mirabile visu

A competitive society, one that divides people into winners and losers, breeds unkindness. Human beings, we have said, are ambivalent creatures. Kindness comes naturally to us, but so too does cruelty and aggression. People placed under unremitting pressure become estranged from each other. Like the bullied child who bullies others in turn, individuals coerced by circumstances become coercers. Sympathies contract as openheartedness begins to feel too exposed. Paranoia blossoms as people seek scapegoats for their unhappiness. Such scapegoating is a self-betrayal because it involves sacrificing our kindness.  But this is a price many pay as tribal loyalties, sometimes vicious in their expression, replace wider communal bonds. A culture of hardness and cynicism grows, fed by envious admiration of those who seem to thrive–the rich and famous: our modern priesthood–in this tooth-and-claw environment.