The Spokane Record

I recall reading of two basic responses to trouble experienced by a large group, a community, a race.  Let us say a race or a large group encounters grave trouble, disaster, deep economic despair.  Let us also say the trouble is random, that it is a matter of fate, or that if there is a cause the cause is so overdetermined that no chain of events can honestly be identified to make sense of why disaster has befallen the community.

One general response is to bemoan the disaster and to try to blame it on this or that cause.  This or that person or group that was responsible for the disaster.  To blame it on God or this or that god or diety.  Certainly not to blame it on oneself.

Another general response is to acknowledge the disaster and its effects and its future effect and to take action.  The first action of the this group is to find fault in themselves for the disaster, to in essence place the responsibility for it the members of the group, to take on the guilt as a group for the disaster.  And, in doing so find standards and rules and aspirations for the betterment of the group.

I am going to check my library to see if I cannot find the source of these thoughts.  I know they are not my own.  But, they sure have an appeal.  In a way they are like the words of Aleksandr Solzenitsyn when he spoke of “repentence and self-limitation.”   See this article.

I think the thoughts come from a book written by Sigmund Frued at the very end of his life entitled Moses and Monotheism.  Here is a New York Times article about this book and Dr. Frued.

The lesson I think I see is this:  That we as a people can do well by ourselves and our fellows if we look within to find strength to take on the problems we face instead of looking outside of ourselves for a cause or a scapegoat or a “reason.”

The Painted Veil is a 1925 novel by W. Somerset Maugham.   It is well worth reading in these troubled and sad times.  So often we think we can judge the character of a person.  We act as if to say what we know of a person is what we will know of that person for the rest of that person’s life.  This is not true.  The Painted Veil reminds us of the reality of redemption.