What does it mean to care about or for another human being? To what extent are the troubles of others our own? Is there inevitable suffering that we should expect to accompany us through this world? To what extent are we ethically required to intervene on behalf of another human being and end their suffering? Are we required to do this if it presents us with a personal risk?
The way in which we answer these questions, determines the world in which we live. It is the initial act outside of our selves. This is the moment when the great expanse of human perspective appears over the precipice above eternity. The paths of politics and religion carve the landscape below. The lives of the billions, tossed in tumultuous seas. It is amazing a life can be lived at all from start to finish, without some treachery interceding. And yet, here we are.
Does the capacity to let go the suffering of others allow us to continue? Is it in fact an evolutionary organ that insulates and offers us a boundary? The idea is wide spread that the industrious ones can save great numbers of us, if not all, by first caring for themselves. Oh, that there were room on the shoulders of Atlas for us all!
Is there a shadow within us that enjoys the suffering of others? At least when they deserve it this can be admitted to. Of course we enjoy it, they had it coming! Beyond that there are some who may have at least been proximal to some crime or criminal, enough so that their collateral deaths can be expected if not accepted. Further along there are some who through the misfortune of their birth simply cannot be up to the great responsibility of living. Really, they are just not up to it! Eventually all that is left are those giving it a damn good shot, and who would want to rain on their parade or dull their enthusiasm by offering them a hand? They will be much better off if they manage it themselves!
The rails on which this train of thought rolls lead directly to a life of unabated self interest and greed, but there are many of us who spend time at a siding or in a town along the tracks, helping our neighbors and improving our communities. It is not a world entirely bereft of kindness by any means, but I cannot help think we could be doing better somehow.
Our assessment of these conditions is in the end at least influenced if not determined by the fact that we have our own fate to be wrestling with. Nothing is certain after all. It is impossible to determine what sort of terrible consequence might lurk behind the next corner we turn.
The generations of ideas that flow from these decisions have designed our cultural architecture. The civic and family and institutional structures all built in a fashion after the initial determination is made. I have recently been attempting to detect any momentum, any hint of the direction we will go from here. It is easier and easier to envision a future world turned upside down, not for lack of creative potential, but by greed and self interest.
The portion of the universe we have immediate access to does appear to be logically finite. The wealth that can be generated is tied to this limited matter and energy. Wealth is amassed when energy is turned to matter, and wealth is distributed when matter is turned into energy. Material wealth, which is no more than an accoutrement to this world, is amassed at the expense of the authentic world, the world of plants and animals and people.
Soon we will be left with only this hollow replica of a world. It will be complete, right down to the hollow replica of our selves. This translucent lens in the infinite unconscious through which we cast our sorrowful gaze seems so fragile, as though it could shatter in a moment and leave us blind.