Are We Monsters?
This is a title from an article on Juan Cole's Informed Comment written by Neal Gabler.
https://www.juancole.com/2017/05/are-we-monsters.html
He addresses the very thing that I have been wondering for several years.
That we are no longer a compassionate or caring nation.
That we are facing a reckoning someday for our unlimited quench for greed, materialism and glory in our selfishness.
Not all of us but, a sizable minority of people, a growing minority of people.
It starts by an observation of the dusting off of movie vaults of old classic monster movies from the heyday of the great Studios.
He does observe that in times of crisis in the past, monster movies seemed to abound and let people project their fears and anxieties onto the movies.
'Warner Brothers and Universal have both been dusting off an inventory of classic monsters — King Kong, Godzilla, The Mummy, The Wolf Man, etc. — which prompted New York Times film critics Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott to speculate whether this was a reaction to a contemporary America, where monstrousness now seems to run rampant. When you add a film like the mega hit Get Out, about human monsters, you get the feeling that maybe Hollywood is onto something.'
He says that other nations ask this, like Germany or Japan after WWII or some other national horror like Rwanda. That is not the case with America. We are not in the midst of a great national horror as a War. But, there are things that are being done that will cause many to lose their lives the same as any genocide:
'Are we monsters? I know it is a distinctly odd question to ask, the sort of question people ask in self-reflection only after losing a war of aggression, as the Germans and Japanese did in the wake of World War II, or in the aftermath of some mass derangement, as Rwandans did after their intramural slaughter.
But perhaps it ought to be asked as well when a democratically elected legislature votes to throw tens of millions of poor people off the health care rolls for no ostensible reason other than to hand one party a victory for which it was desperate, and to hand the rich another windfall, as happened last Thursday when the House voted to disembowel Obamacare.'
'Have we lost our compassion? Have we become so selfish that we have no capacity for empathy, or have we become so besotted with materialism and the lust for success that we can no longer see beyond them? Is the needle on our moral compass spinning so wildly that we have lost our bearings? To paraphrase the question attorney Joseph Welch asked Sen. Joseph McCarthy, a patron saint of the right, has America no sense of decency?'
The author points out that the tempation is to point to Trump. But, Trump is a symptom. Trump would not be in the White House without people, knowing full well, despite what they say, that he was all about and the pain to be inflicted on so many.
'If we are now a failed country, as I believe we are, it is not because we have a failed presidency, although we do. It is because we are a failed people. A callousness, a self-righteousness, an obdurateness and, yes, a monstrousness has emerged from some subterranean depth where it had been forcibly submerged. We may say this is not who we are. That is denial.'
The author talks about how a sizable minority in our country now feel pleasure in inflicting pain on others. In being selfish and cruel. They vote for people they know will hurt innocents but, don't care. Even enjoy.
'There will, of course, be no national self-reflection over this cruelty, as there was in Germany and Japan, or as there was last Sunday in France when it was confronted with its own Trump, racist Marie Le Pen, and the voters overwhelmingly beat her back. Our monsters know no remorse. Hurting people is now woven deeply into the fabric of our country.'
I have had this question going through my head for a few years now. What ever happened to community and caring? I remember 20 years ago and beyond people being far more compassionate to those in need of help. I also remember people trying to put themselves in others shoes.
I remember when behaving the way Trump, the republican party and voters was shocking and condemned. That was why Nixon fell. People were upset over the actions of Nixon. They are not with Trump and Trump is far worse. People don't care if Russia is playing footsie with the White House as long as they get what they want.
Something happened in the past 25 years, or somethings, to make people be so numb to suffering and so uncaring. To pleasure in the pain and dying of others.
If we do not, as a nation, finally come to terms with the awful people we are turning into, I am afraid the answer to the writer's question is 'yes'.
Please follow the link and read the full article.
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