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Different perspectives, different value

God weaves themes through my life at different periods, hitting me with different experiences to show me different facets about it. I can only presume he does the same with you.

Here's an interesting vignette from the other day. I had just finished reading a thought evoking autobiography on a concentration camp survivor who remarked that upon the announcement of FDR's death shortly after liberation, the entire camp dropped to their knees in homage, it being the first death they acknowledged in the many they had seen in their time there. My wife, who was born and raised in South Africa, remarked at how shocked she was in recently learning about the grand conspiracy FDR arranged to ensure the Pearl Harbor attack inflicted sufficient damage to turn public opinion to join WWII.

Isn't it interesting how some people can value a man so much as to bow the knee in reverence to him, while others can see him as a villain guilty of unbelievably heinous acts? 

You may say that the differences are due to differentials in information. Surely, there is a difference in information. However, I believe that at least many of the concentration camp survivors mentioned would hold to their gratitude to FDR even if they knew that he went through extensive effort to ensure the Pearl Harbor attack would happen.

It is fruitful to consider what diversities may exist between us in how we perceive value. There are massive differences, not just in how we view different people for good or bad, but between experiences and things as well. The differences we experience in what we value are massive enough, but importantly there also exist massive differences in how much we value them. Consider the possibility that there are people whose value scale goes orders of magnitude higher and lower than others'. A short proof: Have you ever loved someone so much that you gave your life for them? Have you ever hated someone so much that you attempted to take their life? And yet, there are people who do. And there are far greater sacrifices that can be made than these, for good and for evil.