Trying to work out an appropriate response to the situation I find myself in reminds me of E M Forster’s essay, written in the shadow of war in 1938, called What I Believe. In it, Forster advocates for ‘the sensitive, the considerate and the plucky’, and ‘creative actions and decent human relations’ which ‘occur during the intervals when force has not managed to come to the front’. In other words, he places value and trust in the human instincts towards kindness, generosity and empathy as the qualities which, while they will not overcome hatred and violence in a direct confrontation, will outlast them and return to ascendancy over the long term.
III: Sense making
III: Sense making
III: Sense making
Trying to work out an appropriate response to the situation I find myself in reminds me of E M Forster’s essay, written in the shadow of war in 1938, called What I Believe. In it, Forster advocates for ‘the sensitive, the considerate and the plucky’, and ‘creative actions and decent human relations’ which ‘occur during the intervals when force has not managed to come to the front’. In other words, he places value and trust in the human instincts towards kindness, generosity and empathy as the qualities which, while they will not overcome hatred and violence in a direct confrontation, will outlast them and return to ascendancy over the long term.