Note on the text: I used Frederick Forsyth’s The Cobra as published in 2010 by Bantam Press

People are more emotional than they would liked to admit. That for as rational as they think they are, people make decisions based on their emotions at a higher rate than they think they do. This can be a good thing when it inspires us to protect and provide for those that they love, but it can be problematic when it pushes people to give up their ideals because it costs them too much emotionally.

In Frederick Forsyth’s book there is an American president who unleashes a real “war on drugs” when a kid that he knows dies from a cocaine overdose, and a Colombian drug trafficker who gives up his ways for the sake of his son and his future: “Here [your son] could be anything [he wanted to be]. Doctor, lawyer, even a senator. . . . Any boy can grow up to be anything here. We call it the American Dream (159).

But while these emotions can inspire the best in people and push them to new heights, they can also cause people to lose their way morally by making them feel like the price of their ideals is too high. The unnamed American president ultimately gives up the war on drugs when it is, ostensibly, about to be won because it wound up costing him and his loved ones too much emotionally. He was willing to let other people suffer and die for his cause, but not himself or his loved ones: “abroad is such a convenient place for violence” (359).