by Christine Barie (artist) & Kathie Malley-Morrison
Tag: moral engagement
Uncovering the antidote for dehumanization
by Christine Barie (artist)
Note from Kathie MM: It’s easy these days to see moral disengagement operating everywhere—those corrupt and vicious ways of thinking and arguing that allow individuals to abandon moral principles and behave inhumanely to fellow human beings. What victories the wielders of moral disengagement have seized—persuading people to feel good about doing harm, virtuous about participating in killing and torture, justified in behaving inhumanely to other human beings.
One of the principal ways of morally disengaging from moral principles like the Golden Rule is dehumanizing your chosen enemies—as described in earlier posts (see here and here ) and as illustrated in Christine Barie’s cartoon on Monday March 26, 2019.
In today’s cartoon, Christine reminds us that just as history is filled with examples of powerful leaders who manipulate fear and promote hatred in and for the oppressed and vulnerable members of society, history and herstory are also full of brave individuals who recognize the common humanity of all. These men and women, who empathize and connect with fellow humans scorned and mistreated by society’s power structures, are models of moral engagement, inspiring us to embrace “the other.”
Voting as an Act of Moral Engagement, Part 2
by Rev Dr Doe West
On my wall, there is a collection of photos and quotes freeing my spirit to find expression and, I hope, evoking compassion and empathy from all those who see it and so see me.
The photos on my wall include:
The Unknown Protester, the unidentified man who stood in front of a column of tanks on June 5, 1989, the morning after the Chinese military had forcefully suppressed the Tiananmen Square protests.
Quang Duc, the Buddhist monk who burned himself to death on a Saigon street June 11, 1963, to protest alleged persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government;
John Filo’s Pulitzer Prize–winning photograph of Mary Ann Vecchio, a 14-year-old runaway kneeling over the body of Jeffrey Miller minutes after he was fatally shot by the Ohio National Guard at Kent State;
The rail fence where Matthew Shepard was tied, bludgeoned, and left to die on the cold high prairie—stark statement of the hatred directed at the LGBTQ community;
Ada Wright, lying on the ground being beaten and kicked for fighting, along with all the other Suffragettes, for my (and all women’s!) right to vote.
I could cover an entire building with photos of resistance, recovery, and resurrection. These images speak millions of words directly from my inner spirit to my outward actions.
What images move you? In particular, what image will move you to vote on November 6? The latest mass shooting? Continuing photos of desperate children and desperate parents separated from each other? Starving polar bears?
Photos abound of faces contorted in rage and hatred; bodies twisted in portrayals of mockery; acts of violence against the freedom of the press. But there are also images of survival and hope such as the one of The Unknown Protestor, and the one of Mary Ann Vecchio that begins this post. Perhaps both types will motivate you to the same actions.
I feel the need to cry out and plead for us all to nurture our moral engagement, promote the moral engagement of others, and allow that moral engagement to compel us into political engagement on behalf of the grandest moral principle of all—the Golden Rule. Find the candidates who support love, not hate; truth, not lies; peace, not war; social justice, not discrimination. Regardless of any sense of disillusionment or hopelessness that might cause you to hesitate to vote, do your best to find the most worthy candidates, vote for them, and use all you have learned to prepare to do even better in the next election.
This is YOUR vote to cast. Your moral engagement to act upon.
As Linda Dupre urged in her comment on my last blog post: VOTING MATTERS!
Voting as an Act of Moral Engagement, Part 1
by Rev Dr Doe West
I was reflecting on Kathie MM’s post on “You don’t have to be Martin Luther King Jr.” (to be morally engaged). As she explained in an earlier post, “Moral engagement requires moral courage–that is, a commitment to behaving morally in regards to others despite social pressures to participate in or passively comply with policies and actions that are hurtful to others.”
The concept of moral engagement was one that drew me to my work as a social justice activist. My initial belief was that moral engagement was readily achievable and I just needed to be a good student and learn about it so I could function consistently as a morally engaged person!
Then I learned about ‘dual process theory’ concerning human moral judgment—a theory holding that humans have both emotion-based and rationality-based cognitive subsystems that compete in a manner that would, in essence, thwart any attempts at consistent moral engagement. Of course, I was morally indignant at that idea. Then I sat down and thought through all the forces that make it easier to morally disengage (by separating moral beliefs from conduct so we don’t have to sustain self-condemnation when we’re hurtful to others) than to morally engage, which constantly calls for moral courage.
Being a social justice activist does require moral courage. It requires faithfully looking for opportunities to do good even when hatred, prejudice, and violence dominate the headlines. It means opening your heart to the suffering of others, and endeavoring to reach out even when dealing with the inevitable pain and suffering that attacks all of us at times.
I believe fervently that in a democracy, moral engagement presses us to get out the vote–and more than that. It presses us to look for, support, and promote candidates who have the potential for moral engagement themselves if they have the backing of enough people striving for peace and social justice. Be one. Please.