Great Books Ep 114. Herodotus - The History - Book 5 (Terpsichore). Weeping for the Newborn, Cheering for the Dead
When you are in a hopeless situation, death means a definitive end to pain, end of agony, end of fear, exploitation, humiliation and utter sadness.
“When a child is born all its kindred sit round about it in a circle and weep for the woes it will have to undergo now that it is come into the world, making mention of every ill that falls to the lot of humankind; when, on the other hand, a man has died, they bury him with laughter and rejoicings, and say that now he is free from a host of sufferings, and enjoys the completest happiness.”
~ ‘The History’ (Book 5) by Herodotus (George Rawlinson transl. GB6 - p. 160)
This quote appears on the very first page of this book (chapter) when Herodotus talks about the Trausi tribe among the Thracians. It has stayed with me for the past few weeks even after I finished reading the book. I started writing some thoughts about this a few times, but it just kept going down the rabbit hole of more thoughts.
The world during Herodotus’ time was pretty violent. Wars, sieges, diseases and whatnot. Herodotus talks a lot about customs and cultures, geographies, etc., but the overarching theme is relentless war, tyranny, and death. That too, it was a time when an average person didn’t even know about all the fightings in different parts of the world. But now we clearly see and hear much more about conflicts in different parts of the world. It is so sad. I feel for the victims of all the places that find themselves displaced with no shelter or food. No place to live on Earth since every inch has been taken over by people with power. No place to run to. And when some people succeed in running and reaching a place that they think would give them refuge, people there treat them as sub-humans. There is a huge anti-immigration sentiment in many parts of the world. The propaganda to equate immigrants or some section of society to cockroaches, rats or other animal caricatures, gives license to people to inflict harm that they would normally never think of doing to another human being. If you’re part of a refugee population, what do you do? Do you commit suicide or find a way to live? When you encounter someone who hates you for what you are, and no matter what you do, they just want you to be gone, what do you do? A part of you wants to give in and end the misery. In a war-torn country or a place with famine, how can you rejoice when a baby is born? You’ve now brought a baby into the same hopeless situation that you are in. When you are in a hopeless situation, death means a definitive end to pain, end of agony, end of fear, exploitation, humiliation and utter sadness.
That makes one wonder what the knowledge level of the average person on Earth is. Do all the people who have so much hatred and want to see large groups of people harmed, even understand how valuable life is, how magical it is to have life in the vast emptiness of space, how many millions of years of evolution gave rise to a thinking human from single-celled organisms? I was thinking of all these things in the past few weeks when I listened to the latest two episodes of David Eagleman’s podcast on “What do brains tell us about politics?” where he talks about polarization. It was the answer to the puzzling question of why people are so cruel to others. Eagleman shows multiple examples of how people are intensely loyal and empathetic to members of their group and have strong hatred towards non-members. And surprisingly, who is in-group vs who is out is very fluid. He says that brain imaging studies show that empathy circuits respond strongly when in-group members suffer and weakly when out-group members suffer. In fact, sometimes, out-group pain even activates reward pathways! He says that the only way to defend against the tricks of polarization is education and perspective-taking.
“Because if disgust and fear and anger can make us see our neighbors as contaminants, just remember that recognizing propaganda and taking a different perspective and surfacing what we have in common can make us see our neighbors again as fellow travelers. Improvising their way through the same noisy world.”
Inner Cosmos with David Eagleman - Ep 131 - “What do brains tell us about politics? Part 2: Rehumanization”
A couple of other quotes from the episode -
“The brain is not a machine of fixed circuits. It’s more like a living city. It’s always building and demolishing pathways in response to its experience, which means the grooves of polarization are not permanent.”
“Every time we practice perspective taking, even if we don’t agree, we are nudging our own circuitry. Towards rehumanization.”
I also feel that religion has played a huge role in keeping humanity alive till now. Most major religions don’t differentiate between race or nationality and treat all humans with dignity. Religion has given people hope of living on in spite of overwhelming odds through the promise of the afterlife, fate/karma, rebirth, or some other concepts.
So, it means people need something to hope for, just to survive, when they are faced with unending trauma and hopelessness. While hope can keep people going forward, I guess the real solution to ending suffering and conflict comes from more people getting educated, thinking broadly and being rational.
