As We Go Into 2014, Remember that Decency and Goodness Are Powerful Forces

I’m sorry I forgot to mention the birthday of Pablo Casals the other day, unarguably the most revered cellist in the first half of the 20th Century.  He’s noteworthy here because of his opposition to fascism, and the fact that he was an active campaigner for peace all his life.

Casals said: “Each person has inside a basic decency and goodness. If he listens to it and acts on it, he is giving a great deal of what it is the world needs most. It is not complicated but it takes courage. It takes courage for a person to listen to his own goodness and act on it.”

I’m reminded of a talk I had with a friend recently about all the things that are wrong with our Western Civilization: the demise of the middle class, our unsustainable approach to energy and the consumption of our natural resources, etc.  My friend offered some statistics on how deeply dissatisfied a growing number of people are with the course our society is taking, and even mentioned the possibility of a revolution.

To me, the concept of any kind of armed revolution in our 21st Century world is unthinkable.  Regardless of how bad things get, we’re far past the point where physical violence has any chance of succeeding; we’re no longer fighting with muskets and bayonets. 

What I do think possible, however, is to “out-love” our enemies.  What Casals said above is right, and when you add all that up, you arrive at a staggering amount of decency and goodness in the world — and perhaps this does, in fact, give the world what it needs most.  

In particular, I think it’s quite possible that awareness of what’s right and wrong on this planet swells to the point that we use all this kindness to “just say no” to the clowns trying to sell us ideas designed only to enrich themselves at our expense: a deregulated Wall Street, climate change denial, justification for dumping poison into our oceans and skies, increased division between rich and poor, etc.

May 2014 be the year all this kindness manifests itself.