When bad things keep happening and you ask that familiar question, “Why doesn’t somebody put a stop to this?”, here are a few supplemental pro-level questions you might also ask if you really want to know the answer to what you’re asking. If you are the reflective sort, these questions can make for hours of good contemplation and discussion:
- Do I really/honestly/actually know for a fact what would stop it?
- Would my solution be completely honest, rational, responsible, and fair? Or would it end up causing other problems that will need fixing, too?
- Knowing what I know about this world, why should I expect anybody to put a stop to this? Are my expectations for people unrealistically high?
- Are my expectations for people completely fair? If I think that people are under some sort of moral obligation to fix this, what is the source and authority behind the moral and the obligation? Who says it’s their job to fix it? And who says they’re able to fix it?
- Am I not also under the same moral obligation to fix this? Why don’t I put a stop to this?
- Would it be solved if everyone were to do what I’m doing about it so far?
- If I have high expectations for the society—that they should fix this—wouldn’t it be hypocritical of me not to be involved myself in fixing it?
- Is complaining about it to others really an effective way to solve it, and am I just fooling myself by complaining, so as to take the focus off my hypocrisy?
- Could it be that my high expectations for the society are actually righteous, but that we (myself included) are just not all that interested in paying the price of righteous living in matters like this one?
- Are there enough people who are righteously-minded about this problem to put a stop to it? If so, what would it take to get them working together?
- If there are not enough people, then what? If we just have to live with it, how should that affect my worldview?
- How might tyrants and scoundrels make unfair use of the public’s concern about this issue? How much harm could be done by promising them a solution that they’ll support (because they don’t have to do it themselves), when the solution is not entirely honest, rational, responsible, and fair?
- If the people support measures that are dishonest, irrational, irresponsible, or unfair, is it immoral of them?
- If I jump on board with such a solution, knowing that it’s messed up, is somebody going to come fix me? Is there some fail-safe to keep me from doing it? Am I swimming at my own risk?
- Are problems like this safe with people like me standing watch?
- Do I need to fix me first? And am I really going to do that? Do I really care that much? And can I be fixed? Is it possible?
- If I had fixed me first, would I have asked in the first place, “Why doesn’t somebody put a stop to this?”, or would I have said something more like, “We need to get together to fix this.”? Or would I have gone even farther by now, where I could say, “I’ve got a plan for fixing this that’s been vetted to be honest, rational, responsible and fair, and I’m seeking support to put it into action.”?
I am such an imperfect person in regard to all this. I have been working on it for quite some time, but I see that my own human will is often not nicely aligned with what it would take to solve various things. And at the same time, having invented solutions to some problems (where those solutions are, best I can tell, honest, rational, responsible, and fair), I can tell you that it is very difficult in a society like ours to garner support for such things. I hesitate somewhat to mention it, because I don’t want you to think that this post was about politics all along, but Thomas Jefferson’s sad observation in our own Declaration of Independence comes to mind here:
…all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed mean?
Declaration of Independence. 1776
That’s why nobody puts a stop to most things. It is our disposition to remain passive about them, as long as we can stand it. In the Declaration, the message to King George was basically, “OK, we’ve had enough; this is now insufferable, and we’re done tolerating your tyranny.”
Our current issues, such as mass shootings, our various health crises, the extreme corruption in the US money, and so many more, are things about which we are generally disposed to keep on suffering, having not yet reached our limit. I think it’s important for most of us to understand that when we ask, “Why doesn’t somebody put a stop to this?”, that’s the full extent to which we are willing to go to address the problem. We’ll never lift a finger beyond that.
And while I’ve got you, I should mention one further difficulty that I believe we have: Some of the things that ail us are not fixable. I believe God put humans in this beautiful-ugly world to let them decide what sort of people they want to be. We all get mistreated and disappointed, and go through many troubles while we are here—and almost all of those troubles being caused by how other people are managing themselves here on this Earth.
Are we ever going to put a complete stop to murders? No. To corruption? No. What I do believe we have complete (or near-complete) control over is ourselves. We could see to it that we ourselves are not murderous or corrupt. But rather than doing that, we’re more apt to be observed fussing about what’s wrong with other people. And it’s simply easier that way, right?
Well, some people have an expectation that life on Earth should be easy. And other people (like me) have an expectation that it’s been designed on purpose such that we should find both joy and struggles here. And you can make some limited improvements through better government, to be sure, but if you want to do the best possible job of improving the society, you’re going to have to tackle that at the individual level, by teaching people the value of improving themselves. They have to want that, or it’s not going to happen—because it is not easy! And that’s quite a different philosophy from what most prefer.
When we ask that question (in the title), we betray ourselves. We reveal that we do know that things should be better here—that people should behave better—that this isn’t right. So, then, why aren’t we all personally working on becoming better people ourselves? We know better, but we don’t try better. (And I’m generalizing here, of course, for whatever value that has.)
I think that God is looking for the ones among us who will try better—who will strive to live such as to please him, being the best stewards of their own lives they can figure out how to be. And if Jesus is to be taken as an authority on such matters, he described the situation thus:
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.
Matthew 7:13
Unless things have changed since then, I don’t see why we should expect the masses to want to do the right thing all the time. Sure, there are some right things that they may think serve to their advantage. But to expect the unrighteous majority to drop what it’s doing and come to the aid of some righteous cause is a naive view, I have come to see. And it should raise a cautionary eyebrow when the majority wants a thing, because of the likelihood that it won’t be completely honest, rational, responsible, and fair. they’ll support it because it’s easy or free long before they’ll support it because it’s righteous. And for most, if it can be bear the appearance of being righteous, that’s excuse enough to support it.
I wish the whole world would read Dan Ariely’s most useful book, The (Honest ) Truth About Dishonesty, wherein he demonstrates that one of the most common excuses (“justifications”) for doing the wrong thing is that “it’s for a good cause“. In a society that’s morally-sloppy like that, how hard could it be to get them to support a twisted “solution” to something as troubling as mass shootings or disease or poverty? They so don’t want to do anything themselves about it, and are suckers for applauding the sorts of “solutions” that tyrants and scoundrels tend to come up with. And I have supported twisted causes like that myself—and while it pains me to say it, I’m probably still supporting something or other that I should not—having not yet perceived the flaw in it.
We could do better—starting with me!
