Throughout human life, it is generally assumed that one must witness other's miseries or tragedy at some point in time, whether it is during early childhood, adolescence or even adulthood. It is inevitable that most if not all people will stumble, willing or unwilling, upon the sufferings of other people. Take the homeless for example, or the more colloquial term, "hobos". As a child, I would look upon these poor and usually old men (women too) and tug at my parents shirts to donate an "adequate" amount of cash so we could aid them. "Adequate" to me at the time was about three bucks, as that was more than enough pocket money for me at the time. Growing up, I began to saw more and more of these homeless people. Until present day, I have become so accustomed to the sight of these homeless people and as insensitive and unsympathetic it may sound, I do not even stop to glance at them. This "adaptation" can be applied towards the feelings of guilt as well. The more often one is witnessing events unappealing to the eye, or the more one commits an action well-deserving of guilt, is it not that our feelings would dull and dampen towards that certain action?
The bottom line is, human beings can not constantly feel guilty towards things. In fact, I believe many human emotions subside after a certain period of time. It is similar to feeling grief over a death. Over a long period of time, one starts to forget and not think about it. This has relation to Ursula K. Le Guin's "Those Who Walk Away From Omelas". What I understand from the story is that the child has already been locked up in the room for a seemingly lengthy period of time. The citizens of Omelas have also made it into tradition to treat the child with such an atrocious manner. It may be possible that the people did feel some sort of guilt at first, but after abusing the child becoming a daily and normal thing, they stopped feeling it.
Although we can not constantly feel guilt, it can still occur again from time to time. Once again, I believe that the repetition of action and being able to see others' misery to cause for the inability to continue feeling guilt for one thing or event.
Hi Sherman,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your thoughts - you make a compelling argument! Using real-life and personal examples, you show that (in many cases) it is easy - and often necessary - to forget about guilt. We adapt, as you say, to feelings of guilt. Just like the people of Omelas, we get used to the idea that our happiness depends on the suffering of others. Or, perhaps we feel that our happiness isn't at all connected to their suffering.
I urge you to keep thinking about this question. Specifically, does guilt always take on the same form? Isn't possible to carry guilt with us (in different forms) forever? Take the current environmental movement, for example. We all learn that we should feel guilty about our impact on the world. Because of this, MANY people have chosen to change the way they live. Isn't it arguable that they carry their guilt with them in their actions - in their new found (more sustainable) life style?
- Patrick