Good faith vs. bad faith
He had no faith in the advice of intelligence agents, diplomats, generals, the hero of the first Gulf War, UN inspectors, military experts, Middle East experts, or some of his Cabinet members.
He had faith in a far smaller group of ideologues and cronies who have profited monetarily from his decisions.
He had no faith in those who warned him about Al Qaeda and about pending attacks in hijacked airplanes. He had faith in those who told him he could win in Iraq and leave behind a democracy in a matter of months.
He had no faith in a simple prescription drug plan. He had faith in a plan that takes a degree in foreign languages to understand, and faith in a plan that provides windfall profits for pharmaceutical and insurance companies.
He had no faith in port security. He wasn’t even aware of who was providing that, because it didn’t even interest him.
He had faith in joking around and strumming a guitar with a country singer, and had faith in ‘Brownie’. And more people died in New Orleans than died in the 9-11 attacks because he had no faith in weathermen.
He had no faith in the Jesus principles: compassion for the poor, the ill, the incarcerated. Turning the other cheek. He had faith in criticizing the weak and boosting the fortunes of the fortunate. He had faith in promoting fear and dividing America based on homophobia, xenophobia and racism.
What is ‘good’ faith? If it doesn’t adhere to the New Testament he claims as his faith. If his faith in people leads him to multiple failures and systemic corruptions. Can that really be ‘good’?
Glenn Greenwald doesn’t think so. I don’t think so. Acting within the law requires good citizenship and sound reason. The only time faith can make an exception to that is if the faith turns out to be effective in upholding the good.
Faith in one’s instincts is not like faith in God. If your faith in yourself is betrayed by poor results, that’s not good faith at all. It’s self-delusion. And the self-deluded choice to break a law is only illegal. Ignorance, dressed in threadbare arguments about good faith, remains no excuse at all.
April 1st, 2006 at 7:47 pm
One thing, the article you link to was written by the Liberal Avenger and posted at Glenn Greenwald’s blog.