From Inveritas:
Truth is a large ocean governed by natural unified laws to secure the good. Resistance, opposition or attack against truth is sin. Sin is present in myriad forms and expressions among individuals and societies. In this cluster of sins against truth, different individuals-sometimes based on their ethnicity or ‘racial’ categories- are impacted differently, cognitively and emotionally by societal wrongs.
Added to this, the phenomenological limitation of human beings reduces their ability-willfully or not-to clearly see and ‘feel’ reality beyond their conscious, subjective experiences. This, therefore causes various individual and groups to react differently to societal evils depending on the impact on their personal and or collective existence. Thus African slavery, racism, the Holocaust and other genocides are seen and felt differently by different people in accordance to the effects they have on the people’s personal interests, relationships, wellbeing and dignity. The closer the impact on the person or group, the greater the cognitive and emotional pain felt by them.
Do ‘outside‘ individuals or groups understand and feel the pains of others? Yes. No. Somewhat. Maybe. But never as much as individuals directly or indirectly affected by the negative situations, circumstances or events. Case in point: Despite his horrific death witnessed by the entire globe, there were some who showed little sympathy over the inhumane murder of George Floyd.Some had even condemned him. I therefore believe that phenomenology is also rooted in fallen human nature including its needs pride and selfishness as well as its virtuous aspirations. On one hand, It is influenced by the cries for the triumph of virtue over sin; And on the other, it’s influenced by sin- something open, sometimes hidden- over virtue.
Phenomenology could also be rooted in blindness consumed by the passions of pride.Thus, human beings must live in this semi-pervious, semi distorted bubble, resulting from the natural person tendency-even among those who claim to love God and neighbour-to be lacking in altruism, especially to the suffering and interests of others. The truth is many Christians are yet weighed down by the concupiscence of racial prejudice that has presented ongoing obstacles to the Gospel of love. Sadly, these evils are often hidden under the emphasis of alternative virtues, forgetting that sins-including those of the flesh, belong to an organic whole that subsist in the whole person including body, mind and spirit.
Hence, when a person votes, he does so within the context to relieve his existential pains or -for good or ill-promote his own interests considered most pressing and profound to his own dignity interests or -there I say-passions. Voting, therefore, is not a comprehensive evaluation of one’s conscience or lack of it thereof; Rather It’s an act of hope, which gives priority to one’s individual wellbeing and interests, filtered by his phenomenological experiences, whether positive or negative.
In truth, a just society could only be realized when love of neighbour is fully consummated. Though we must continue to make strenuous efforts to do so-out of duty and longing for the supreme good, this consummation is fully realized, only in the afterlife. Nevertheless we are called to mirror this aspiration for the good in our temporal existence in order to recognize and promote the dignity of every human person in the name of truth.
August 2020