This is a transcript of a YouTube interview clip (Judea Pearl) discussing his son Daniel Pearl’s abduction and execution in Pakistan, the role of hate and indoctrination in producing political violence, and the broader phenomenon Judea Pearl calls the "normalization of evil." Pearl reflects on how mass education and propaganda foster anti-Semitic and extremist beliefs, worries about how ordinary people can be transformed under pressure, and touches on personal emotions following his son's death.
Chapters
If you think we can. Can we talk about your son?
Yes, yes.
Can you tell his story?
His story? Daniel is known. He was abducted in Pakistan by Al Qaeda driven sect and under various pretenses. I don't even pay attention to what the pretence will. Originally they wanted to have to have the United States deliver some promised airplanes. It was all made up and all these demands were bogus. I. I don't know really. But eventually he was executed in front of a camera.
At the core of that is hate and intolerance.
At the core? Yes, absolutely. Yes. We don't really appreciate the depth of the hate at which. Which billions of peoples are educated. We don't understand it. I just listened recently to what they teach you in Mogadishu. When. When the water stop in the tap. We knew exactly who did it. The Jews.
The Jews.
We didn't know how, but we knew who did it. We don't appreciate what it means to us. The depth is unbelievable.
Do you think all of us are capable of evil? And the education, the indoctrination is really what creates.
It's not. We are capable of evil. If you are indoctrinated sufficiently long and in depth. We are capable of isis. We are capable of Nazism. Yes, we are. But the question is whether we. After we have gone through some Western education and we learn that everything is really relative. There is no absolute God. It's only a belief in God. Whether we are capable now of being transformed under certain circumstances to become brutal. Yeah, that is a. I'm worried about it because some people say yes, given the right circumstances, given economical, bad. Economical crisis. Okay, you are capable of doing it too. And that worries me. I. I want to believe it. I'm not capable.
This is seven years after Daniel's death. He wrote an article at the Wall Street Journal titled Daniel Pearl and the Normalization of Evil.
Yes.
What was your message back then and how did it change today over. Over the years?
I. I lost.
What was the message?
The message was that we are not treating terrorism as a taboo. We are treating it as a bargaining device that is accepted. People have grievance and they go and bomb restaurants. Okay? It's normal. Look, you're even not surprised when I tell you that 20 years ago you say what for grievance you go and blow a restaurant. Today it's becoming normalized, the banalization of evil. And we have created that to ourselves by normalizing, by. By making it part of political life. It's a political debate. Every terrorist yesterday becomes a freedom Fighter today and tomorrow is becoming terrorist again. It's switchable.
All right. And so we should call out evil.
When there's evil, if we don't want to be part of it, become it if you want. Yeah. If we want to separate good from evil, that's one of the first things that. What would they in the Garden of Eden remember the first thing? Then God, tell him he was, hey, you want some knowledge? Here's the tree of good and evil.
So this evil touched your life personally. Does your heart have anger, sadness, or is it hope?
Okay, I see some beautiful people coming from Pakistan. I see beautiful people everywhere. But I see horrible propagation of evil in this country, too. It shows you how populistic slogans can catch the mind of the best intellectuals.
Today is Father's Day.
I didn't know that. Yeah.
What's fond memory you have of Daniel?
Oh, many good memories. Immense. He was my mentor, William. He had a sense of balance that I didn't have. Yeah, he saw the beauty in every person. He was not as emotional as I am, more looking things in perspective. He really liked every person. He really grew up with the idea that a foreigner is a reason for curiosity, not for fear. At one time we went in Berkeley and homeless came out from some dark alley and said, hey, man, can you spare a dime? I retreated back, you know, two feet back. And then I just hugged him and say, here's a dime. Enjoy yourself. Maybe you want some money to take a bus or whatever. Where did he get it? Not for me. Sam.
