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Catolic Twin Circle,
Spring 1995
Ron S e i g e l
Today's Moral Isolationists
Recently, I heard about a comic book character
named Jaine Cutter, who waged war against both heaven and hell
because, she declared, "I don't want either of them controlling my
planet." In many ways, this cartoon character represents a basic
attitude of our time - a refusal to be bound by anything.
This Jaine Cutter Mentality has turned us into moral and spiritual
isolationists. People are expected to be little islands, separate
and "self-sufficient." When others ask us for help, we all too often
assume their problems are their own fault. I saw this attitude at
work in a particularly infuriating column I read years ago by a
feminist therapist named Barbara Schiff.
She reacted with contemptuous sarcasm to a worker from a women's shelter,
who said that violence and abuse could happen to any woman. This,
Schiff declared, offended her "philosophy of self-help."
"We must all take an active part in our well-being, instead of
leaving it to the environment [ie., the police and courts] to care
for us," she wrote. "We live in a democracy that preaches this."
Imprisoned in her "self-help philosophy," Schiff had to believe that
any self- respecting woman could find a set of rational rules to
deal with every situation - even ones involving irrational
personalities.
If some can respond this way to crime victims, imagine the smug
reactions directed against those victimized by poverty and
homelessness - even when jobs are eliminated by massive layoffs and
technological changes. The poor suffer insult as well as neglect.
As a Detroit poverty advocate named Maureen Taylor wrote last year,
"Our characters are constantly maligned, our morals questioned, and
we are nationally labeled as shiftless and lazy people ... [while in
the mass media] we are voiceless and forced into invisibility, as we
are slowly removed further and further from the ability to survive."
Those who are considered unable to be self-sufficient are often
considered "better off dead."
In so-called "right to die" efforts, relatives and judges have
assumed that those with severe illness and handicaps have lost all
"dignity" and have inferior quality or even "meaningless" lives be-
cause they are "dependent on others" and "helpless."
This dream of self-sufficiency is unattainable.
The feeling that people ought to be in control gives us a false
sense of security, a feeling of being superior and invulnerable, an
assurance that nothing can happen to us.
Ever since the "Me Generation" of the '70s, it has been considered
fashionable and glamorous to be absorbed in the self - or, more
accurately to be absorbed in what we consider self-advancement -
accumulating material things and power. A self-sufficiency
philosophy, mixed with a hearty dose of self-righteousness, ensures
that the suffering of others will never distract us from what we
consider these all-important concerns.
Complete self-sufficiency, the refusal to give and receive help,
robs life of its deepest meanings - our deepest experiences of love
and commitment. Christ himself presents the ultimate challenge to
moral isolationism and the Jaine Cutter Mentality'. He is involved
with all people - even those whose problems were caused by their own
mistakes and sins. Christ demonstrated that God himself had this
universal concern.
Rob Seigel is a
freelance writer who lives in Highland Park, Mich. |
