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December 23, 2006 at 17:20:38
Why "Good Will Toward Men" Has Become More of a Challenge for Me: My Christmas Thoughts by Andrew Bard Schmookler Page 1 of 2 page(s) |
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What are your feelings toward humanity, meaning toward people in general? That is, what do you feel when you look at, or think about, the mass of humankind? What has shaped your feelings? Have they ever changed, and if so what changed them? Are you glad about what you feel toward people generally, or do you wish you felt something different?
In general, my choice of topics for discussion on my radio shows is largely shaped by what issues are alive for me, and this one was no exception. For more than two years, I have struggled with a subtle but deep-seated shift in my underlying sense of people in general.
This was the result of two profound, evidently somewhat traumatic, experiences that came close together.
One was local, where a group of people --and an institution-- whom I trusted and for whom I'd had very high regard shocked me by acting in a way that was altogether without integrity and honesty.
But the main cause was the other experience: watching as half my countrymen gave their support to this Bushite regime, well after the evil of these leaders --their dishonesty, their bullying, their arrogance, their utter disregard for any larger good than their own self-aggrandisement-- had become starkly visible.
What kind of creatures are these humans, these experiences seem to have caused me to wonder, even below the level of consciousness, when those who seem to be among the best of people will act so dishonorably, and when so large a proportion of humanity can choose the evil and call it good?
I read a book review in the recent October 2 issue of THE NEW REPUBLIC. The book under review was FEAR: ANTI-SEMITISM IN POLAND AFTER AUSCHWITZ, and it tells the shocking story of how --even after the Nazis had been defeated, and the concentration camps liberated-- a wave of killings, by ordinary Poles, of the remnant of the Jews still alive in Poland. The review quotes a contemporaneous statement by the Polish journalist, Wincenty Bednarczuk, made in the wake of this "bloodbath":
"We hypothesized that the frightening tragedy of the Polish Jews would cure the Poles of anti-Semitism. It cannot be any other way, we thought, but that the sight of massacred children and old people must evoke a response of compassion and help...But we didn't know human nature... It turned out that our notions about mankind were naive. The country surprised us."
I understood Bednarczuk's painful surprise.
Since the traumatic discovery of what my own countrymen were willing to embrace --and my subsequent discovery that there is plenty of ugly intolerance and viciousness on both sides of our divided country-- I have found myself drawn to reading Jonathan Swift, whose cleverness I'd always appreciated, but whose misanthropic views of our species I'd found repugnant.
Earlier this month, sitting in an airport looking at the throngs of hundreds of people I don't know, I found my subtly implicit feelings toward those strangers to have a different flavor from what I've been accustomed to having all the previous decades of my life. My accustomed feeling has always been fairly open-hearted, appreciative, embracing (albeit in a shy way). But now I found myself feeling more detached, untrusting, vaguely recoiling.
I missed my old feeling. It seemed like a light and warmth of great value had gone out of my life, out of the world. When I asked, on those radio shows, "Are you glad about what you feel toward people generally, or do you wish you felt something different?" I knew from inside what it meant to wish to see my fellow human beings and to feel toward them differently.
And I do believe that something like my old feelings are what I should still strive for. I do not believe that they were simply naive. In my view, the spiritually most enlightened place for a person to reach is one where the evils people do are not what define them in one's eyes. Not that we are such perfect creatures by nature. But the world is a sick place and we humans are, in various ways, the carriers of the sickness. (My PARABLE OF THE TRIBES offers an explanation of that sickness that does not require any indictment of human nature.) I do believe that, if properly nurtured, people grow into something beautiful. But even if we are not so splendid, we are what we are, we are what we can be.
If I could choose, I would not turn away from knowing fully what is dark in human beings, but I would still regard my fellows with an open and compassionate heart. "Hate the sin but love the sinner." That sounds to me like wisdom, and it is what I aspire to return to again.
It is likely my own hurt and fear that have pulled me away into my dimmer view of my kind. 
