{"id":3223,"date":"2020-05-13T19:29:22","date_gmt":"2020-05-14T00:29:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/?p=3223"},"modified":"2020-05-13T19:30:31","modified_gmt":"2020-05-14T00:30:31","slug":"covid-19-is-a-cruel-reminder-of-the-human-condition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/2020\/05\/13\/covid-19-is-a-cruel-reminder-of-the-human-condition\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 is a cruel reminder of the human condition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"MinnPost\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

COMMUNITY VOICES<\/a>Community Voices features opinion pieces from a wide variety of authors and perspectives. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

COVID-19 is a cruel reminder of the human condition<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

By Monte Bute<\/a> | 05\/12\/2020\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSometimes people don\u2019t want to hear the truth,\u201d wrote Friedrich Nietzsche, \u201cbecause they don\u2019t want their illusions destroyed.\u201d Welcome to the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nfirst principle of the American creed is that world is redeemable. We\nbelieve that we are exempt from the constraints of the human condition. I\ndisagree. As Albert Camus suggests: We are Sisyphus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whatever\ntheir faith, ideology or party, most Americans are utopians. Since the Puritans\nwashed ashore and John Winthrop foresaw \u201ca city upon a hill,\u201d the American\nexperiment has been a perfectionist project, an exceptional escape from nature\nand history. No matter if you believe in free markets, a welfare state,\ndemocratic socialism or anarchism, your agenda is grounded upon an unshakable\nfaith in human perfectibility and the inevitability of creating a heaven on\nearth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Awash in cognitive dissonance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every\nso often, a calamity of such magnitude occurs that it shakes the foundations of\nour taken-for-granted reality. COVID-19 is such a moment. The United States is\nawash in cognitive dissonance: Our illusion is that America is redeemable, that\nthe Promised Land is just around the corner; the truth is that we are embedded\nin nature and history, tossed about by their unpredictable vicissitudes.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Monte<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Monte Bute<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe world is a hellish place,\u201d said singer-songwriter Tom\nWaits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all\nsocieties, power struggles between groups are ubiquitous and perennial. The\npowerful are predators who prey upon the vulnerable \u2014 they always have, and\nthey always will. In all environments, natural and human-made calamities are\nubiquitous and perennial. No amount of Shangri-La prophylactics will shield us\nfrom injustice and cruelty, from death and destruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To\nacknowledge this is not a brief for quietism; by no means does unblinkered\nrealism absolve us from acting against suffering, cruelty, and injustice.\nNevertheless, we are Sisyphus, forever condemned to push the rock of\nrighteousness up the mountain, only to see it roll back down, perpetually. The\nworld is not redeemable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nwhat if we have it all wrong? What if redemption is not a \u201cforever after\u201d\nthing? Perhaps it is more like extended epiphanies, interludes in which we\ntranscend our mundane lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Redemptive moments<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For\nsure, communities do not experience forever-after redemptions; nevertheless,\nthey do have redemptive episodes. Throughout history, exemplary communities\nhave stood up against pestilences, disasters, and social catastrophes like war,\nhuman slavery, ethnic cleansing, and climate change. Regrettably, too often\nthese redemptive communities have faced unresponsive dominant communities and\nnation states. In this time of COVID-19, our essential workers are redemptive\ncommunities, inspiring the rest of us to listen to our better angels, ignoring\nthe shrill voices of our demons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this plague, the selfless acts of courage rise to a heroic level when speaking of health care workers, first responders, transit workers, and workers in essential industries. At a more prosaic level, we must not overlook a contagion of kindness, the millions of small acts of care and compassion that emerge like blades of spring grass. Amidst all the death and destruction, this too is a redemptive moment in American history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Still, Camus closes \u201cThe Plague\u201d with a cautionary note:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNone\nthe less, he knew that the tale he had to tell could not be one of a final\nvictory. It could be only the record of what had to be done, and what would\nassuredly would have to be done again in the never-ending fight against terror\nand relentless onslaughts, despite their personal afflictions, by all who,\nwhile unable to be saints but refusing to bow down to pestilences, strive their\nutmost to be healers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nworld remains a hellish place. It cries out for our attention. We must create\nwhat Martin Luther King Jr. called \u201cbeloved communities\u201d who answer those pleas\nby pushing the rock of righteousness toward the peak, acting against suffering,\ncruelty, and injustice. I am one with Camus: \u201cThe struggle itself toward the\nheights is enough to fill a man\u2019s heart. One must\nimagine Sisyphus happy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monte\nBute teaches sociology and social science at Metropolitan State University in\nSt. Paul.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

COMMUNITY VOICESCommunity Voices features opinion pieces from a wide variety of authors and perspectives. COVID-19 is a cruel reminder of the human condition By Monte Bute | 05\/12\/2020 \u201cSometimes people don\u2019t want to hear the truth,\u201d wrote Friedrich Nietzsche, \u201cbecause they don\u2019t want their illusions destroyed.\u201d Welcome to the United States. The first principle of the American creed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3223"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3226,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3223\/revisions\/3226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/monte\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}