{"id":18029,"date":"2017-01-31T11:20:48","date_gmt":"2017-01-31T16:20:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=18029"},"modified":"2017-01-31T11:20:48","modified_gmt":"2017-01-31T16:20:48","slug":"taking-satisfaction-from-politics-in-the-face-of-injustice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=18029","title":{"rendered":"taking satisfaction from politics in the face of injustice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sorrow everywhere. Slaughter everywhere. If babies
\nare not starving someplace, they are starving
\nsomewhere else. With flies in their nostrils.
\nBut we enjoy our lives because that\u2019s what God wants.
\nOtherwise the mornings before summer dawn would not
\nbe made so fine. The Bengal tiger would not
\nbe fashioned so miraculously well. The poor women
\nat the fountain are laughing together between
\nthe suffering they have known and the awfulness
\nin their future, smiling and laughing while somebody
\nin the village is very sick.<\/p>\n

— From<\/em>\u00a0Jack Gilbert, “A Brief for the Defense<\/a>.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On Saturday, I ate\u00a0my\u00a050th birthday dinner with my beloved wife and younger daughter in a restaurant in Cambridge, MA. While we waited for the check, we heard about the protest at Logan Airport and decided to go. I then watched two of my favorite people stand against injustice in the company of a large and passionate band of our fellow citizens.<\/p>\n

To say that I enjoyed<\/em> my birthday evening\u00a0seems wrong. It sounds a bit like saying, “The US Coast Guard turned the refugee-laden ship St Louis<\/a> away from Miami in May 1939, and 254 of the passengers were soon murdered in the Holocaust, but I enjoyed standing on the dock with a ‘Let them in!’ sign.”<\/p>\n

But there is another way of looking at these situations. Politics is often about cruelty and injustice. Sometimes\u00a0the\u00a0people who respond with optional political actions–like carrying signs in Logan’s Terminal E–are not directly at risk. We\u00a0may\u00a0nevertheless take satisfaction from our\u00a0political action if we\u00a0contribute, in some ultimate way, to a better world.<\/p>\n

For one thing, we\u00a0should draw satisfaction because that motivates more activity. If politics is mere sacrifice,\u00a0everyone except the most direct victims (the ones with their backs to the wall) will drop out sooner or later. I think it’s wise for activists to advertise the\u00a0emotional benefits of\u00a0action.<\/p>\n

More than that, we should\u00a0<\/em>take satisfaction from politics, even if others are suffering while we are safe, because consequential public\u00a0action is part of a\u00a0dignified life–an aspect of dignity\u00a0too often denied to us by bureaucracies and markets. Hannah Arendt thought that the American Framers originally revolted\u00a0in defense of their own private liberties, but they discovered, as they made the new republic together, that \u201cno one could be called happy without his share in public happiness, that no one could be called free without his experience in public freedom, and that no one could be called either happy or free without participating, and having a share, in public business” (On Revolution<\/em>,\u00a0\u00a0p. 247). Lin-Manuel Miranda captures that feeling at the very end of Hamilton<\/em>, when his\u00a0hero sings, “I wrote some notes at the beginning of a song someone will sing for me. America, you great unfinished symphony, you sent for me. You let me make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

We\u00a0shouldn’t wish<\/em> for injustices so that we\u00a0can make a difference. (Young-man Hamilton does–singing “God, I wish there was a war! \/\u00a0Then we could prove that we\u2019re worth more \/
\nThan anyone bargained for\u2026”–but he outgrows that sentiment.) When, however, we are confronted with injustices that we did not<\/em> choose, we may take some joy from rising up\u00a0together with those we love:<\/p>\n

For mighty were the auxiliars which then stood
\nUpon our side, we who were strong in love!
\nBliss was it in that dawn to be alive.
\n[…]
\nNow was it that both found, the meek and lofty
\nDid both find, helpers to their heart’s desire,
\nAnd stuff at hand, plastic as they could wish;
\nWere called upon to exercise their skill,
\nNot in Utopia, subterranean fields,
\nOr some secreted island, Heaven knows where!
\nBut in the very world, which is the world
\nOf all of us,–the place where in the end
\nWe find our happiness, or not at all!<\/p>\n

– Wordsworth, “The French Revolution<\/a>“<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

See also:\u00a0unhappiness and injustice are different problems<\/a>\u00a0; you have a right and a responsibility to attend to your own happiness<\/a>;\u00a0notes on Hannah Arendt\u2019s On Revolution<\/a>; and\u00a0Mill\u2019s question: If you achieved justice, would you be happy?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sorrow everywhere. Slaughter everywhere. If babies are not starving someplace, they are starving somewhere else. With flies in their nostrils. But we enjoy our lives because that\u2019s what God wants. Otherwise the mornings before summer dawn would not be made so fine. The Bengal tiger would not be fashioned so miraculously well. The poor women […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18029"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18036,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18029\/revisions\/18036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}