What makes this evil possible?

The following was written originally immediately after the Sandy Hook shootings, but never published.  Re-reading them, I find that the words are worth publishing, regardless of whether there is a recent triggering event...

In a week like this one, many find themselves asking what makes the kind of evil witnessed this week possible.  Some blame the weapon (or the lack thereof), or mental illness, or the educational system, or any number of society's ills or failings.

I think the root cause for the slaughter of innocents lies much deeper, and has symptoms much more pervasive.

We have forgotten what it is to be human.  We have forgotten the joy, and importance, of simple human contact.  The greatest evil mankind faces may be simple loneliness.


More and more each day, we are isolated from one another.  In our homes, in our workplaces, in our cars.  Even on the Internet, which connects the world, even on "social networks" we sit in our own little boxes, making ourselves believe we are "in contact", while we are, in fact, utterly alone.  We make fun of pairs of people sitting across the table from each other, each focused on their communication devices instead of the very real human being not 3 feet away.  We see the irony, but we do it anyway.

How easy our cars make our road rage, when the very human being behind the wheel becomes not an individual, but an example of "the kind of person who drives a (fill in the blank)".  How many of us have shouted in futility at the inside of our windshields things that we would never have said to the same person (or perhaps even thought) if they were in earshot?

The tendency to de-humanize the "other" seems to be natural to us.  Left to our own devices, the "other" becomes something less than human, or less important as a human than those we have chosen to call "near and dear".  I believe it is this tendency to make the other into a non-human, an example of a category, something we can treat as we will.

That choice, or rather the unwillingness to make the opposite choice, to choose  to see the "other" as fully human, seems to me to underlie all manner of evil in the world.

Human trafficking (in its various forms)?  Humans as profitable cargo.
Prostitution?  Humans as an instrument of pleasure, and demeaning of the "professional", the "client", and of the very precious gift of human intimacy.
Rape?  Humans as a target.
Murder?  The same , and even more so.
War?  Think about what makes it possible for one group of people to decide that what they want is worth killing another people.
The Holocaust?  There is no more obvious example.

So what do we do about it?

We CHOOSE

• We choose to greet the stranger, instead of passing in silence.
• We choose to make real conversation, instead of hiding behind our devices, or our roles.
• We choose to know our neighbors, as people.
• We choose to be honest, with ourselves, at least, but with others as well.
• We choose to take the risk.

I was raised an atheist, and became a Christian through the witness of Jews (it's a long story, which I will tell another time).  Along the way, I have found 3 Rabbis whose words I endeavor to make my guide in life.

Yeshua of Nazareth (Jesus) said "love your neighbor as yourself".
Hillel said much the same, and added "This is the whole of the Law (Torah), the rest is commentary.  Now go and study."
Tarfon said (of the goal of making the world a better place) "You are not expected to complete the task, but neither are you permitted to refrain from it."

Can the solution be that simple?  I don't yet know.  We can only try.

As for me, I pray that I may do it a little better than I have thus far.