Mass suffering, massive ignorance

Mass suffering. Mass poverty. Mass genocide. And mass ignorance and inaction, particularly on the part of those vested with the power and responsibility to act.

We live in a society of privilege, economic development, technological advancement and “liberty as far as the eye can see.”

But we also live in a society of explicit and unfortunate inaction and ignorance: a society that finds comfort in turning inward when confronted with dilemmas that require us to open glazed eyes and employ the slightest intellectual potential. 

I speak of a phenomenon of “psychic numbing,” most acutely demonstrated in those vested with the ability, potential and even the responsibility to act: our publicly elected officials of the university, of the city, of the state and of the national government.

Often times, when approached by concerned citizens, public officials find the art of politicking so discomforting, undesirable or unnecessary that they reason to forget their duly elected position.

Today, efficiency is the name of the game; humanity has become a mere sideshow. Substantive discussion on issues of genuine import are irrelevant and frowned upon. They are shunned and avoided.

They are avoided because contemporary leaders, both young and old, new and experienced, have a radically divergent view of the art of pubic service as progressed by the ancients.

The inaction of public officials has altered the meaning of public servant, degenerating it to a pocket stuffer, or in the words of our collegiate dialect, a resume-stuffer.
This is not to say that our representatives are bad people. As Paul Slovic of the University of Oregon recently wrote, “Most people are caring and will exert great effort to rescue individual victims whose needy plight comes to their attention. These same good people, however, often become numbly indifferent to the plight of individuals who are ‘one of many’ in a much greater problem.”

What can one make of this utter and complete reversal of logic? Why is it that our representative body discourages dialogue and disavows the messiness of political action? Slovic becomes even more explicit, asking why “good people repeatedly (ignore) mass murder and genocide?”

From the inability to act in the Holocaust, to the ignorance displayed in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, to countless other examples with a more local and limited sphere of influence, officials of all stripes have fallen victim and have fallen asleep.
Slovic’s paper entitled “‘If I look at the Mass I will never act;’ Psychic Numbing and Genocide” seeks to influence public opinion – or rather challenge public ignorance and urge public reaction and organization regarding international social ills — through the publication of his work.

This is a message that should be captured and repeated, reflected upon and considered as one of the fundamental challenges of the global age, lest we allow ourselves to be persuaded that mass ignorance justifies the continuation of mass suffering.