Human Suffering and Evil in the World

Going into Module 2 for my Leadership, Justice & Forgiveness (aka ORGL532) class, I have to admit, I was intrigued – especially when I saw the topic for our first posting:

Talk about human suffering, describe its influence in your life and describe the understandings that are influencing you in this class regarding human suffering.  Human evil exists, this is definitive, what remains to be explored more fully is our response to this evil, in ourselves, in our organizations, and in the world.  Give a hopeful response to the depth of learning you are experiencing in this regard.  As you read the texts and view the film, and engage the ideas of leadership practitioners and theorists post at least one "annotated" question: i.e., a question you ask that elicits dialogue from your fellow classmates, and is based upon your readings as well as your own experience in personal, organizational, or global facets of community life.

Let me preface my post with a disclaimer.  This is a long post, because of events of the last week.  I felt obliged to share them with you as part of our learnings because it moved my experiences from the abstract to the real.  Our texts for this module are below.  I read Elie Wiesel’s book in less than two hours.  I promise you it will move you.

Most of us live sheltered lives.  We have a roof over our heads, food on the table, and clothes on our backs.  We live in relative comfort and ease.  We don’t really know what true suffering is.  We occasionally mouth formulaic phrases about the latest global tragedy, or perhaps even donate some time and money.  Then, with our social duty done in this regard, we go back to watching "American Idol" and "Lost", and our comfortable lives.  In the last couple of weeks, the world’s humanitarian focus has been on the earthquake victims in Haiti.  Pat Robertson’s idiotic comments aside, the consensus response has been that the Haitians are the victims of geography – somewhat similar to San Francisco in that regard.  Until we are personally affected, our involvement is almost surreal.  I grew up in the MidEast during the 70’s and early 80’s.  We visited Iran and Iraq before they were torn apart by war.  My mother was in Washington DC on 9/11, and on the beaches of Sri Lanka when the tsunami struck in 2004.  And to me, despite that, those events still seems surreal.  We talk about the horrors of Somalia, the plight of the Kurds, and the conflicts in Darfur, Chad and Kivu in abstractions – we cannot possibly relate to, nor intelligently discuss and understand the true depths of human suffering.

As a society our attention is drawn to the most sensational tragedies, what makes the biggest splash in the news headlines.  Today, it’s Haiti.  Two weeks from now, who knows which corner of the earth will hold our attention.  And yet, in the midst of all of this global suffering, we somehow remain largely oblivious to conditions much closer to home.  I’m certainly not going to compare some of the things I’ve seen, or my experiences to those of Elie Wiesel – to do so would be both glib and disrespectful.  However, there are certainly parallels that can be drawn between the abstract way in which we regard human suffering and how the people in Wiesel’s hometown of Sighet mentally walled themselves off from Moishe the Beadle’s accounts of what he had witnessed.

Realistically though, to really understand human suffering, we have to look much closer to home.  This week, while doing groceries, I had occasion to visit two different grocery stores.  The first was a Wal-Mart near my home.  It is a "Super Wal-Mart" that services the southern part of Irving.  Set aside for the moment any preconceived notions you might have of Wal-Mart as the epitome of the evil and exploitive retailer, as well as any stereotypes you hold about the Wal-Mart patrons.  I prefer not to shop at peak times (especially Saturdays), because I do not enjoy waiting in long lines.  In addition, peak shopping times is when the shelves (especially in the produce section) tend to be bare.  Instead, I stopped in very early on a Sunday morning.  The first thing that struck me about many of the patrons was that this was not a typical group of shoppers.  Many appeared unkempt.  Even though grocery shopping is a chore for many, there is still some semblance of energy, in the activity of anticipation of putting food on the table – the decision-making process.  Not so in this case.  So many seemed to be living dead.  There was no light in their eyes.  Instead, there was almost a sense of hopelessness.  Clearly they were shopping within a constrained budget – bargain foods, and bulk items filled their carts.  You could clearly see both the frustration and sadness at not being able to get "that little bit extra" for their kids, having to say "No" every time one of the children asked for candy, a treat, a soda, or a special dessert.  As I watched them anxiously watching the total add up as they checked out (and in some cases, paid with food stamps), I was reminded of a quote from one of my favorite TV shows, The West Wing, "If fidelity to freedom and democracy is the code of our civic religion then surely, the code of our humanity is faithful service to that unwritten commandment that says, ‘We shall give our children better than we ourselves had’".  One in five children (19%) live in families that are considered officially "poor".  One in twelve children (8%) live in families that we would consider extremely poor.  (Source: National Center for Children in Poverty).  In other words – as a society – where is our faithful service to that commandment today?

Now contrast that experience, with what I witnessed at a Tom Thumb store, less than ten minutes drive away, in an affluent area of North Irving.  As I entered that store, I saw mostly happy, energetic faces.  The quality of products was markedly higher, people were smiling.  No sense of hopelessness, despite our current economic climate.  Fresh fruits and vegetables, plenty of proteins, whole grains – the hallmarks of a healthy diet – were the order of the day.  Interspersed with these were the extras – a special candy bar, box of donuts, or a tub of ice cream.  Clearly, although these shoppers may have had financial concerns of their own, their ability to put food on the table was nowhere near as severely impacted as those shoppers that I had observed less than an hour ago.

I’ve rambled on quite a bit here, so I guess I should pose my annotated question – what is it that makes the concept of human suffering and evil in the world "real" for you?  None of us can relate to Wiesel’s experience – so what is it that makes you question the motives of your fellow man, and the society you live in?


January 27, 2010  Tags: ,   Posted in: Gonzaga

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