Self-Righteousness of the Capitol Riot

Rightness or self-righteousness?  Most, if not all of us, act on what we believe is right and in cases where we believe we are wrong, we tend to hide or act in secrecy.  I remember a conversation with one of my conservative Christian family member who told me that they tried to convince others because they believed they were right.  Otherwise, why would they expend their energy to try to evangelize people from their perspective, unquestionable damnation.  When I told them that I too believed I was right, they were taken aback as if I willingly acted in my wrongness.  It did not occur to them that I too acted out of my conviction because they believed so much in their rightness.  They could only imagine that people who disagreed with them were misled or acted in their wrongness.

So if you ask anyone at the Capitol Hill on Wednesday, January 6, 2021, they will tell you that they were acting out of the sense of their rightness, fighting for truth, a revolution to overturn the results of a fraudulent election.  I mean ask any terrorist if they believe they are acting in the name of wrongness and they would stare at you as if you were crazy.  Why would anyone die for what they believe is wrong?

This demonstrates the problem of intent - many of us intend good or what is right.  We protest on the streets to bring attention to Black Lives Matter, #whitepower, #MeToo, #DefundthePolice, or #MAGA, preach on the pulpit descrying the evils of abortion, or stand on a platform to talk about the injustice of ICE because we want to influence others of what we believe is right.  We believe so adamantly in the truth of our convictions, we are even willing to kill our ‘enemies’ or at least, want them to be struck by misfortunes or at most, end up in hell.  If they suffer, die, or end up in hell, it will more than likely demonstrate the rightness of our convictions.  After all, God is with us (emmanuel) and never them. God forbid.

If we all act in our sense of rightness, then who is right and who is wrong?  After all, we are all right in our own eyes and I’ve realized that discussions, conversations, dialogues rarely change the way we believe.  In my own experience, change takes time and it is primarily through life experiences, education, encounter with our neighbors that we really change and sometimes, not even in the direction we want ourselves or others to change.  So as to the question of who/what is right - how do we determine the rightness of a deed?  Well, this comes to method and ultimate values.  What are we willing to do for what we believe?  And what values are more important - in terms of priorities?

What do I mean? Are we willing to upend democracy to promote the democracy of the few when we believe in democratic values?  Are we willing to kill lives so that people honor our understanding of life when we believe in the value of all people?  Are we wanting to take choices away from certain populations so that we can promote family values when we value choice?  

And this here is where I believe is the difference between right and wrong.  At the end of the day, most of us in the US, will agree to certain values.  And no matter how great and noble and wonderful and right we believe in our convictions, we cannot resort to methods that upend the values we share.  We cannot kill to preserve lives or way of life; we cannot silence/torture/oppress to ensure our rights and privileges; and we cannot upend democracy to promote democracy.

I guess this is what bothered me most about the riot, among many other reasons, the blind adherence to the idea that the ends justified the means.  We can argue over the reason for the riot - probably to no avail - but the violent means by which the people resorted to promote their convictions is wrong.  Is Trump really more important than the democracy that initially put him in the position of power? I am all too familiar with the argument, conspiracy or not, that the election was fraudulent and Biden is therefore illegitimate. I have family members and friends of my family who believe this.  They are wanting God to perform a miracle, including an insurrection, to ensure that their, or according to them God’s will be done.  I can somewhat relate.  As a Democrat, I wanted Al Gore and Hillary Clinton to win really, really badly.  But at some point, I wanted them to put aside their conviction of rightness (popular vote/election fraud/voter suppression) and concede because the process was more important than having a person I wanted in office. Were there moments I wished otherwise? Absolutely. But I asked myself, at what cost and therefore to what end?

Being selfish about our rights, our privileges, ourselves at ANY cost seems to be the norm.  While I personally do not believe it is selfish when we want more for ourselves and others when we have been historically and systematically oppressed, I know others would disagree. So we need to talk about the wrongness not by addressing the intent but the method one tries to bring about a goal.  If a method, i.e. insurrection which brings about chaos and deaths, is wrong, then it really doesn’t matter about the rightness or the wrongness of the intent.  The results are devastating and the change we want to impact ultimately undermines the very objectives we would like to impart.

Why is this so important?  We are all so human and therefore limited in perspective.  This should more than not embolden our humility, the humility to recognize the limits of our rightness, our versions of truth, our realities.  Humility is what enables us to reflect on our actions, our values, our methods. Without it, we would be self-righteous, that somehow “I” am superior to everyone and everything and therefore above anything.  This is the underlying reason why we would circumvent our values and use any means necessary to enforce our rightness.  We begin to believe that we know better than anyone as to how the world should be and therefore we will do anything in our power to make it so.  And what kind of a world will we be in if we all were self-righteous rather than just act in our rightness?  The world in which violent riots and acts of terrorism are justified for a goal.

We should absolutely act in our convictions because what would our world become if we do not engage it with our beliefs.  But we need to be humble, to act with an awareness that we may be wrong.  This is the very reason why we need to be thoughtful about the means we use to bring about our objectives.  Otherwise, I am no longer acting with a sense of rightness but self-righteousness or worse, that I am speaking on behalf of Truth or God.  And that is exactly what we witnessed on Capitol Hill, a horde of people willing to disrupt the democratic process because they believed they were acting in the name of Trump who they believed represented the will of God or Truth.

Sam Joo