re: #24 Killgore Trout

I don’t think at all that he’s saying all deaths are equal. I think he’s saying all deaths are final, and all deaths are the end of a human being. In that way, we are all equal. None of us is more or less of a human being than others.

When an illiterate farmer in Afghanistan who grew up being preached Whabbism, with never an exterior idea presented to him outside that, signs up with the Taliban and gets killed by our cruise missile, that’s not a reason to cheer. There are certainly some stories where I think the people led themselves into their own evil, but I do think that a lot of people get cowed, led, scared, manipulated into the evil of others. It’s still their fault and responsibility, but we aren’t all equal. Not everyone has the same amount of willpower, the same intelligence and perspicacity about being lied to and manipulated.

A lot of those Japanese kids that died trying to kill my grandfather did so with their hearts full of love for their country, a bursting desire not to let their parents down, a culture that demanded that any doubt be cast aside as a shameful thing, etc. He didn’t hate them nor was he gladded by their deaths. He was very, very glad when Tojo was hanged, though.