My deepest sympathies to all those involved in the horrible tragedy at Virginia Tech.

     What can we do, how can we respond, when confronted with such depravity?  I heard a Christian preacher on the radio this morning, a man with a congregation in Blacksburg, reminding us that this is the kind of moment when his religion’s emphasis on love and compassion is most important.  He even uttered the word forgiveness, which may be the most difficult thing to keep in mind now.

     It reminded me of a passage from Mencius:

Mencius said: "Humanity overcomes Inhumanity the way water overcomes fire.  But when people wield Humanity these days, it’s like they’re throwing a cup of water on a cartload of burning firewood.  When the fire keeps burning, they claim water can’t overcome the fire.  This is the promotion of Inhumanity at its worst, and such people can come to nothing but ruin in the end." (211)

      In other words, we cannot allow large-scale Inhumanity to takes us away from our daily commitment to Humanity.  It may seem like being good to others, being open and generous and compassionate, might somehow fail in the face of such tragedy.  But it precisely at moments like this that we must re-double our efforts to cultivate our innately good human nature, as Mencius would have it, and, in so doing, draw out the innate goodness of those around us.  Horrible things will happen, but Humanity must survive.

       It is not a time for recrimination or vengeance: those would be a flight into inhumanity, which will only reproduce itself.  We will come to no good end if we allow ourselves to use inhumanity to counter inhumanity.  We must rise above those sorts of impulses, and continue to work to find the good in each and every person. 

      That’s what Mencius would say.

UPDATE: here are some unfortunate examples of precisely the wrong thing to say.  Why denigrate the victims?  That is, indeed, inhumane.