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| 4 comments |
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I can relate to what you say
I know quite what you mean, about a changed view of American society, as I went through the same experience myself. While most others I know seemed to quibble over whether it was actually more, or less, than fifty percent voting them in, it was sufficiently disturbing to me on its face, that the plus or minus factor was irrelevant to the essential state of the country that was presented by the election results. I fall back on two possibie saving graces, Andrew. One is my conviction that things do run in cycles, a position that could accept that we were not entirely yet free of the dominant cycle of the past 25 years, but are getting there. The second fallback position is an increasingly strong retreat from an assumption common to our culture: that things can be understood on a rational basis. I'm evermore persuaded that the flow and movement of life arises from mystical or non-rational origins, to the extent that shifts may be underway of which we are only dimly aware, if at all. Maybe one or both of those positions is simply to preserve my own good will and well-being, I don't know. But they are the result of personal observation and experience over the course of a pretty long life. by Irvthom (7 articles, 2 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 91 comments) on Sunday, Dec 24, 2006 at 1:13:50 AM  (0+)
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Individuals Make up the Human Race
I have a relitive that tells me over and over; The Human Race Sucks. For awhile I too believed that. Then I see an act of unselfish kindness, or I see someone put themselves in danger to help a stranger. That's when I realize that you can't put a label on people, they are all individuals. It's even true that the worst of us has a good side, and the best of us have a bad side. The acceptence of this administration I believe is born out of ignorance. It has taken a while to convince the American people that this administration is evil. People see a President talking about God and they have a hard time believing that he's evil. That goes a long way in explaining why many elderly (and they vote) keep voting for Bush. They just can't reconcile evil and the Presidency. That comes from years of generalizations. I saw people support the war while I heard the truth while I served in the Army and I couldn't reconcile support for the war and good Americans. I could when I factored in ignorence. In Germany I met the kindest most practical people that were really nice, yet these were the same people that supported Hitler. That's why people in government must be held to a higher standard. Our humanity has made the acceptance of listening to our leaders a virtue. That is ingrained in us. It is also why leaders that fail to follow a lawful, moral path should be held accountable. by Timothy V. Gatto (348 articles, 177 quicklinks, 38 diaries, 574 comments) on Sunday, Dec 24, 2006 at 10:57:20 AM (0+)
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Relevant citations
1. 'Man is consumed in sin and born in corruption and he passeth from the stink of the diddie to the stench of shroud' R. Pen Warren 'All the King's Men' 2. 'I know of no crime I would not be able to committ.' JW. Goethe Take it from an immigrant, folks: if you, here in the US had followed the Goethe's wisdom you would not be so arrogant to consider thyselves so idealistic and 'prone to disappointments and reevaluations.' R. Pen Warren loved his Willy Stark despite.. ' the stench of the shroud'. We all are capable of anything. So, let't be honest like Goethe was and not pretend that we have to lose our ideals like some kind of virginity. Our good will is on the same level as a good will of anyone else. Not better and not worse. Let's stop being surprised at distant Poles and look into the mirror. by Mark Sashine (72 articles, 19 quicklinks, 269 diaries, 4101 comments [131 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Sunday, Dec 24, 2006 at 11:30:35 AM (0+)
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In addition to the three comments already posted...
never forget what can happen when those skilled at manipulating the people are allowed to go about doing it. Shakespeare was clearly telling us exactly that with Mark Antony's speech to the Romans after the killing of Caesar. Goering, in his typically vile and distasteful way explained it too but more specifically with regards to war: "Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger." What those of us on the progressive side of the equation need to do is come up with strategies to combat these regressive and reactionary appeals to the public well in advance. It does no good once the boulder is hurtling down the steep hill to try to stop it. by Steven Leser (255 articles, 58 quicklinks, 38 diaries, 2147 comments [63 recommended, 2 rejected]) on Sunday, Dec 24, 2006 at 1:18:56 PM (0+)
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