On Genocide and Hope: Part 2

Fear the Unseen

To recognize how, by nature, we have all been complicit in the holocausts of history is by no means to overlook the brutality of those who have situated themselves on their front lines. Rather, it is to have the courage to see what must be seen to create a future in which our shameful history is unable to repeat itself. We must abhor what has been done by evil people, not as hypocrites who use our abhorrence as a deferral away from our own complicity, but as those who see ourselves in the faces of the ones we sentence (i.e. The disciple Peter, not unlike Judas denied the Lord, and had his denial not been acknowledged and grieved, he too would have been susceptible to the legacy of Judas).

A weed in a garden, though identified as such when it emerges from the ground is not born at that moment, but is only then exposed. Its root system has already been established, and from the strength of this root structure it is driven to the surface of the earth. If left to grow, the weed will overtake the garden, but a good gardener will pull it, roots and all, from the ground before it reaches maturity. Too many weeds have been ignored in recent world history until it was too late, when much desirable life had already been lost to feed its roots. But in a sense, the weed that is exposed has lost much of its power for it can then be eliminated. Therefore, it should be not the weed that appears that is feared, but the weed that has not yet appeared, for this weed is free to develop its roots under the cover of earth. We have not looked deeply enough in our attempts to expose the causes of genocide, for that which we hope to uproot is hidden under the cover of our surface existence. It is not, therefore, some impersonal institution over society that is the cause of this evil, nor is it certain possessed personalities who dictate over society, these only summon the cause, but it is a voice deep within every human being which is to blame, holding its tongue until given permission to speak by the institution to which it submits.

We must then be even more keen than the good gardener and have our sights set on the eradication of not only that which is seen but also on that which is unseen.