The Worst Thing

I think one of the worst things is to not recognize the worst things, going on in your time. Because, by virtue of it being everywhere, you are inured to it. Like the Holocaust in Nazi Germany, like Slavery in the (Christian) American South. Like infanticide in most of the pre-Christian cultures of the earth. And we say, "If I had been in the South when preachers defended slavery.....If I had been in Germany when Hitler was running for office....If I had been a Roman woman ordered to expose her infant...."

But it's hardest to see one's own culture's blindspot. The particular segment of people that your culture has decided to dehumanize, (Jews, Africans, newborns...)

This is ours.

And we can't just say its the way the world works. Anymore then the Southern Christians could say that slavery was just the way the world was. Or the Germans say that Jews just were going to be gassed and that's that, and it's better ignore this, so we can focus on bigger issues, like economic justice and making sure there's a chicken in every pot. (Not that we shouldn't care about poverty, education gaps, etc. But we need to get our priorities straight)