After graduating in 1791, William Wordsworth left England to France where he became a supporter of the French Revolution. Because of his concern about poverty he was a strong believer in social reforms. He and his brothers were experiencing these difficulties. In the war between England and France his feelings were divided: while he wanted to remain loyal to England, he felt his country was fighting against liberty. He had ideas based on men’s equality and freedom.
Besides this, Wordsworth was hurt by the human and environmental despoilment that the Industrial Revolution, with its emphasis on commerce and profit, brought on humans and the physical environment. In his days, the Industrial Revolution was unbridled, and it is difficult to deny that its excesses were allowed for the sake of making money. This situation brought Wordsworth to state in 1798: “Have I not reason to lament, what man has made of man?”
Wordsworth’s feeling are still very relevant at the beginning of this century. The Brexit campaign was symptomatic of what could happen even in an advanced country. It was an ugly, dirty campaign, full of half-truths, if not outright lies, culminating in the murder of Remain campaigner and Labour MP Jo Cox.
After the UK referendum, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said it had caused an “outwelling of poison and hatred”. Mrs Cox’s murderer, Thomas Mair, when asked to gave his name to the Westminster Magistrates’ Court, presented himself with the expression: “Death to traitors, freedom for Britain”.
The recent terrorist attacks in Dhaka, Istanbul, Baghdad and Medina further indicate both fanaticism and hatred. The death toll from the Baghdad suicide bombing alone has risen to 200 or more!
Can this tell us something about our country’s political life and the gutting our cultural and physical environment? It is unfortunate that things are shifting from bad to worse. It was good that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat agreed with the PN’s call to discuss Brexit. However, mudslinging – based on truth and falsehood – has been going on in and out of Parliament, in public meetings, the press, radio programmes, blogs, and social media for too long. Very often, yeahboo politics have substituted rational arguments, as much as falsehood has substituted truth, insults have substituted good manners and quibbling has substituted accountability.
For anyone who has ever bothered to browse the Gospels, this is blatantly unchristian. Jesus made it clear: “Do to others as you would have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them…”
For those who still believe in human dignity, Shylock’s poignant arguments in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice are also indicative of what happens when humanity is forsaken: “I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, do we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that.”
Debate and argument are of the essence in a democracy. So are disagreements. However, there is no democracy or peace without the rule of law, accountability, transparency, and a passionate search and love of truth. But above all, love and respect for human dignity. We need a return to humanity created in God’s image!
joe.inguanez@gmail.com
Fr Joe Inguanez, a sociologist, is executive director of Discern.