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Our responses to the distress of other human beings are, I think, actually determined by the depth of our aversion to feeling powerless to help. Think about it: we almost always more or less glaze over in the face of the simplest suffering, unless we have strong reason to believe (or even compelling proof) that we can be effective in changing the situation. …
I believe we are so deeply thrilled when we see others having any sort of impact, no matter how modest, because it alleviates, at least temporarily, that deeper worry that there is, in a sense, no hope for us – that there is no way for us to go back for all the people we know perfectly well have been left behind. …
I would suggest that this is perhaps the greatest dilemma that we face today – it is not that the solutions to our problems don’t exist – either in the world or within our own minds. It is rather that we lack the confidence and sense of security that would allow us to express, or even to insist upon, the pursuit of those ideas.
"Jody Lewen, Prison University Project. Keynote Address from the UC Berkeley December Graduation Ceremony
(Source: prisonuniversityproject.org)
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