Aging Capriciously

I have advice from a respected friend who says it is better to be positive than negative.  Generally, I think there is much truth to his comment.  Pessimists, cynics, skeptics, and critics seem to live hard unhappy lives.  Studies show that though optimists may not live as long as pessimists, they live happier lives.  We can look around us and see misery, inhumanity and poverty or we can look around and find kindness, generosity and love.  So why would I write about “man’s inhumanity to man?”  Perhaps I cannot give you a good reason.  Sometimes it just seems so egregious to me and terrible that I feel the need to condemn it.  I can not always have a “Happy Face” in light of the inhumanity that I see displayed by other human beings.

I am not talking about a specific act of cruelty or any one specific act that has recently found its way into the local headlines.  There are all too many such acts that get talked about in bars, coffee shops and at supper time.  I am also not talking about random acts of gratuitous violence.  Those bizarre murders and mayhem that are perpetrated by some warped sadistic mind.   Neither am I talking about the violence you see nightly on TV.  I wish I were.  I could simply write any of these acts off as aberrations and forget them.  Much more sadly, I am talking about our ongoing and seemingly endless ability to inflict cruelty on each other.  I am talking about the many instances of cruelty and mayhem that scream forth from the four corners of the earth yesterday, today and tomorrow.  The violence that never seems to end as each day the sun rises and sets upon the globe.  I am talking about the barrage of meanness that we inflict on each other every single day, 365 days of the year and 24 hours each day. Some days it seems like such depravity will never end and that it is more prevalent than God, love or kindness.

I am thinking about the wars, crusades, holocausts, inquisitions, witch hunts, gangland violence, prostitution, child abuse, genocide, domestic abuse, road rage and torture which stalk our world.   I am thinking about a so called justice system which values retribution over reformation.  An “Eye for an Eye” says the Lord and we go one further and extract two eyes for one and two pounds of flesh for one.  All too often the gore and savageness and mayhem seem to be enjoyed.  I have seen pictures of African Americans burned with charred bodies hanging from trees and crowds standing around smiling and posing for pictures.  I have seen videos of people rampaging in the street and beating innocent bystanders to death while laughing and joking.  I have seen pictures of people mutilating and defiling bodies that they have murdered of people who belonged to a different religion.  The visions of destruction and disaster in this world are all too often punctuated by smiling fiends who seem to extract joy and happiness from the cruelty they inflict on others.

Azucena, the daughter of a Gypsy burnt by a wealthy and powerful Count, is haunted by her duty to avenge her mother. Azucena confesses to her lover that after stealing the Count’s baby she had intended to burn his little son along with her mother, but overwhelmed by the screams and the gruesome scene of her mother’s execution, she became confused and threw her own child into the flames instead.  This plot forms the basis for the opera Il Trovatore by Verdi and from which the following aria is drawn (Aria: Stride la vampa / “The flames are roaring!”).   The aria by Verdi describes the glee and joy on the faces of those watching as Azucena’s mother is thrown on the raging pyre and burned to death.  If you want to hear the aria, (Click on the title), it is much more haunting than the words which have been translated below.

Stride la vampa!

Shrieks the pyre!
The furious throng
rushes to that fire
with a happy guise;
screams of joy
echoing around;
surrounded by ruffians
the woman is brought forward!
Evilness shining
on their horrible faces
by the somber flame
that rises to the sky!
Shrieks the pyre!
The victim comes out
black dressed,
disheveled, barefoot!
A fierce yell
lethal it blares;
the echo resonates
from hill to hill!
Evilness shining
on their horrible faces
by the somber flame
that rises to the sky!  From Il Trovatore by Verdi

I imagine similar scenes took place at the Roman Circus and inquisition not to mention the thousands of lynchings that took place in the USA during the 20^th Century.  It is easy to point the finger at other people, but in many respects, we all participate vicariously in such violence.   Our popular movies and TV shows depict brutishness, gore and revenge that we all tune into daily.   The final scene of most “action adventure” shows is usually an uber-violent showdown between the good “guy” and the bad “guy.”  Iconic movies like Dirty Harry, Death Wish, Rocky and Star Wars are all about catharsis and retribution.  We sit through two hours of these movies waiting for our hero to get his retaliation.  We identify with our heroes/heroines need to get revenge in the most sadistic means possible.

