On Sunday mornings I like to read the Tampa Bay Times, Perspective section… I really think it’s a great name for this section of the paper.  It usually includes political editorial columns as well as historical perspective columns. This Sunday’s edition included two articles that I think were a very interesting pairing.  One of the articles was written by Timothy Snyder, professor of history at Yale University and was called “The Next Genocide Approaches”.   Despite its appalling name there is much to learn about the conditions that lead up to genocide, and the nature, and willingness of the masses to follow leadership into the depths of evil.  Nations in need of land, and energy resources to feed a growing population, especially to maintain a certain lifestyle can incite their masses to participate in horrific acts if they can demonize the people that are in the way of their goals.   Without repeating all the examples and premises of the article here, it was interesting to understand the historical perspective that lead to genocide, including the Holocaust  as well as the more recent killing of half a million Tutsis in Rwanda just twenty one years ago.  In both cases ethnic hatred was used to drive an evil solution borne out of a need to recover land and to reduce the number of mouths to feed to maintain an idealized lifestyle.  It was fashioned in the minds of so many as a fight for survival.  In the example of the Nazis, there was a belief that without war to take land for agriculture and oil resources, the German destiny could not be fulfilled and further the ethnic hatred they developed allowed an evil final solution of extermination to take hold.  Science of land use and development, of improved fertilization, pesticides, and geopolitical compromise to ensure open trading all lost out to a militaristic narcissistic view of superiority.  This led to a feeling of right to others property and a sense of revenge for slights of the First World War and the sanctions and financial crisis that followed.    When a way of life is threatened, when the political order is disturbed as is occurring in the Ukraine with Russian influence, as it is in the Middle-East with the rise of a religious-whipped frenzy of power grab, as China makes plays for resources in Africa, and as there is growing ecological over-reactions evolving elsewhere, we must be careful to keep our perspective.  We must have an understanding and we much learn from history, and we must understand science, and we must understand the weakness of humans to follow a seemingly logical and good intentioned path that leads to demonizing others because they impede our path.  Think about how easy it is for us to believe and even say that the person that cut us off in traffic is an idiot and an asshole, and of course other not so nice things…

The second article was about how good intentioned, charismatic leaders can make us believe in a path and a direction that is not supported by facts and ignores lessons of history.  So the object of this next article is Pope Francis.  Certainly this topic could be viewed as the antithesis of a discussion on the conditions that allow genocide…. And just for clarity… I’m not suggesting in any way that Pope Francis is leading us on a path that could be so evil.  However George Will’s article titled: Francis Delivers a Flamboyant, Fact-Free Message, was striking in the way he pointed out that the pope is describing the Earth as becoming “an immense pile of filth” and advocates subsistence farming, and other idealistic social behaviors.  Ignoring the improvements in cleaner energy that science is making, the improvements that abundant energy and improved efficiency in food production, in pharmaceutical production and of course the dramatic improvements that have been realized in the last two centuries of the industrial age.  Life expectancy improved by 2x or more.   Global poverty in just the last 3 decades has declined from 53 percent to 17 percent.  Furthermore agriculture is many times more efficient than a century ago thanks to fossil fuels, machinery and fertilizers and pesticides.   Will makes the point that “Francis grew up around the rancid political culture of Peronist populism, the sterile redistributionism that has reduced his Argentina from the world’s 14th highest per-capita GDP in 1900 to 63rd today.  (Pope) Francis agenda for the planet would globalize Argentina’s downward mobility.”

I think that Pope Francis is terrific for the Catholic Church as a revivalist for faith and most importantly for pressing the issues around tolerance and service that makes up the Christian faith.  However as George Will points out, we must have historical understanding and perspective and fact-based policies that determine our futures.  Charisma and populist well intended sound bites are not enough.  In fact, it is my opinion that in the wrong minds, sound bites and limited perspective are extremely dangerous.   Mr. Will is almost visceral in his attack on Pope Francis, so that it is uncomfortable to read, but I can understand why he is so adamant… the potential for damage caused by misunderstandings is huge.

We as a society must learn from our pasts, understand science and have a global perspective that helps us see past the seemingly well-intended populist sound bite messages.   In any case these are my musings from Sunday’s readings…

Mike