The hardest questions
Every now and then I spend time reading and answering questions on the Quora social platform. There are a variety of things people ask about: politics, the human psyche, human relations, and more. One of the things I try to do if I choose to answer a particular question, is to think about the underlying thought process, or the underlying issue; to get to the heart of the matter. Over time I’ve begun to see a sort of pattern, which has convinced me that often we ask the easier questions, and maybe it’s an attempt to avoid the much harder ones.
“How do we deal with political corruption?” might be an example of this. As I think through such questions, I’ve begun to realize that whatever corruption exists, we’ve elected these corrupt people. What that suggests to me, is that it is ultimately a societal issue rather than a political one. As we become more and more entrenched in the notion that the “ruling class” are our untouchable leaders, that we are helplessly subject without recourse to their actions; we have become less and less able to see our own responsibilities. It seems many of us even seek to have the very leaders we deem to be corrupt, resolve the problem of corruption; to “save” us. If a society doesn’t educate themselves about history, policy, their own political systems; they may lose sight of the fact that it is often their own choices that have led to their situation. If a society chooses to divide themselves along party lines and then value winning arguments over truth, corruption is inevitable. Each of us have an opportunity to exemplify integrity, truthfulness, kindness, and charity in ourselves and in our own communities. Each of us can shape our own communities, and each community in turn shapes the broader society. And a society will produce the leaders we in turn will elevate and elect to positions of authority. Political leaders may ultimately reflect the character of the people that elect them. So the real, and hard question it seems should be: “How might I be contributing, and what should I do to change it?”
These types of ideas have led me to consider and to be more observant of those around me. Simple things like a driver allowing another to merge and then getting the familiar wave from them, someone holding a door for another, or even just a smile or kind word. The smallest things it seems can have a profound impact on many of us. I also notice at times that people passing each other in the aisles of a grocery store will avoid eye contact, or I’ll see the endless angst on social media, or the bleak stories we might come across in the news. It’s led me to begin to ask myself the question: “what is it I am doing to make a positive difference in my own community, even if it’s in a small way?”
After writing my recent article Shmul Dawid Grosman, about the photo of an elderly man who lived during the holocaust, I began the gut wrenching task of examining and listening to the testimonies of survivors. The USC Shoah Foundation has produced a number of lengthy video interviews, that offer many difficult to hear testimonies of holocaust witnesses and victims. These testimonies describe unthinkable atrocities, things so difficult to comprehend, so utterly evil that — without the documentation in photography, video, letters, trials and eye witness testimony — it would hardly be believable. Stories of such vicious and merciless behavior, perpetrated by even ordinary people against their neighbors, that more than half a century later, the eye witnesses still break down into tears when describing what they had witnessed. While we know that the Nazi regime was broadly responsible for these atrocities, what’s staggering is finding out that many peoples throughout Eastern Europe aided them in their horrific treatment of the Jewish people. Even among the Allies, the Russians had committed similar atrocities against their own people before this war during the rise of communism — estimates ranging between 20 and 60 million people were killed in the Soviet Union. During the war, we read that escapees from these death camps gave testimonies to Allied journalists, who had either refused to report what they heard, buried the stories deep in their publications, or simply denied that it could be true. Today the Uyghurs in China, North Koreans, Iranians, and others face unimaginable brutality in their own countries, by their own people, and very few even seem know about or acknowledge what’s happening.
In many cases these survivors would discuss their childhoods. Often those raised in very religious Jewish homes, had understandably given up their faith as a result of what they had endured. Still others who had no faith to begin with expressed such a thankfulness to have survived, such an appreciation for their life; and as a result of their experiences they consider their life as a gift from God; finding a faith they hadn’t previously known. I wholeheartedly believe in God, yet there is that question that we often are faced with when thinking about these things: “How can a good and benevolent God allow this to happen?” This is another hard question, it’s a question which may have no good answer. Yet, I continue to consider it.
I began to imagine myself standing before God when my time is up, prepared to ask Him this very question “How could You sit by and allow this?” Suddenly I wondered if I was really prepared for His answer… “I didn’t allow it” I imagine Him responding “This is why I made you. Why I’ve given my Word to mankind. To shine a light in the darkness, to overcome evil with good, to do something about it. So what have you done?” Perhaps this is actually another of those easy questions we ask to avoid the real hard ones. What if instead of asking “Why would God allow this?”, we asked “Why would I?”, “Why would you?”, “Why would any of us?”
He has told you, mortal one, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?
~ Micah 6:8 NASB
Often when I respond to these questions on Quora, suggesting that each of us have a responsibility for the condition of our societies, it seems to be met with little enthusiasm. We don’t really like to consider these hard questions, but what would the world look like if we did? For me, I see a need to prepare for my response to the question I imagined God asking me; and what I should do to ensure that my answer, is the right one. That I did everything I could to be a light in the darkness.
2 Leave a Comment
AnonymousGuy –
As an atheist, I very much appreciate your way of thinking. Even other of these posts I've come across. Even if I take God out of the equation, I get where you come from. I agree that people would rather blame others than themselves, never taking responsibility. And that certainly lends itself to avoiding deeper questions or seeking the truth, instead preferring quick on-point questions that don't really allow for non-obvious answers that promote change and contribute to one's knowledge. As you say, for every evil we're all part of the problem, or our ancestors were — and we should also be part of the solution. This is the truth, the inconvenient truth humans are inherently programmed to hide. Nature has us instinctively divide everyone in good or evil, and even as a society we draw such hard lines and pretend there's anyone that is actually good. So we innately conceal that from ourselves, we stop thinking any deeper than surface-level, and we blame those we deem to be the “bad” ones. If you look at politics, we know everybody is both evil and good — as voters we are called to compromise on something and pick the ones that fit our view of the world best (never is that perfectly). But people in this day and age want no compromise, no shade of gray. All black or white. After all, either we accept the evil that is everywhere, or we become the first one to push for change. Though in my opinion humans are all animals and nature is not perfect, so we will eventually still have to accept bad stuff that we can't get rid of. Attaining perfection may not be possible, but seeking it is our duty, and we can only make the world a better place by doing so.
Michael A. Atkins –
Thank you for your comment. I appreciate that even as an atheist, you can see value in these perspectives and hopefully it's useful or edifying to you. My goal is to make improvements in myself, and hopefully by doing so I will also be an example for others.