Ronald Thwaites | Cruelty and conscience

Across the gully from the church in Franklyn Town where I was conducting service one Sunday night years ago came the angry screams and wails of a woman mercilessly beating a child. The noise made worship impossible, although many of the big women in the church reflexively started to sing louder as if to drown out the pain which was a regular part of their lives.

On my intervention, I got a tongue-lashing. The sin of the small boy, mawga for his age, was to have eaten the bread and mackerel put aside for Monday’s breakfast. “If you no have money to buy back the food, don’t talk to me. This boy wicked like him fadda. Him can’t satisfy, is not him one hungry”, she spat at me. I wonder what school would have been like for that youngster next day, or what has become of him since.

NORMALISING PAIN

Passing by the black-clad, anti-domestic violence protesters on Oxford Road last Thursday reminded me of that occasion and countless other instances of abusive social deconstruction witnessed by or recounted to me over 60 years of intense community engagement.

Male “emotional weakness, low self-esteem and inferiority complex” are identified by Mark Hylton, a letter writer in the Jamaica Observer recently, as the background for the epidemic of gender-related violence. He, and others like him, are strong in the analysis of moral default but weak in proposals for remedy. Are men the only instigators of the problem?

PREDICTING DEVIANCE

At one inner-school high school, we can predict the future criminals and abusers. In any cohort of, say, 100 students, there are likely 15 (mostly but not exclusively boys) who are either so traumatised by, or habituated to, violence; neuro-divergent, hungry or less-cared that, untreated, they are not only learning-impaired but will disrupt teaching and learning for a whole class. Ask any teacher.

Most of them are talented but, if not corrected, will remain disordered. Their tendencies will bloom in young adult life. When aggravated by rejection from ambitious women who they try to ‘fren’, broken and angry, they will likely breed without commitment. We are finding it hard to arrange corrective therapy for them. They are routinely dismissed as being “bad”.

But this nation will spend billions every year trying to barricade ourselves against their distemper and deviance, continue mis-educating them, imprisoning them or killing them if they do not first kill each other and us. There must be a better way.

CULTURE OF VIOLENCE

The philosopher Bertrand Russell said that three passions had governed his life. “A longing for love, the search for knowledge and unbearable pity for the suffering of humankind”. Many of us, like the big women in that church, the hungry boy’s mother; those we witlessly raise to become “rude boys”, gang members, police executioners and plenty politicians, have immortalised slave culture, have normalised cruelty, become pitiless – causing passive suffering by our tolerance of oppressive structures, as well as pain, injury and death by the words, deeds and weapons of slaughter we inflict on others.

Pope Leo questioned J.D. Vance about the migrants and refugees he wants to kick out, “ don’t you see their suffering”? He was appealing to that man’s conscience. The Vice President is a recent convert to Catholicism. What is informing his conscience? Clearly not gospel teachings.

WHAT IS CONSCIENCE?

Although government and local churches have lost their moral voices on the issue, there are many of us who are outraged at the massacre of Israelies and, even more, the ongoing ‘Showa’, the holocaust in Gaza.

Closer home, look at the cruelty we routinely dash out to Haitians. Look how we who led the anti-apartheid struggle, and are silent at the ludicrous charge of “genocide” flung at our South African friends by the Washington bully.

CONTEXT OF ABUSE

The blunting of our consciences, our acquiescence to cruelty and needless suffering at home and abroad provides the powerful unspoken context for individual abuse. Too many of our young people feel and see abuse and cruelty all around them.

George Bernard Shaw said that “ the worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them but to be indifferent to them. That is the essence of inhumanity”. Russell and Shaw were atheists but they showed more Jesus-like human concern than many of us self-absorbed theists.

The generous spirit that avoids violence, uplifts the weak and corrects the misguided was promoted in Dr Peter Phillips’ swansong address to Parliament last week. Everybody nodded or applauded his plea for consensus and unity on basic democratic principles. But, in the frantic passion for re-election, will any of that ethic be put into practice?

It does matter who forms government but, by itself, control of Gordon House cannot deliver the redemption of the Jamaican soul. Causing others distress cannot bring about a strong, compassionate people. Unresolved division at any level creates tension. Tension can provoke animosity and dystopia and spills into violence – domestic and communal. Don’t we remember 1980 and 2010?

DIFFERENT APPROACH

I would support a rolling ‘state of emergency’ to resocialise the nation’s youth and, indeed, all of us, towards non-violence, self-respect and restraint, purposeful training, work, and the joy of service. That would enhance, not abrogate, constitutional rights.

Sadly, the people in charge now appear to have little stomach for such transformation in our homes, streets, neighbourhoods, schools and legislature. They have abandoned their own best efforts and replaced constructive discipline with the bile of recrimination.

Respect is a virtue which can become habitual if it is taught, modelled and incentivised. The consequences of doing so would yield public safety and productivity instead of the embedded brutality, division and advantage-taking which surround us.

GIVE THANKS

Although so much of what occurs on Jamaican streets evades the rule of law and due process, give thanks that, except for a few highly placed fascists, our leaders still respect the principle of habeas corpus – the right of humans to seek redress from arbitrary imprisonment. Unfortunately, and dangerously, the same cannot be said for the American cabinet minister who is in charge of Homeland Security. At one US Catholic church I know of, the black, brown and Hispanic congregants have been formally excused from Sunday worship since the ICE operatives regularly wait at the doors to detain anyone they feel like. Cruelty cannot be a component of a clean conscience.

Rev Ronald G. Thwaites is an attorney-at-law. He is former member of parliament for Kingston Central and was the minister of education. He is the principal of St Michael’s College at The UWI. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com