A recent movie by Sylvester Stallone (Bullet to the Head) has a final scene in which the hero (who is a hit-man) faces off against a former Special Forces operative who is now a mercenary.  An ironic turn of events has us rooting for the hit man rather than the former Special Forces man.  The weapons of choice are fire axes which they wield in their battle against each other.  Nothing like chopping up your adversary to get even!  It is rumored that Mr. Stallone is making another “Rocky” movie.

In the famous movie “Runaway Train,” there is a scene of intense violence where our “Hero,” an escaped convict, is beating his friend to death.  A mechanic on the train (played by Rebecca De Mornay) stops the violent beating and says to Jon Voight, “You’re a monster.”  Jon answers “No Worse, a human.”  The final scene in the Runaway Train depicts the revenge and retribution enacted between Voight and his nemesis, the prison commandant.  Again, somewhat ironically, we are cheering for the arch-violent escaped convict against the prison commandment who has, although perhaps overzealous in his job, the legitimacy of the law behind him.  However, retribution and revenge are not about logic or even right and wrong.  There is an animal emotionalism that overtakes us that puts our vaunted logic and cognition on the scrap pile.  Thus, we will even take the “wrong” side to see that revenge is enacted or that “justice” is played out.  Our animal instincts routinely over ride our human instincts.

Herein lays the problem with “humanity.”  We prefer to call this evil emotional and irrational side of us, inhumanity, but as Voight noted, it is nothing less than our humanity.  We are not inhuman; we are simply and truly human.

Inhumanity: Noun

Cruelty, atrocity, brutality, ruthlessness, barbarism, viciousness, heartlessness, unkindness, brutishness, cold-bloodedness, pitilessness, cold-heartedness, hardheartedness, the inhumanity of war.

Have you ever wondered how anyone could pay money to attend a Roman Circus wherein they would watch humans being torn to bits by animals and gladiators?  Have you ever wondered how anyone could enjoy watching someone burn to death at a witch hunt?  Have you ever wondered how anyone could eat popcorn at a lynching?  It is generally hard for most of us to conceive of getting enjoyment from such brutality, at least when we are in our “human” mode.

However, have you ever gone to a football game, mixed martial arts match, karate tournament, hockey game, wrestling match or boxing match?  You can see the same raw animal emotionalism here infusing the crowd as they participate vicariously in the combat.  At all of these so called entertainment events, we suspend our concern for the well-being of others while we obtain vicarious enjoyment derived from watching others getting beaten and pummeled in a pantomime of war and revenge.  Perhaps, years from now our amusement at these events will rank on a par with the satisfaction our ancestors derived from witch burnings and lynchings.  You can argue that these modern events are mostly without the blood and gore of the Roman Circus but that is not always the case and it would probably not discourage anyone from buying tickets to these shows.  In fact, so much the better for ticket sales if some blood and gore and violence does emerge to “spice” up the show.

Man Was Made To Mourn:  A Dirge, by George Burns

“Many and sharp the num’rous ills
Inwoven with our frame!
More pointed still we make ourselves,
Regret, remorse, and shame!
And man, whose heav’n-erected face
The smiles of love adorn, –
Man’s inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn!

Time for Questions:

Is there a cure for “inhumanity” or more honestly our “humanity?”  Do you get your violence thrills vicariously by watching others commit mayhem?  What need do you think this violence satisfies in people. What can we do to help insure that all people are treated humanely?  What will it take to get rid of our desire for revenge and retribution?  Can you ever see a time when kindness will trump cruelty? Are humans always destined for war and violence?  Did Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed and Moses preach the wrong message?  What would they say about the violence we view almost daily?

Life is just beginning.