Stephen A. Lawrence wrote:
We are, as Hamlet put it, noble in reason, infinite in faculties,
the paragon of animals. We have done nothing wrong and we have
nothing to be ashamed of.
Here one must ask, does this grand and supremely innocent "We..."
include the young George Bush feeding firecrackers to frogs to watch
them blow up?
Hey, we're predators. What would you expect? Besides, I don't believe
in collective guilt.
One might, with some effort, come up with a few other things for
which the human species has been responsible which some might view
as worthy of some small amount of shame, I think...
Sure, but most us had nothing to do with these atrocities.
Look, every healthy person feels some degree of existential guilt.
You look around, you see people suffering, and you can't help but
blame yourself partly. That's natural. It is okay -- even beneficial.
Empathy is bred into us; group hunting predators take care of
helpless pack members. What I object to is people who exploit that
feeling. They enslave other people's minds with fear, based on
hocus-pocus superstition and balderdash. They compound the problem by
making people feel guilty about feeling guilty. They make life even
more miserable than it is already. They rob people of dignity, hope
and self-respect. They frighten little children. They incite the
public to hate and fear science, which is our only hope for a decent,
humane future. And for what? Only to empower themselves, or make a
profit, or to spread their own warped, defeatist, guilt-ridden,
irrational traditions to the next generation.
Of course I know that many religious people never engage in this sort
of behavior. Many are wonderful people, and for that matter many
scientists are heartless wretches. I have no use for religion myself,
but in most people it is a harmless eccentricity, no worse than a
passion for Contract Bridge.
By the way, there is an interesting article in the New York Times
Magazine about antipathy toward science:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/11/magazine/11wwln_lead.html
- Jed
