The O-town Scene

Living Long and Prospering | by Sam Spokony 'Nice' doesn't really define humans correctly or well Last Thursday, New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof celebrated Thanksgiv- ing with a piece entitled "Are We Getting Nicer?" Since he often writes (brilliantly and informatively) about human rights abuses throughout the world, Kristof decided to give us a "reason to be grateful." "Despite [this generation's] gloomy mood, the his- torical backdrop is stunning progress in human decency over recent centuries," he wrote. "War is declining, and humanity is becoming less violent, less racist and less sexist — and this moral progress has accelerated in recent decades. To put it bluntly, we humans seem to be getting nicer." I have a massive amount of respect for Kristof, and I acknowledge that, in any kind of real debate, I would last about 30 seconds against him. But I have some issues with his Thanksgiving column. It all comes back to something my sixth grade teacher, one Mrs. Veltidi, did to no end. Mrs. Veltidi had one un- usual and unbreakable rule: Her students could not, under any circumstances, use the word "nice." If you let it slip in a classroom response, she'd shout you down. Write it in an essay, and you'd find it covered in frustrated stains of red ink, accompanied by some form of "NO!" And I almost took a red pen to Kristof's column for the same reason Mrs. Veltidi would have. The word — for all its, well, niceties — just doesn't really mean anything. It's great to recognize that the world may not actually be toeing the line of the apoca- lypse, but it's wrong to do so without some deeper thought as to our place in a greater historical context, and without taking into account our dis- tinctly modern flaws. While it is true that, as Kristof writes, homicide rates and deaths as a result of war have declined by gigantic margins over the past several hundred years, it seems much too simplistic to chalk that up to some evolution of human moral character. First of all, he's glossing over the simple physical facts about modern warfare. Where we once fought with clubs we today fight with scalpels. For all the controversy surrounding its uses, it's entirely obvious that much fewer people die as a result of American drone attacks in the Middle East than did, say, during a battle between the Romans and the Huns. But can you really say that, as a result of the precision and utility of our killing machines, we have some newly developed moral high ground? Secondly, he's not men- tioning politics. Is physical warfare or genocide the only way to crush an opponent in our increasingly globalized society? Or can it be done with financial domination, U.N. sanctions and media brainwashing? Kristof writes he was "awed" by the way in which American students protested on behalf of those being killed in Darfur. But how many people, as a result of American political interests, never get a chance to learn that not every persecuted Palestinian — or Muslim, for that matter — is a mindless suicide bomber? I don't disagree with him when he associates a rise in Associated Press photos Nicholas D. Kristof, above right, said in a column that humans are getting nicer. Columnist Sam Spokony sees many abuses by humans remain. The women in the photo above left, from Sunday, Nov. 27, protest rape and domestic violence in Ankara, Turkey. Some are dressed in wedding gowns representing child brides forced into marriage and wearing makeup to simulate bruising. The signs read 'end violence.' education with the acceler- ated progress of rights for gays, the role of women and treatment of animals, but what does stating that really mean for anything? It's nice to think about the fact that we live in a society with a greater degree of equality than one that existed centuries ago, but it's not as if we've reached some peak of moral evolution at which we can look back and congratulate ourselves on, as Kristof writes, our capacity for compassion and growth. History never stops happen- ing, and it's not worth it to create checkpoints at which we might try to gauge our progress as a species. After marriage equality was voted through the state Senate this year, I wrote a column about the fact that, even though I'm all for gay rights, I didn't feel any urge to celebrate the bill's pas- sage. That's because I felt very strongly that, as in any other time or any other society, the pull towards a greater understanding of our human Dec. 1, 2011 O-Town Scene 5 condition exists independent of any individual moral strides we might make. It might sound cynical, but I don't think we're ever going to get any nicer, whatever that means. We don't have to. Regard- less of how (or how often) we choose to kill each other, and regardless of the many people (not much different, really, than any of us) whom we choose to incarcerate each year, we will someday find — after, perhaps, some singular event that really does change everything — that any attempt we make to analyze some positive change in our collective moral development is just a futile exercise. Maybe you think Kristof is completely right to mention this. I'd love to hear about it if you do. But I just can't share his particular pleasure. I'd rather just remain in this moment, in this horribly imperfect world that I both know and will never really know. Sitting here today, I think we've got just as many things to gripe about — for as many good reasons — as anyone who lived a thousand years ago. And maybe that, for all its downsides, is how I remem- ber I'm human. Sam Spokony is a senior majoring in English and music industry at SUNY Oneonta. He is spending his fall semester studying abroad in London.

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