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Condition of Human Suffering

The idea of suffering as an infection of the human condition has been given new impetus in this age of instant media coverage. The starving child in Somalia, the raped woman in Bosnia, a plastique bomb in the Cambodian ballot box - these sufferings are seen the next day, sometimes the next hour, by millions of people continents removed from the tragedies. Such instant sharing of the suffering, on so large a scale, is something never before witnessed. Even the mass executions of the Holocaust in World War Two were hidden from view: millions died, the majority could not even suspect the horror.

This "insta-tragedy" communication of the CNN Generation results in twin responses, both highly understandable: numbed rejection of the information presented us and deeply abiding despair. Often the emotional responses are within the same person; the numbness is a survival instinct - no one can live with the sight of such suffering in one's eyes, unable to do something, without putting up a protective emotional buffer. Suddenly the ancient questions arise like daily mantras: Why is there so much suffering in this world? Why do human beings inflict so much pain upon one another? How can a good God allow so much evil?

Like all ancient howlings at the moon, there are ancient echoes in response. Suffering has been a part of the human condition since time immemorial: we are not the first generations to witness it, we are not the first ordinary human beings to question the basic nature of our existence. The scale is larger, true; the dichotomy between our comfortable living rooms and the baked-clay suffering on our television screens is in contrast greater than the experience of past generations ever had to reconcile, yes. But, if our witness to the world's suffering is at once more cosmopolitan and less hands-on than our predecessors', it in no way invalidates the insights that can be gained from studying their responses.

Besid...

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Condition of Human Suffering. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 03:25, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1705355.html