”There is no beast in the world so much to be feared by man as man.” It is quite a task to believe in the humanitarian project, knowing what humans are capable of being. We grow up believing that might does not equal right, that we are protected by Constitutions and laws. And then one day we are not. We bow down to the richest and the most cruel.
It is difficult to see anything other than darkness in such a world. Why even think about virtue in such a circumstance? Those rewarded are the most craven and self satisfied, the liars and cheaters. Why even concern oneself with foolish concepts like ethics?
I again return to where I left off—that hopeless causes are our destiny. If our hopes for humanity and ourselves rest on pragmatism and foolish belief in the goodness of people and the world, we surrender to endless disappointment. History may bend towards justice, but there are brutal bends of evil and destruction in that arc. We can only embrace what we believe to be beautiful, true and good, regardless of consequences or hope. We create hope for humanity one person at a time by making ourselves into the kind of people we deem worthy of our own faint hopes.