Gaze Into The Abyss

When we hear about something repugnant—whether it’s a mass murderer venting anger with a bomb or a semi-automatic rifle, or just a public figure or celebrity cheating to win, or using a repulsive term for other human beings—our first tendency is to put distance between us and the offender.  We become curious about them, but mostly to identify the ways in which we are not them.  ‘They did it because they’re a … Muslim Fundamentalist … crazed gun-nut … racist cracker … whatever; fill in the blanks.  The bottom line is that we feel some vindication in knowing that ‘we’ are not ‘them’, and could never do or say the horrific or objectionable thing that caught our attention. 

This is a totally understandable response, but is not productive.  As comforting as it is to distance ourselves from those we detest, insight is only gained when we look at how we are similar.  This is not the same as sympathizing with them – it’s just gaining knowledge.  When we deny our capacity for evil—whether in the form of religious or racial intolerance, uncontrolled anger, greed, or any number of other infractions—we erect a wall of cognitive dissonance, and through our willful blindness actually become more susceptible to manifesting evil. 

To borrow from Nietzsche, any claim on self-knowledge is limited until one is able to ‘gaze long into the abyss’, and honestly confront the specter which returns our attention.