Sanders Prompt

“But if we make a career of being unaccountable, we have lost something essential to our humanity, and we may well become a burden or a threat to those around us.”

I think that Scott Russell Sanders statement has some merit. When he says “…But if we make a career of being unaccountable, we have lost something essential to our humanity, and we may well become a burden or a threat to those around us.” I think he has hit the nail half way into the block of wood.

I think that humans naturally, as Sanders said, must “[dwell] in a web of relationships”. There is something about humans, which makes us seek contact with others. We seem to find that different people offer us different things whether it is comfort, confidence, security, or a feeling of belonging. Humans often seem as though they are lost without this contact, they seem to become a shell of what they could be or once were. Ultimately, the shells start unsettling those around them, causing a burden on others minds. Or, the shells actions make “normal” humans around them question themselves, often causing a threat to others. However, like most things, there are anomalies to each “rule”.

Some humans seems to be able to function relatively well without strong ties to other humans. For an example of this, look at city life. Many, many people live in cities where each day they pass by hundreds of other people that they most likely will never see again. However, they cope with life. They seem to have humanity. Maybe they retain their humanity through each small interaction they have with people each day. The small exchange of words with the doorman or the cashier in the corner store keeping them connected into the “web”.

However, city life is not portrayed as a “more vulnerable” or a community that has “eventually it [broke] down”. In fact, most cities thrive with interesting and diverse peoples. As Sanders remarks people in places where they are unknown by others, “know [a] sense of liberation” a feeling of nonjudgmental flight that they thrive from. Seemingly, being kept alive in a similar but different way than the people feeling their threads “tugging at you while also holding you upright.”

That is why I feel that Sanders statement has merit but also has flaws.