An Interview with Colman McCarthy

Intro to JUSP

Informational Interview

This interview with Colman McCarthy occurred on 10-29-03

Since my first encounter with Mr. McCarthy, I knew that I wanted him to be the subject of my informational interview. Not only has Mr. McCarthy become one of the most recognizable names in Justice and Peace studies, but certain aspects of his life closely resemble my own. He spent much of his youth on golf courses that are usually occupied by conservative wealthy men, and these are not typical breeding grounds for anarchists. For this reason, I was very interested in when he began his quest for peace. He is an extremely intelligent man and easily approachable and I thouroughly enjoyed listening to what Mr. McCarthy had to say.

Growing up, Mr. McCarthy played sports, went out with friends, and basically lived like every other carefree kid in this country. However, when he arrived at a small Jesuit school in Alabama, things began to change. He noticed that there was an ROTC program designed to attract students to the military. The presence of the military on campus was disturbing to Mr. McCarthy because he viewed school as a place for knowledge, not violence. Instead of being passive, however, he decided to challenge their presence through demonstrations and articles criticizing the school’s administrators. It was here in college that Mr. McCarthy first began to develop beliefs and opinions about the world around him, and they have only become stronger and more fortified since then. As time has moved on, Mr. McCarthy has moved further to the left on his political stances.

In response to the question of whether or not peace is ever possible in a world this corrupt, Mr. McCarthy suggests that we cannot measure results. Furthermore, as Mother Theresa said, “we must not worry about being successful, we must worry about being faithful to our beliefs.” He does believe that the quest for peace is tough, but with better education in peace studies and strong faith in our beliefs, the results will follow.

According to Mr. McCarthy, one of the biggest obstacles to peace in the modern world is the lack of education about peace. Most people never receive any formal education on peace, and those that do are limited in its extensiveness. For example, Georgetown costs over thirty-five thousand dollars a year, and the furthest your study of peace can take you is not even to a degree but a certificate. Mr. McCarthy suggests that the study of peace should begin the first day of grade school and continue throughout the last day of graduate school. The study or peace should be well funded and taken seriously, and this will greatly improve education as a whole.

Education is very important to Mr. McCarthy because people’s actions are sometimes a result of their lack of choices. If people are repeatedly shown something throughout their life, namely that it is honorable to fight and die for one’s country, then they will believe this to be true. For this reason, Mr. McCarthy does not condemn those people in the military because the majority of them have never been given another option to consider. Furthermore, the entire concept of patriotism is ridiculous according to Mr. McCarthy because it is another form of corruption. The word connotes a certain respect for the founders of this country who advocated for war, armies, and navies. Patriotism is the basis for a country’s egotism and Mr. McCarthy would prefer to be called unpatriotic more often than not. For why should we, as a country, constantly call ourselves the best superpower in the world?

The discussion on patriotism led to a discussion on competition and the natural human tendency to compete with one another. For Mr. McCarthy, competition, as well as violence, are both learned behaviors that we are taught at a very young age. Growing up in this country, kids are exposed to violence and competition in all aspects of life. In the realm of sports, children are divided into teams and leagues that promote competition and the desire to be the best. Therefore, it is not a natural behavior for humans to compete with each other. However, today we see the United States and the other dominant countries of this world competing for money, oil, power, and market share. Competition is everywhere, but according to Mr. McCarthy, it’s not natural.

To finish the interview, we left the international arena and focused more on human rights, namely in the context of the sniper trials. This country operates on the basis of punitive justice in which people are punished for their crimes and after the sentence, the books are closed. In order to improve the system, we must operate on more of a restorative system in which people receive phsyciatric help. This rehabilitation will hopefully result in people realizing the wrongs in their actions and will spark them to become a contributing member of society. Locking up criminals and throwing away the key is not the answer and it does nothing to alleviate the situation. Mr. McCarthy is very adamant about the humane treating of criminals because they are still human and they deserve our mercy and forgiveness.

It was at this point that we concluded the interview. I thanked Mr. McCarthy and I went home to think about what he had said. The first thing that came to mind was the respect I had for the way he has chosen to live his life. Many people make toasts or list it as one of their goals in Miss America pagents, but it remains only a wish. Mr. McCarthy, on the other hand, has taken his beliefs and made them his reality. Without Mr. McCarthy, the world would be much further away from achieving peace. That being said, there are some issues in which I hold a different opinion, namely that of competition. I still believe that we, as humans, are competitive by nature. Even though there are examples of remote cultures in the Amazon that do not display this, as Mr. McCarthy claims, there are countless examples that affirm it. Competition goes hand and hand with greed and the desire to be the best at something. Maybe when we learn to suppress these instincts, or control them, then peace will be easier to achieve.

In response to Mr. McCarthy’s beliefs on punitive and restorative justice, I would have to agree for the most part. There are, however, extreme cases where I don’t think restoration is possible and life in prison is the only option. However, I am now against the state sanctioned death of those extreme individuals, and this a direct result of Mr. McCarthy’s lectures. I am very grateful for this interview because the opinions and beliefs of most people in my immediate environment at school and at home tend to clash with Mr. McCarthy’s, and the challenging of these beliefs is education in its purist form.