Waking From the Horrors of History

Humans have done horrible, horrible things.  Human history is a long chronicle of cruelty, bigotry, violence, subjugation and torture.  Despite all the truly wonderful and good things humans have done, it seems that this goodness is almost drowned out by the unceasing malice that seems to erode whatever progress we make.

There has been progress, real advances in human kindness and basic goodness.  The awareness of basic human rights is spreading, along with respect for those rights.  Ancient bigotries are being overturned and violence is becoming less acceptable.  The human rights movement is succeeding.

However, it is important to remember that all this progress in human rights is merely in the beginning stages.  Within the memories of people alive today are widespread racial bigotry, legally endorsed misogyny and horrible mass murders, all in some of the most advanced societies.  These kinds of practices are still widespread throughout the world, including in the most civilized places.  The human rights movement has made a good start, but it is working against a powerful legacy of cruelty that is still very much alive and able to reverse the progress that has been made.

I often feel like so many of us are waking up from the horrors of history.  It's as though all of Humanity has been under the influence of a powerful hallucinogen all this time, giving us an extremely distorted view of the world and each other, like we were living out some awful dream where we were constantly fighting with each other over things that seemed so important at the time and doing horrible acts that seemed so justified at the time.

Gradually, more and more people throughout history have been waking up from this delusional and aggressive stupor and are appalled by the vicious and hateful societies they find themselves in.  They have worked to wake others up, but this has led to their deaths.  In the last few hundred years, more people have woken up to the horrors of human behavior and have made progress in raising awareness and gradually changing society.

Their struggle to stop the violence and cruelty is an ancient one that has been repeatedly squelched by the same violence they were working to end.  As more of us have joined this struggle, we have been able to reduce many kinds of bigotry, hostility and aggressive behavior.  While we should celebrate these successes, we also need to remember that we are still far from having a civil society.  All our gains can be undone if we do not continue our efforts.

As we wake up from the horrors of history and stop perpetuating them, we are making a difference, in our own lives and in the lives of all we encounter.  Also, as we speak up against bigotry, violence and cruelty, working to stop them, we are changing the culture from one that accepts or endorses that kind of behavior to one where it is completely unacceptable to treat another human being that way.  We are making a difference, and we can win this struggle, but we still have a tremendous amount of work to do.