spanish resistance fighters who were executed by Napoleon’s troops in the early morning hours of 3 May 1808.
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

In my immediately preceding blog entry (“Napoleon, en route to Egypt”), I indicated my disapproval of Napoleon’s overweening ambition and his lust for land and “glory” through violent military conquest. In Europe’s Napoleonic Wars alone, which commenced in 1803, five years after his 1798 invasion of Egypt, and culminated in his defeat at Waterloo and his exile to the remote south Atlantic island of Saint Helena in 1815, it is estimated that between 3,250,000 and 6,500,000 people were killed — at a time when the entire population of western Europe (including distant Scandinavia) was probably about 110,000,000.

It isn’t, however, merely that I disapprove of Napoleon, or that I dislike him. I dislike coconut. My disapproval of Napoleon is a very different matter. I disapprove of him not merely personally, as I personally disapprove of Billy Ray Cyrus’s “Achy Breaky Heart” and Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” but morally. And that is a quite distinct thing. I don’t expect or require that others dislike coconut, as I do. (I realize that certain forms of madness or personality defect are socially acceptable and not morally culpable.) But I do expect that others would disapprove of the cavalier way in which Napoleon disposed of millions of lives in order to gratify his own ambition. And I would consider it a grave character flaw if anybody didn’t. (If you’re French or of French extraction and that clouds your vision of Napoleon, feel free to substitute Hitler or Stalin for His Imperial and Royal Majesty Napoleon I, By the Grace of God and of the Constitutions of the Empire, Emperor of the French, King of Italy, Mediator of the Swiss Confederation, Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, and Co-Prince of Andorra.)

Why the difference?

When a pride of lions attacks a herd of gazelles, we may well feel pity for the hapless gazelles. But we don’t morally condemn the lions as wrongdoers. They are simply doing what nature makes them do. Their feeding on gazelles has no more moral significance than the gazelles’ feeding on grass and bushes does.

Moreover, I doubt that any other lions, watching the attack, feel moral indignation at what they’re seeing. Nor do any of the participating lions feel moral qualms about what they’re doing.

Even the gazelles aren’t indignant about the lions’ aggression. I’m sure that they dislike it, probably even more fervently than I dislike coconut and “Achy Breaky Heart.” But they have no moral reservations about it. They don’t condemn the aggressiveness of lions on moral grounds, any more than we do.

In our fallen world, this is simply the way things are. Carnivores eat herbivores, the fast pursue the slow, the strong overcome the weak. Animals take what they can get.

Bacteria will eat just about anything, and have been doing so for billions of years. Oxygen rusts iron. The coronavirus spreads by means of, and at the expense of, its hosts.

Such things are often unpleasant or undesirable, and on many occasions, we try to stop them. But we don’t erupt in moral indignation.

Why, though, do we judge many human acts to be not merely unpleasant but wrong? We feel moral revulsion at any man or woman who simply takes whatever he or she can get. If a lion violently rips the throat of a baby elephant and kills it, we’re saddened, but we’re not indignant. If a human were to do exactly the same thing, very few of us wouldn’t be morally indignant. And we would consider those who weren’t to be defective, even mentally ill.

But why?

Where do these “moral standards” come from? And why should we pay any attention to them? Or should we? For that matter, what does should even mean in such matters?

Reflection on these and related questions is, in my view, quite important and potentially very instructive.

Previous Post

May 6, 2020

Napoleon, en route to Egypt

Next Post

May 7, 2020 "Ancient astronomers of the Colorado Plateau," living in "A Fortunate Universe"

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How many times did Elijah stretch over dead child?

Select your answer to see how you score.

3 4 5 2