Reflecting On Cruelty, Kindness and Idiots

Revisiting the useful insights for the new year from Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker

Former President Jimmy Carter in 2005 working on a Habitat for Humanity building project. (Photo by R. Diamond via Getty Images)

Jimmy Carter’s passing yesterday led me to return to the message of J.B. Pritzker last year when he equated cruelty with idiocy and kindness with an advanced society. His words struck me as important to share last year as the new year beckoned—and they strike me as valuable to consider again this year, both as we remember the compassion and humility of Jimmy Carter and as we prepare ourselves for the weaponized, arrogant cruelty when Donald Trump and his enablers take over next month.

“When someone’s path through this world is marked with acts of cruelty, they have failed the first test of an advanced society,” Pritzker said. As for empathy and compassion, they are “evolved states of being. They require the mental capacity to step past our most primal urges.”

The coming years will require maximum toughness. I don’t advocate for kindness that will allow the worst among us to exploit basic decency. They will need to be confronted and opposed with intensity and strength. That often will require channeling our anger and feelings of injustice to defend the most vulnerable in our society.

But let’s not lose sight of what it’s all for and what are the underlying values that we are working to protect and nourish. That means encouraging empathy and compassion as powerful tools to right wrongs.

“I have learned that our greatest blessings come when we are able to improve the lives of others, and this is especially true when those others are desperately poor or in need,” Carter said, talking about his volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity. He also emphasized the value of service, insisting that it continues to be “a crucial element in the American character and has always prevailed in overcoming challenges and correcting societal mistakes.”

Let’s prove Carter right. And let’s revisit the insights of Pritzker, who has little respect for the powerful idiots who think cruelty is an “adroit cudgel” to increase their power.

Here below is the short essay I published on New Year’s day last year. I hope you find it useful, especially as we consider the most effective ways to confront the weak among us who take pleasure in acts of cruelty.

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Before we careen into the political madness of this utterly consequential year in the life of America—riven with cruelty and violence, bigotry, lies and methodical disinformation—I want to pause one more time on the topic of kindness. This comes courtesy of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker in a commencement address to Northwestern University graduates in June. I was slow to find this, but I’m glad I did.

He was there to offer insights that the freshly minted alums could carry into the real world. Chief among his observations: “When someone’s path through this world is marked with acts of cruelty, they have failed the first test of an advanced society. They never forced their animal brain to evolve past its first instinct.” Advanced society, in contrast, prizes kindness.

Here’s more of what Pritzker had to say on cruelty, kindness and idiots:

I wish there was a foolproof way to spot idiots. But counterintuitively some idiots are very smart. They can dazzle you with words and misdirection. They can get promoted above you at work. They can even be elected President. If you want to be successful in this world, you have to develop your own idiot detection system.

As part of the responsibilities of being your commencement speaker, I’m going to share mine. Sure, I’m naturally suspicious of people who never saw the original Star Wars movies and even more cautious of people who loved the prequels and sequels. But I admit this is not a reliable idiot indicator.

The best way to spot an idiot—look for the person who is cruel. Let me explain. When we see someone who doesn’t look like us or sound like us, act like us, love like us or live like us, the first thought in everyone’s brain is rooted in fear or judgment—or both.

That’s evolution. We survived as a species by being suspicious of things we aren’t familiar with. In order to be kind, we have to shut down that animal instinct and force our brains to travel a different pathway. Empathy and compassion are evolved states of being. They require the mental capacity to step past our most primal urges. This may be a surprising assessment because somewhere along the way in the past few years, our society has come to believe that weaponized cruelty is part of some well-thought-out masterplan.

Cruelty is seen by some as an adroit cudgel to gain power. Empathy and kindness are considered weak. Many important people look at the vulnerable only as rungs on a ladder to the top. I’m here to tell you that when someone’s path through this world is marked with acts of cruelty, they have failed the first test of an advanced society. They never forced their animal brain to evolve past its first instinct.

They never forged new mental pathways to overcome their instinctual fears and so their thinking and problem-solving will lack the imagination and creativity that the kindest people have in spades. Over my many years in politics and business, I have found one thing to be universally true: The kindest person in the room is often the smartest.

This year we can expect plenty of “weaponized cruelty” and exploitation of the vulnerable to gain power. Our response cannot be simply to ignore it, excuse it or go gentle.

Quite the contrary: The extreme effort underway to return the levers of power to a malignant criminal and insurrectionist bent on retribution and ending democracy demands maximum attention and toughness. But that doesn’t mean we have to sacrifice our humanity or our commitment to the pursuit of an advanced society.

The responsibility each of us has to defeat Donald Trump and the Trump Republicans could not be clearer. This is not about partisanship, rather an American commitment to saving democracy. Our failure portends a fascistic future that we have only begun to fully absorb. But let’s not doubt: As the majority, it remains in our power to ensure a better, kinder outcome—a momentous 2024 of which we all can be proud.

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