Despite what we might see in the news every day we ought to have more faith in each other, and in the goodness borne of our shared humanity.
Look past the white supremacists and the payday loan sharks, the sexual predators, and murderers. Those are only news-worthy because they’re so abnormal. The average person is by-and-large a decent and moral spirit, capable of insane feats of good in the defense of or for the advancement of others.
That’s the salve at the end of any of a dozen local news hour broadcasts after a litany of robbery and murder reports: that the young man who carried an old lady’s groceries 13 blocks out of his way when he saw her struggling; the couple who raised funds for a homeless vet they encountered on a rainy night – they’re symbols of all that’s true and right in the world.
The internet would beg to differ, I think.
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I find myself more afraid of my fellow man by the week. As Chrissy Teigen shared news of delivery complications and the death of her child, I was confused by the twitter-fingers who accused her of using her tragedy for publicity, addressing her in terms too wicked to repeat.
And when Justice Ginsberg died a few days ago, the pace with which the political machinery on the Republican side of our political divide spun up to profit, cursing her memory all the way to eternity.
Feels cliche to ask, but…what is wrong with people? When did it become okay to greet death with such glee?
It’s not a recent phenomenon, something that’s joined us with the other horrors of 2020. People are just truly poor to each other.
No matter how many times I recycle and purge my twitter follows I can’t seem to escape the cesspool of horrors Twitter so easily becomes. On all sides. For no reason. Because Lizzo is bigger than you would like. Because Meghan and Harry are leaving the royal family. Because Xhaka misplaced a pass and conceding a goal.
I recall dismissing online trolls as keyboard warriors happy to be brave on the internet but who would never keep that same energy in real life. Then Charlottesville happened, and those same keyboard warriors marched by the hundreds. Their leader felt comfortable enough to star in a Vice special. Forget hiding behind a keyboard; man wanted a camera!
I’m told I should dismiss them as fringe lunatics, the most vocal and heavily armed of a significantly outnumbered minority. That most people are still “good.” But what does that mean, exactly?
Who then are the millions of voters happy to stand by a morally bankrupt and truly destructive leader? And this goodness of ours…is this a recent thing? Because I have binders full of unspeakable tragedies our forefathers committed against each other for millennia.
And those feel-good news stories? Psh. The strangers raising money for a homeless vet that helped them in the night? Scam. Which….now that I think about it, makes sense.
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People love a good heart-warming yarn, and I see the appeal. Assessing humanity by its more common tendencies is uncomfortable and self-implicating. But if we can’t call out the problem we can’t fix it. We can’t raise our children differently, with as much focus on grace and empathy as we put on competition and advancement. We can’t pray.
“The heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked.” Our goal every day should be a little less of both of those things.