We can no longer deny the overwhelming presence and power of darkness in a world that needs light now more than ever. I do not dispute the claim that the triumph of darkness, if that ever occurs, can only be temporary and that light does eventually win. However, I dispute the idea that darkness can never triumph over light because it does. Those who have not yet seen, or have not been cognizant of the state of our current world, are still allowed to downplay the presence and power of darkness, but only until they can sincerely reclaim and exercise their God-given ability to be self-conscious. Then they can also embrace the responsibility that we all have to affirm and deal sincerely with the awful state of the world in which we now live.
There is light; but then there is darkness. To the extent that we believe that darkness represents something bad and light represents only good, it seems to me that humanity’s entire existence has largely been a battle to suppress darkness in myriad forms – darkness in our physical lives, our spiritual lives, our personal and/or professional lives, our family and community lives…our national lives. Every time it appears that light and its purveyors have won, darkness comes sweeping egregiously to the fore, aided by people and circumstances that give it roots and nurture. So, it becomes very hard for mere humans to understand and make sense of the dizzying realities of a life and world that they hardly understand.
We are all subject to the vagaries of life and none is free from them; nor does any know what afflicts the other better than he/she who is afflicted. However, even for the afflicted, a presence of self is often required to be able to see clearly through the haze of darkness that tends to accompany many human experiences.
The 19th Century philosopher, Jacques Rousseau summed this up perfectly when, in the opening statement of The Social Contract, he wrote that “Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains”. If anyone has ever considered those words quaint, time-constrained or anachronistic, the world in which we have lived over the last century has proven that what is indeed anachronistic and shortsighted is the very idea that anyone may have that Rousseau may have looked in the wrong crystal ball.
Hunger, poverty, strife, disease, fraud, deceit and bigotry are ravaging societies around the world. We are destroying our environment, oppressing the less privileged, stealing from others and selling them the false idea that they can only experience light if they give the little that they have to increase the already-saturated bank accounts of their oppressors. Elected officials are taking earned privileges away from ordinary citizens that they are supposed to protect and some of us maintain cheerleading roles for those officials despite knowing in our hearts that they are wrong. Therefore, we side with dishonesty at the expense of honesty; with theft instead of recompense; and with hate instead of love. These are all representations of darkness and the fact that they are spreading like wildfire concerns me greatly – and I am not alone.
It seems to me there is a pall of darkness hovering over our world. How else does one explain the ascent to power of so many dictators who have no regard for human life? Why is our world currently experiencing the rise of bigoted and xenophobic people in so many corridors of power? Why do we keep quiet when so many women and children in our world are in constant danger of injury at the hands of people who ought to protect them? Why are houses of worship serving as auction houses for the clerics who lead them? Why are wicked, unconscionable and lying bigots taking over the reins of power in countries where that was previously unimaginable? Why is violence being increasingly perpetrated in immeasurable proportions while the powerful watch from their glass houses and do nothing to remedy the situation? Why is it that people who once told us that some behaviors were wrong now tell us that the same behaviors are right? Why do people who once preached love now practice hate? Why is lying now celebrated above truth telling in high places, even by people who put themselves out as arbiters of morality? Why are humans so increasingly judgmental even at a time when one would imagine that we know much more about each other and should understand the value and power of acceptance? Why is “otherism” a growing phenomenon when mutual understanding and tolerance should predominate? I do not know the answer to any of these questions but it seems to me that across and within this disheartening trend lies a common denominator that can be summed up in one word: darkness
Despite my lack of answers, however, I think about these things because I want to understand them even as my mind tells me that I cannot because I am only human. Yet, although I am conscious of my fallibility and frailties, I am also concerned about the world in which my grandchildren will live. I am concerned that our world is getting darker as hope increasingly fades in the minds and projections of those of us who want very much to think that the world about which we dreamed may not have been utopian but was at least possible. As we destroy our environment, hate one another, kill the idea of selflessness, embrace religion while we abandon even the spiritual foundations of the religions that we profess, turn our backs on our mirrors and close the windows into our hearts, I am bothered about the future of this otherwise beautiful world.
Even now, I am bothered by the fact that I live in a world in which darkness in so many forms has increasingly taken residence but I am more bothered by the fact that too many people are silent at best, while many others that one once considered to be advocates of goodness have become complicit trumpeters of hate as our world marches toward doom. Hate, dishonesty and oppression are not virtues by any standards and nobody is a paragon of virtue whose character can be described by any of these characteristics, regardless of the status of that individual in any society. Those who are complicit in the expressions of these characteristics are just as guilty in darkening our world.
For God’s sake, let us take a breath and re-evaluate what we are doing. We need to be messengers of good, carriers of love and agents of light to halt the powerful force of darkness and assure the triumph of light in a world that so desperately needs it.
This superlative exposition touches the very soul of every human being that is endowed with a modicum of decency. While at this point in human history, it may seem as if there is a tidal wave of darkness that threatens to eclipse all the benevolent forces on earth, I proffer that there is hope. The world has survived two world wars and other tragedies dot the human history. So, I believe this demented moral arc will ultimately take a different turn.