<p>Here is a terrific example of belief that I hope we would find abhorrent today. This is Charles Trevelyan, the British administrator of Irish famine “relief”. I put the word in quotes because the reality is Trevelyan caused a holocaust.*</p>
<p>Here in a letter to Lord Monteagle, he says: “The deep and inveterate root of social evil remains, and I hope I am not guilty of irreverence in thinking that this being altogether beyond the power of man, the cure has been applied by the direct stroke of an all-wise Providence in a manner as unexpected and unthought of as it is likely to be effectual.” He is speaking of mass death and mass eviction so the landlords - mostly Protestant - could convert their property into grazing land, what was then called “high farming”.</p>
<p>Do people believe that now? Do they believe Providence wants mass starvation because the deaths will enable more economic farming?</p>
<p>Trevelyan had earlier eliminated grain imports saying “Whatever may be done hereafter these things should be stopped now, or you run the risk of paralysing all private enterprise and having this country on you for an indefinite number of years.” He means, to be clear, that public relief makes people dependent. While we hear that today, when Trevelyan wrote that it meant a death sentence for hundreds of thousands. In those days, the arguments about laissez-faire extended to letting people starve. </p>
<p>So when people tell me their belief means we must do such and such, I think of beliefs like this which have destroyed vast multitudes through a cruelty that justifies itself as the Will of God.</p>
<p>*If you read the wiki article on him, you get a white-washed version.</p>