Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Social Justice Leprosy

Lately I have been thinking a lot about social justice issues.  I have been challenged in my classes and in different areas of my personal life, but lately it has become clear to me that I, like so many others in the world, suffer from something I have decided to call social justice leprosy.  It is something that no one likes to admit, it is something that we try to keep close to us, something hidden inside.  No one likes to admit that they do not feel bad for those who are less fortunate.  No one wants to admit that they have feelings of anger in their heart, or even the feeling that they could hurt someone who is weaker then them.  I really liked that this point was discussed during the lecture at St Jerome's on Friday night.  It is so refreshing to realize how real Jean Vanier is.  He is totally open and honest about what he feels inside, even when it is scary.  After the lecture I began to reflect upon feelings that I have.  Feelings that do not match my strong belief in social justice and helping others.  I realize that I have become totally desensitized to the world around me.  The statistic of people having to live on less then a dollar a day no longer fazes me.  The number of people dying everyday from AIDS is indeed sad and disheartening, but the numbers are not pushing me into immediate action... why not?  How can I be so passive in a world where so many things are going wrong? Where there are so many people in need, so many who are left weak and vulnerable without any support? I have come to the conclusion that I am suffering from social justice leprosy.  

At this point you are probably asking yourself, "what is social justice leprosy?"  If you have never heard of it before that is probably because I just came up with it.  To be able to explain it you first must understand what leprosy is.  If you have ever been to church you probably know it as a disease that was well known back in biblical times.  Those who had it were shunned and seen as unclean.  The disease caused people to become disfigured with large parts of skin rotting and even falling off.  However, leprosy is not a skin disease, it is actually a disease of the nervous system.  When you have leprosy you simply are unable to feel a lot of things.  You get a small cut, cannot feel it and before you know it it has become infected.  A small "innocent" little cut can quickly turn into an infected and dangerous injury.  In this same way social justice leprosy comes when we no longer feel the pain of the world around us.  We have turned our backs on the needs of others in a way.  We have stopped being impacted.  We do not feel when the weak and vulnerable are neglected in society, we no longer notice when they are pushed to the margins.  By not noticing these "cuts" in society we allow them to grow, to increase and to engulf more people.  Social justice leprosy causes a numbness to the pain of the word and those around us.  It insulates us into our comfortable little secluded world and allows us to stay there.  However, I have decided I do not want to stay there.  I do not want to be numb anymore!  I do not want to be passive.  I want to be stirred up on the inside, I want to be angry and I want to be pushed to action.  I no longer want to have social justice leprosy.  It is going to hurt when the disease goes away.  My protective layer will disappear.  By curing my social justice leprosy I will feel the pain of the world.  

Well now that I have decided to work towards a cure to my social justice leprosy, how do I actually do this?  I am not sure of a direct treatment program, no doctor specializes in this area.  However, I do know that volunteering at the working center is having a large impact on this.  People are no longer just statistics.  Working at St. Johns kitchen I have been able to meet and connect with people who have been marginalized by society in our own backyard.  This summer when in Ghana I hope to have a multitude of new experiences that will also move me towards shedding my social justice leprosy and will push me towards action.  I want to meet the people who are at the other end of the statistic.  I no longer want to see numbers/faceless masses when I hear of people who are suffering.  I want to see people I know, people that I have come to consider friends, people I truly care about.  I do not want to be numb to the pain and suffering of others.  It will be uncomfortable, it will push me and it will hurt, but I want to work towards curing this unfortunate disease that all to many people suffer from.  


4 comments:

  1. You should publish this. Or send it to the government or something, you could coin the new phrase of the decade! I think this is a great piece and I agree with you that too many of us (myself included) don't feel the pain of the world mostly because we have filled our lives so full that unless it crosses our path and we have to deal with it, we don't see it. It's like our heads are always down or we have tunnel glasses on like they put on carriage horses so they don't get spooked.
    My question is, how do you push through the massive crowd of "blind" people? I think it's great that you want to help and educate. I think this blog is a great start for sure. Where do you want to start?

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  2. Wow - nicely done Katie! I think the idea of "social leprosy" it very creative and paints a good picture of what happens in our society. I also think your "cure" is indefinitly what needs to happen; like many have said, we need to EXPERIENCE it.. we need to be connected to the issues before we are driven to find a solution. I think this medicine works well for people who are up to the challenge of getting involved in their community, taking time out to volunteer, read the newspaper or attend lectures. My only worry is what about the other half (likely a lot more than half) who can't motivate themselves to "meet the people who are at the other end of the statistic"? How can we possibly help them to help themselves and the rest of the world?

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  3. Thanks for the positive feedback you guys!! As for your question Matt about the other half who is not motivated to see the other end of the statistic, I do not have an answer for you, but I do have an idea. I think that by some people experiencing the pain of the world around them and in a sense becoming more fully human and treating those around them as fully human I believe that it will start to show in their life. I believe that others will start to wonder what is so different about that person? And with any luck this will be a change that they want to see in themselves. As a very dumb and miniscule example, if a friend who was overweight before suddenly looks great, a lot of people want to know how to do this. But instead of this change being a physical one (though it could bring on a physical change) it is an internal makeover in a sense, it alters the way we view the world and treat those around us. I think that the change needs to start somewhere and then other change can follow. It only takes one spark to get a fire going! However, if we all hold onto the notion that others will not be motivated so what is the real point, then no change will ever come. As hard as it can be some days, we just need to have a little more faith in humanity.

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  4. Katie, I completely agreed with everything you've said. I also wrote something similar before - how people tend to switch channels when they see human suffering on TV, to avoid thinking and remove themselves from the situation. Plus, there is a big difference between hearing something on the news about groups of people that are half way across the world and actually knowing the person whose suffering..a lot of times it's almost too distanced for people to feel anything. We all have the capacity to care about people around us, but not so much when the problem seems so far and so big. When we volunteer in our community or go overseas, hopefully that builds the connections and bridges the gaps, so people around us slowly realize that these problems aren't actually that distant from them, that they also can and should do something, and make it "personal". Great post, great term - stealing it! will make sure I reference my source though ;)

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