The Brain-Dead Megaphone

I keep rereading the essay "Thought Experiment" by George Saunders.

"If, at the moment when someone cuts us off in traffic or breaks our heart or begins bombing our ancestral village, we could withdraw from judging mode, and enter this other, more accepting mode, we would, paradoxically, make ourselves more powerful. By resisting the urge to reduce, in order to subsequently destroy, we keep alive--if only for a few seconds more--the possibility of transformation."

For some time, I've been struggling to wrap my head around people who label others as "bad" or "evil." I think this essay explains my struggles well. By blaming others, by deciding we are victims, we back away from our obligation to transform ourselves and take action.

I see this in many debates, and it clouds our thinking. Take the debate on undocumented/illegal workers. Deporting them ignores the fact that the U.S. is a rich country next to a poor country. The economies and cultures have been integrated and porous for centuries. Americans are eager customers for drugs and cheap labor. We aren't charging the employers of undocumented labor. Building walls has failed. Deporting undocumented immigrants isn't actually addressing the causes of the problems. It lets us point the finger at a villain and stop taking responsibility for ourselves and the world we have created.

Transformation happens when we resist our urge to fix, save, or advise others. Our rush to judgment closes the doors we want to open.