Nuance
“I want
very badly to challenge the ease with which we succumb to the false
divide of labels, that moment in which our empathy gives out and we
refuse to respond openhandedly or even curiously to see people with
whom we differ. As I see it, to refuse the possibility of finding
another person interesting, complex and as complicated as oneself is
a form of violence. At bottom, this is a refusal of nuance, and I
wish to posit that nuance is sacred.”
David Dark
Nuance is an idea and a
behavior that has gone out of fashion. For lack of a better reference
point, I lay responsibility for this in the lap of “reality” TV,
which began in full swing in America in the 1990's, with shows like
Survivor. With some exceptions, mostly the music shows, these are
supposedly unscripted dramas, in which ordinary people, strangers,
are thrown together in anything but real situations, to compete
against one another, and to weekly get rid of one member of the team
who is deemed not up to snuff. The contestants are encouraged to be
mean-spirited, conniving and deceitful for the purpose of gaining
ground, and, of course, TV ratings. In my opinion, Suzanne Collins
book, The Hunger Games, in which a yearly battle to the death
among young people selected at random, and staged for the
entertainment of the residents of the Capital, represents the
futuristic evolution of the reality show.
Human beings have always
enjoyed watching violence. From the time of crucifixions and
gladiators, through the years of public hanging and
guillotine-chopping, witch burning, and public whipping and
stocking of wrong-doers, we have an insatiable thirst for violence.
Our movies and our sports are vicarious means of living out this dark
spectacle. And now, it seems that even the semblance of civility is dead on arrival.
If we were to consider
nuance sacred, we would commit ourselves to it. We would stop holding
others to a standard that we ourselves cannot live up to. We would
consider the depth of experience that any other human being brings to
the table to be as complex and fundamental as our own. We would be
open to compassionate consideration and empathy for other lifestyles
and circumstances. We would realize that not everything exists in
categories of black and white, but in a multifaceted, deeply layered
reality beyond simple labels. What do you think? Will we, as a
species, ever get there?
In the Spirit,
Jane
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