The words “cruel” and “cruelty” have been passing through my mind with regularity lately. Pretty obvious why, I’m sure.
One dictionary definition of cruelty is: “callous indifference to or pleasure in causing pain and suffering.”
A second is: “behavior that causes physical or mental pain to others and makes them suffer, especially deliberately.”
The result of an act of cruelty can be devastating.
Especially to any at whom it has been directed.
But what about the person fostering the act? What does that person feel?
I originally thought I could get an idea. Because certainly I have been what I consider cruel at times. I have become unfairly angry because of some minor problem. Perhaps I took my frustration out on an unfortunate representative of a company whose policy annoyed me and for whom the representative had no recourse but to follow the company line. I have become impatient with store clerks who couldn’t help me find the item I desired.
So how did it make me feel when I returned to a more rational state?
Not good. I recognized my bad behavior had hurt the individual who just happened to be in the way of my ire. I did not think highly of myself. If it was still possible, I apologized. I had been cruel, and it certainly didn’t make me feel good about myself.
But had I been cruel? All this remorse I felt seemed to fly in the face of the definitions given above. Where was the “callous indifference,” or “pleasure in causing pain and suffering,” or “makes them suffer, especially deliberately?”
Maybe there were better words than cruelty to describe my actions. Perhaps stupidity, selfishness, impatience or several others that seem to work. But, bad as my actions were, there was never any desire to hurt. At least I hope not.
I think truer examples of cruelty, examples that satisfy the definitions that include lack of caring about the people inflicted, can be found in our current national leadership. There are new examples emerging every day, coming so fast it’s hard to keep up.
Take the entire federal workforce, their retirement and security that had seemed so safe now threatened by fears of being fired.
Or the Dreamers who have spent the vast portion of their lives in the United States and are faced with removal to a country they don’t really know and certainly no longer is theirs. To make it worse, in Florida and some other states following the party line, Dreamers who are pursuing higher education have their hopes shattered because, without warning or reason, the state has decided to no longer permit them to pay in-state tuition.
Or all the illegal immigrants who face deportation to unsafe countries, perhaps with their children or perhaps not. Agreed, they are not here lawfully and this presents problems that must be solved, but they are humans with fears and aspirations like all of us.
All cruel examples, at least as far as the fostering of pain and suffering is concerned.
Now the question is, do those creating these and other situations feel any concern for those affected. Do people like Donald Trump or Elon Musk give one second’s thought to the plight of those they are targeting?
Or do those Trump has appointed to positions of power. Less clear, but they have already chosen the low road, putting aside any personal inclinations of decency in order to walk in the Master’s trail.
I have observed no feelings of concern or remorse from these and so many others.
So it turns out we have leaders and followers who are cruel according to the full definition of cruelty.
How can they live with themselves?
What pitiful beings they are!
One dictionary definition of cruelty is: “callous indifference to or pleasure in causing pain and suffering.”
A second is: “behavior that causes physical or mental pain to others and makes them suffer, especially deliberately.”
The result of an act of cruelty can be devastating.
Especially to any at whom it has been directed.
But what about the person fostering the act? What does that person feel?
I originally thought I could get an idea. Because certainly I have been what I consider cruel at times. I have become unfairly angry because of some minor problem. Perhaps I took my frustration out on an unfortunate representative of a company whose policy annoyed me and for whom the representative had no recourse but to follow the company line. I have become impatient with store clerks who couldn’t help me find the item I desired.
So how did it make me feel when I returned to a more rational state?
Not good. I recognized my bad behavior had hurt the individual who just happened to be in the way of my ire. I did not think highly of myself. If it was still possible, I apologized. I had been cruel, and it certainly didn’t make me feel good about myself.
But had I been cruel? All this remorse I felt seemed to fly in the face of the definitions given above. Where was the “callous indifference,” or “pleasure in causing pain and suffering,” or “makes them suffer, especially deliberately?”
Maybe there were better words than cruelty to describe my actions. Perhaps stupidity, selfishness, impatience or several others that seem to work. But, bad as my actions were, there was never any desire to hurt. At least I hope not.
I think truer examples of cruelty, examples that satisfy the definitions that include lack of caring about the people inflicted, can be found in our current national leadership. There are new examples emerging every day, coming so fast it’s hard to keep up.
Take the entire federal workforce, their retirement and security that had seemed so safe now threatened by fears of being fired.
Or the Dreamers who have spent the vast portion of their lives in the United States and are faced with removal to a country they don’t really know and certainly no longer is theirs. To make it worse, in Florida and some other states following the party line, Dreamers who are pursuing higher education have their hopes shattered because, without warning or reason, the state has decided to no longer permit them to pay in-state tuition.
Or all the illegal immigrants who face deportation to unsafe countries, perhaps with their children or perhaps not. Agreed, they are not here lawfully and this presents problems that must be solved, but they are humans with fears and aspirations like all of us.
All cruel examples, at least as far as the fostering of pain and suffering is concerned.
Now the question is, do those creating these and other situations feel any concern for those affected. Do people like Donald Trump or Elon Musk give one second’s thought to the plight of those they are targeting?
Or do those Trump has appointed to positions of power. Less clear, but they have already chosen the low road, putting aside any personal inclinations of decency in order to walk in the Master’s trail.
I have observed no feelings of concern or remorse from these and so many others.
So it turns out we have leaders and followers who are cruel according to the full definition of cruelty.
How can they live with themselves?
What pitiful beings they are!
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