I read today that the son of a famous athlete died. And then I noticed a series of comments, many of them stones cast, not at the son, but at the father. I wondered, “Do these people know that they, too, will die?” It appears that in the Web World spewing hate during a time of tragedy is more rule than exception.
Similarly, after Pat Robertson died this June, a plethora of comments also surfaced. * Among them was a lengthy comment by Philip from Scottsdale. Philip noted his reasons for disagreeing with Robertson, and then, in addressing negative comments, wrote:
“Ask not for whom the bell tolls. Death, for all its ugliness, gives nobility and poignancy to life and to the departed. The democracy of the dead cannot help but to soften sharp differences, reminding us that for all of us the electrocardiogram's sine will someday flatten.”
He’s right, of course. There is a certain “democracy of the dead.” It’s a nation into which we will all migrate. Yet, so many of the living who live virtual lives on their computers, seem to throw typed stones at the recently departed with whom they disagreed. We live more in an age of sharpened, rather than softened, edges. Some of the living cannot soften their differences with the dead.
But it’s true that some who emigrate from this life have lived truly heinous lives that elicit anger and hate: Hitler, for example. But once dead, always dead. One might be thankful that such a human monster no longer plagues the world. No doubt the families of tens of millions of people who died in his ultimately meaningless war for power were left bitter and hateful. They had lived in relatively safety and peace; then he destroyed their hopes.
Had there been an Internet in 1945, it would have been filled with not just hundreds of negative comments, but millions. And I probably would also have relished his death, being one to “cast a stone” at the obvious “sinner.” But to what effect? Why cast a stone at the dead? It distracts one from living peacefully.
Are so many of us locked into grudges that extend past the gravestone? Anecdotally, I’ll note that a large number of such comments seem to derive from the Far Left and the Far Right. There’s a similarity in that both extremes manifest a loop: Hate drives extremism that drives more hate that drives more…. Comment sections about dead “opponents” never seem to show a softening of sharp differences, regardless of Philip’s assessment that death unites all.
Can we critically analyze the lives of the dead? Sure. We can enumerate evils. Write an objective biography if you wish, but refuse to wallow in hate. Those comment sections serve little purpose other than to spew hate and generate counter comments that further someone's disdain and sharpen differences. The comments then disappear into the realm of a digital world much as the living disappear into the “democracy of the dead.”
Philip was right to reference John Donne’s famous poem. Knowing it gives one pause in the realization of the ultimate migration we all will make.
No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend’s were.
Each man’s death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
Philip’s “democracy of the dead” is a phrase worth teaching to the young destined to spend so many hours posting their negative thoughts online.
*Douglas Martin. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/08/us/pat-robertson-dead.html Philip’s comment bears the time stamp of June 8, the day of Martin’s Robertson obituary in the New York Times.
Similarly, after Pat Robertson died this June, a plethora of comments also surfaced. * Among them was a lengthy comment by Philip from Scottsdale. Philip noted his reasons for disagreeing with Robertson, and then, in addressing negative comments, wrote:
“Ask not for whom the bell tolls. Death, for all its ugliness, gives nobility and poignancy to life and to the departed. The democracy of the dead cannot help but to soften sharp differences, reminding us that for all of us the electrocardiogram's sine will someday flatten.”
He’s right, of course. There is a certain “democracy of the dead.” It’s a nation into which we will all migrate. Yet, so many of the living who live virtual lives on their computers, seem to throw typed stones at the recently departed with whom they disagreed. We live more in an age of sharpened, rather than softened, edges. Some of the living cannot soften their differences with the dead.
But it’s true that some who emigrate from this life have lived truly heinous lives that elicit anger and hate: Hitler, for example. But once dead, always dead. One might be thankful that such a human monster no longer plagues the world. No doubt the families of tens of millions of people who died in his ultimately meaningless war for power were left bitter and hateful. They had lived in relatively safety and peace; then he destroyed their hopes.
Had there been an Internet in 1945, it would have been filled with not just hundreds of negative comments, but millions. And I probably would also have relished his death, being one to “cast a stone” at the obvious “sinner.” But to what effect? Why cast a stone at the dead? It distracts one from living peacefully.
Are so many of us locked into grudges that extend past the gravestone? Anecdotally, I’ll note that a large number of such comments seem to derive from the Far Left and the Far Right. There’s a similarity in that both extremes manifest a loop: Hate drives extremism that drives more hate that drives more…. Comment sections about dead “opponents” never seem to show a softening of sharp differences, regardless of Philip’s assessment that death unites all.
Can we critically analyze the lives of the dead? Sure. We can enumerate evils. Write an objective biography if you wish, but refuse to wallow in hate. Those comment sections serve little purpose other than to spew hate and generate counter comments that further someone's disdain and sharpen differences. The comments then disappear into the realm of a digital world much as the living disappear into the “democracy of the dead.”
Philip was right to reference John Donne’s famous poem. Knowing it gives one pause in the realization of the ultimate migration we all will make.
No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend’s were.
Each man’s death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
Philip’s “democracy of the dead” is a phrase worth teaching to the young destined to spend so many hours posting their negative thoughts online.
*Douglas Martin. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/08/us/pat-robertson-dead.html Philip’s comment bears the time stamp of June 8, the day of Martin’s Robertson obituary in the New York Times.
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