Unconscientious Non-objectors

When measuring our morality, should we make excuses for those who are just following orders and offer them the sweet compassion of forgetting? Apologists say these foot soldiers are forced to obey a miserable situation that compels them to perform wickedness without the possibility to fight back, quit, sabotage, or target a counterattack against those commanding depravity.

Under this line of reasoning, telemarketers calling the same number a dozen times a day are faultless. They are innocent employees instructed to annoy for profit and reluctantly report to their job each day as a last resort. They know their actions disturb and torment with persistently stupid sales messages that prey upon the stupid and senile, yet they claim to be obliged to loyally carry out their attacks.

As cosmic agents of justice, each of us can turn the tables and shoot back at the gremlins assaulting us. We can make them unsure their attacks will work, uncomfortable and off balance in their predation, and thus less likely to continue their malicious partnership down a hopeless path.

Accordingly, we strike back at the pernicious, or at least poke, jab, push, choke, and fight with any weapon at hand. That is better than tolerating harm and seeking to accept, understand, and cooperate with agents of evil.