I believe that most people are basically good. Humans have shown time and time again that when others are in need, there are individuals or even whole groups who will step up and help.
I also believe that my country is rotting from the inside out. I believe that our natural goodness has been perverted into a sort of self-centered opportunism. I am watching my country trade away their kindness, compassion, freedom of thought, and generosity in exchange for shiny trinkets and golden promises as hollow as the hearts that wield them.
I forgive so much because the human mind is complex, and underneath the trappings of civilization, most of us are just terrified apes, lost and confused, only wanting to go home where it’s safe.
My brain, for example, is a cacophony of conflicting thoughts and feelings, careening around inside my head while the rational side of me attempts to sort the signals from the noise in order to put together a cohesive picture of what is going on around it.
It reminds me of an old quote: Someone once said to Voltaire, “life is hard,” to which Voltaire replied, “compared to what?”
It’s a fun little comment on how our brains perceive things, and while I enjoy the humor in Voltaire’s quip, I don’t quite agree with the line of thought that implies one must have a fitting comparison to make a declarative statement such as the one mentioned in the quote. Life is hard. I do not have to experience the eternal oblivion of death to know that life is hard, nor do I have to experience pleasure to know pain.
My internal compass guides me in these matters, and it is simple enough to understand that if I experience something I do not like, then I should not wish it upon anyone else.
So I do understand that people make mistakes, that they can be mislead, the human brain is deeply flawed. We think and say things we regret, cursing ourselves for whatever brought us to that point. Still, it is difficult for me to grasp the concept and application of malicious intent. For example, the policies recently enacted by the Trump administration regarding the separation of families at the southern U.S. border wasn’t done out of kindness, nor was it created to help people. It was designed to harm as many people as possible, desperate innocents who only sought safe haven.
And our President spit on them and stole their children. We used to reserve actions like that for authoritarians, fascist dictators, but many in our own country said it was good, was necessary, condemned the men and women crying for their children, and then people in our country condemned the children, called them liars, took pleasure in their pain and sorrow, and I just knew I was never going to see this country the same way again.
We had become evil. Not everyone, but enough for that evil to act. We moved against the most vulnerable among us, stole love right from their hearts, comfort from their arms, and crowed about it as if we had vanquished a mortal foe, and I felt shame. Not for myself, because I had already spoken out against it, along with many others, but shame for so many who stood by and said “what can be done?” as if there is any doubt as to what must be done when innocent men, women, and children are deprived of their rights by a system that would rather they suffer and die in anguish than let them cross an imaginary line.
We are becoming more xenophobic, more isolationist, even as we tout our world supremacy. I cannot imagine what will be next, but I do not feel that whatever it is will allow the response that pushed back against the President and his staff. Not again. There will come a decision point, and then we will see the results.
In my admittedly limited opinion, I only see us getting harder, colder, more self-involved. Speaking of good things, but engaging little in practice, preferring to lay the weight of our responsibilities at the feet of those who cannot, and then blaming them all for their empty hearts.