Activist Quote of the Week: Mother Theresa and "The One"
Published March 03, 2009 @ 08:00AM PT
(A new weekly series, and hopefully fodder for discussion. Starting, now.)
"If I look at the mass I will never act. If I look at the one, I will."
-- Mother Theresa
I came across this quote in an article by Meredith LaFrance in the Oregon Daily Emerald, the newspaper of the University of Oregon. In the piece, titled "The cost of human indifference," LaFrance posits that "endless statistics" of death tolls have left many "immune" or "numb" to the horror of the act of genocide. Rather than grappling with --- or glossing over --- staggering stastics, LaFrance writes, "we must think in terms of smaller groups of people and even individuals."
I agree. It's easy to get lost in statistics, and to loss site of exactly what it is that makes genocide and other forms of mass killing so horrific to begin with: The tragic loss of innocent life, the destruction of families and communities, and a multitude of pain and suffering that we cannot even begin to imagine.
But what do y'all think? Do overwhelming statistics alienate people from the anti-genocide cause? How do we maintain a (non-patronizing/condescending) focus on the individuals caught up in genocide? Talk amongst yourselves. (Or, preferably, in the comments section.)
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Comments (1)
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Author
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Michelle became involved in the anti-genocide cause at a young age, and has been involved in various activist endeavors, including the Teach Against Genocide pilot campaigns, ever since.
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I think this is a fascinating question. I really liked Nicholas Kristof's discussion of the psychological studies around the impact of masses vs. individuals in his article "Save the Darfur Puppy" - http://select.nytimes.com/2007/05/10/opinion/10kristof.html?_r=1
"In one experiment, psychologists asked ordinary citizens to contribute $5 to alleviate hunger abroad. In one version, the money would go to a particular girl, Rokia, a 7-year-old in Mali; in another, to 21 million hungry Africans; in a third, to Rokia - but she was presented as a victim of a larger tapestry of global hunger.
Not surprisingly, people were less likely to give to anonymous millions than to Rokia. But they were also less willing to give in the third scenario, in which Rokia's suffering was presented as part of a broader pattern."
That last part poses the biggest challenge to us - because, of course, genocide IS the broader pattern.
Posted by Martha Heinemann Bixby on 03/03/2009 @ 12:13PM PT
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