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There are some things that jut out of the maelstrom of human history, and provide what I think of as 'anti-Cheney' moments.
A 'Cheney' is a human without any empathy - a sociopath.
I consider the pinnacle of human ambition, to rid the world of Cheney and his ilk ("homo cheneyensis"); this would require the death of some small proportion (5-6%) of the population. The fortunate thing is that they are extraordinarily easy to identify... every member of every political party; anybody who gains their daily bread in the "killing brown babies" industry; more than 60% of those in any state goon force (the closer to a black uniform, the more vile the individual).
Unfortunately, human society has no future while homo cheneyensis exists as a species (or, more accurately, as a parasitic subspecies).
I would love to live in complete accordance with the Enchidirion, or with the system of ethics that Aristotle set down for his son, Nichomachus. Master Kung, Siddharta Gautama, the phrases attributed to Jeebus, Ghandi... as a person who cannot so much as scold a dog without then giving it a big kiss, I am 'wired' to be receptive to these 'teachings' (which are, at bottom, the essence of efficiency and the Golden Rule).
But the existence of this parasitic subspecies - the Rudds, Howards, Blairs, Browns, Stott-Despojas, Bushes, Obamas... and yea verily the Cheneys - there's the rub. Their existence, and its absolute antipathy to human progress, requires that I advocate their genocide. It has got past the point where they are simply 'sand in the gears' - they are now in the process of eating our seed corn
People like David Attenborough, Richard Feynman and Brigitte Bardot are breathtakingly rare, but I honestly believe that humans are more like those three pinnacles of human brilliance, than they are like the vicious scum of the earth like Cheney, Dershowitz and Yoo. Left in a state of anarchy, with modern technology, I believe that human will behave like Attenborough or Bardot, not Cheney or Perle.
I have thought long, and I have thought hard. When I give my attention to a thing, I firmly believe that I have the wet-ware to form an unbiased estimator of the 'right thing to do'. That is to say, I reckon that if torture was right, I would arrive at that conclusion by brute mental force. If slavery was just, the logic of it would not escape me.
And one thing is clear to me - we are, at present, involved in a death match with the aforementioned homo cheneyensis: we will either rid the planet of their entire genotype (or cull them down to manageable numbers and prevent them from ever again holding power), or their grip on our pelf and geld will tighten until we are working three days in five for their benefit, rather than 1 day in two (as is currently the case).
A little over 230 years ago, a group of men decided that the Cheneys of the day would not hold the reins of government anymore. When their venture finally won the day, one of them said "It would be thought a hard government that should tax its people one tenth part."
