Ultra-individualism – the notion that each human being is a discrete, totally autonomous entity -- is a poisonous absurdity, one which when used as it has been in America and too many other countries, transforms citizens into free radicals infesting the body social and politic. It is commonly accompanied by the equall…
Ultra-individualism – the notion that each human being is a discrete, totally autonomous entity -- is a poisonous absurdity, one which when used as it has been in America and too many other countries, transforms citizens into free radicals infesting the body social and politic. It is commonly accompanied by the equally spurious idea (one also held by otherwise intelligent Inquisitors, frightened of their helpless prisoners) that by destroying the bodies of “bad” individuals, you destroy what they stand for. This doesn’t wipe out evil, it perpetuates it.
Think back to 1945. Those of us who grew up in postwar Europe did not expect any form of Nazism to arise from the ashes; but the evil that men did lived on, not always underground, in an endless chain reaction. It still lives, befouling all it touches: the innocent, the unborn, the miraculous planet we live on.
History is not dead people, dead ideas, in a dead past. The past is all too present. In us. Among us.
"the evil that men did lives on" . . . unless active, intelligent steps are taken to break the cycle. And even then, it is one step forward and likely another step back later. Look at the legacy of Mandela's magic of reconciliation in South Africa. But, I am still convinced that the overall direction can be forward. Have you come across a book by the Dutch Historian Rutger Bregman, "Humankind"? Well worth reading, and optimistic. Also this interview with Bregman will amuse you:
Thank you too, Bob.
Ultra-individualism – the notion that each human being is a discrete, totally autonomous entity -- is a poisonous absurdity, one which when used as it has been in America and too many other countries, transforms citizens into free radicals infesting the body social and politic. It is commonly accompanied by the equally spurious idea (one also held by otherwise intelligent Inquisitors, frightened of their helpless prisoners) that by destroying the bodies of “bad” individuals, you destroy what they stand for. This doesn’t wipe out evil, it perpetuates it.
Think back to 1945. Those of us who grew up in postwar Europe did not expect any form of Nazism to arise from the ashes; but the evil that men did lived on, not always underground, in an endless chain reaction. It still lives, befouling all it touches: the innocent, the unborn, the miraculous planet we live on.
History is not dead people, dead ideas, in a dead past. The past is all too present. In us. Among us.
"the evil that men did lives on" . . . unless active, intelligent steps are taken to break the cycle. And even then, it is one step forward and likely another step back later. Look at the legacy of Mandela's magic of reconciliation in South Africa. But, I am still convinced that the overall direction can be forward. Have you come across a book by the Dutch Historian Rutger Bregman, "Humankind"? Well worth reading, and optimistic. Also this interview with Bregman will amuse you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_nFI2Zb7qE&t=6s