We are headed down the road to our futures. Are we following the lead of others or leading our-selves?
Over the last week, I have seen the new administration unleash a torrent of cruelty and degradation. The vast majority of Americans are threatened with loss of economic, health and social support. The infliction of each is intentional. It is a direct assault on each of us. The goal is to break our spirits and turn us against each other. It is dehumanizing. It is brutalizing. It is meant to condition us to accept cruelty casually delivered to others. It is intended to make us complicit and share responsibility for the atrocities being committed.
I’ve been reading Viktor Frankl’s book, Man’s Search For Meaning1. It is his autobiography. It details his experiences as a doctor and prisoner in the Nazi extermination camps of World War II. His training as a psychiatrist gave him the unique opportunity to experience camp terror. He faced it both as a victim and as a knowledgeable observer.
It is through his experiences that I have developed a perspective about our current situation. His message is that we can resist brutality and deprivation and stay a caring human being. We can lead ourselves even when someone blocks our way.
My takeaway from Frankl and others, is that we can prepare ourselves for the growing onslaught. We do not have to become fragmented. We can strengthen ourselves. We can understand and know who is the real source of our fears and pain.
We can assert our personal control. With courage and honesty, we can cultivate our own wisdom. We gain understanding through an honest appraisal of our selves. It is by choosing to understand our selves and how we can act as ourselves that we are liberated. We take back our self worth. We learn to appreciate our hardships and keep our dignity in the face of degradation. We do not yield. We endure and prevail.
As a reviewer in Wikipedia summarized,
Frankl observed that among the fellow inmates in the concentration camp, those who survived were able to connect with a purpose in life to feel positive about and who then immersed themselves in imagining that purpose in their own way, … According to Frankl, the way a prisoner imagined the future affected his longevity.
- Man’s Search For Meaning,
https://www.bing.com/searchpc=MOZI&form=MOZLBR&q=Viktor+Frankl+Man%27s+Search+Fo+Meaning
Available in new and used editions. ↩︎
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