Ends or Means, Journey or Destination?
Recently I’ve been thinking about the phrase attributed to Niccolò Machiavelli, “The end justifies the means”. We all have personal goals and many of us build plans to achieve those goals. They might be daily goals such as going to the gym and exercising today, or maybe we have long term goals, such as retiring before 50. Regardless of the goal we set for ourselves we generally have a plan of how to achieve it.
What’s Your Personal Goal? How do you get there?
In most cases those plans don’t intend to impose on others or cause any harm to the people around us or even harm people we don’t know - they are personal plans that take us from point A to point B taking into account moral and ethical decisions.
In Parashat Vayerah we have two very different people who set goals for themselves. For Laban it is a life of power and riches, for Jacob it is a goal of family and dedication to God. They both employ very different methods to achieve these goals.
In the case of Laban the term, “The end justifies the means” meant that anything and everything is permissible in order to achieve his personal goals. This included deceitful behavior, unethical behavior, cheating and stealing from Jacob (and probably anyone else who he crossed paths with). In Laban’s case the only thing that mattered was the destination, the journey and who he hurt along the way had no consequences to him.
Destination or Journey?
In the case of Jacob, it was all about the journey. The fact that he had to work many extra years was painful, but he overcame the hardship and pursued on his course. The fact that Laban cheated and swindled him was painful and very disturbing but he persisted on his course. When Jacob saw that there was no longer a way to achieve his goals he left Laban. He didn’t do harm to Laban or any of his workers, he didn’t steel or cheat, he walked a moral, an ethical path that would eventually lead him to his personal destination.
We see examples of people taking both paths each and every day. Whether it is in school, business or in politics. There are always two types of people; those who will step on others while climbing the ladder of success and those that will stop and lift up those around them. Those who exploit and those who lend a helping hand. Those who cheat and those who follow the rules, those who lie and those who are truthful.
The same is true in religion and even more so.
Do we force our path on others if we are sure it is the only path?
Regardless of religion; Christian, Jewish, Muslim, even atheist; believers know that their path is the right one. For many believers the end does justify the means no matter how many people are hurt along the way. Faith means putting your life in the hands of a greater power; God. Believing in God and following your specific interpretation of the way to God becomes a believers path through life. But for many, following that path means imposing their beliefs on others who in turn travel their own paths to the same goal.
Take for instance the recent decision by the supreme court to enable bans on abortion. The arguments might have been legal but the objective was a almost certaianly a religious one. The conservative supreme justices made no secret that religous beliefs were their guiding principle. The religious objective has been achieved but how many people who follow other paths, other interpretations to the path to God, will suffer for this decision?
“Who decides what is good? Who decides what is best for the greater number of people”
Evangelical Christians are the biggest supporters of Israel or so it seems. In fact there is a reason for this support and it’s not for the love of the Jewish people, in fact the inverse is true. They support Israel for their own religious interpretations. Accordingly, in order that the end of days prophecy and Jesus’ return will come to pass certain events must happen. Only when the Jews are returned to their land (Israel) will the days of the Messiah be upon us, at that time all Jews will acknowledge Jesus as their savior or be destroyed. For evangelical Christians the end does justify the means and they live and promote this path everyday.
So who decides?
Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that determines right from wrong by focusing on the outcome. It holds that the most ethical choice is the one that will produce the greatest good for the greatest number of people.
Taken on face value this seems logical, however, who decides what is good? Who decides what is best for the greater number of people? In this case it is the religious leaders, the politicians influenced by outside forces that more often than not have their own selfish self interests at heart.
The Gammara is full of discussions around this subject; for instance can you break commandments to save a life? Do you save the life of a baby or that of the mother? Judaism in fact has taken this philosophy and made it a moral and ethical decision making process.
When Machiavelli coined the phrase, it was supposed to be part of a political philosophy called consequentialism - it was not supposed to justify cruelty, evilness or deceit in order to achieve the goal. What we are witnessing lately has turned this philosophy on its head and justified, even glorified lying, deceit and hate in order to achieve political and religious goals. The end justifies the means has been normalized in our society, however without any moral and ethical consequences.
When this occurs we should be very afraid, we have seen it before. A "true believer" forces his or her way on everyone else since the means justifies the end, therefore anything, including murder, is permissable to justify the ends.
“Religious practice is no more than the rituals we employ to guide us on the path we follow to our destination, God”
My Conclusion
When I think about religion, for me it is the journey. The destination is predetermined. In all religions our goals are the same: to come close to God. What defines our ability to reach God is the path we chose on that journey to God. Whether, Jewish or Christian or Muslim, or anything else, we each follow different paths that lead to the same destination. How we behave on that path directly dictates whether we will reach that goal or not. Religion is no more than the rituals we employ to guide us on the path we follow to God.
So many people today follow the path of Laban, I prefer Jacob’s path - The means does not justify the end.
Gideon Paull.
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