This morning I was startled by reading a prose essay at Nothing Hypothetical, a place I usually go to be startled by truth tucked in between lines of poetry. Strangely, what David writes about has some parallels to my post just below, and so I thought it was appropriate to share a few thoughts from Love the One You're With here, and then, if you're interested, encourage you to read his whole essay there… We find that a noble endeavor becomes suddenly corrupted and corrupting to those involved. And if our well-meaning citizen who launched this project decides to bully everyone into cleaning up their involvement for the greater good, what then shall become of his heart?
The impulse to do good can be salvific. But if the pursuit of the good requires others to be subverted for your purpose the impulse leads to destruction. We cannot achieve our grand plan without the objectification of others. We must reduce them from persons to resources. If we think of them as persons freely loved, then our effectiveness in the pursuit of our goals is at risk.
We make up all manner of excuses. Beware sentences that contain categorical imperatives! But we must do this or we cannot have that. These are the words of autocrats to those they see as their subjects…
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