Standing for What We Know to Be True: Gaining Our Bearings in the New Landscape - 2

The first two paragraphs of Chimamanda Adichie's article posted today in the New Yorker are an absolute powerhouse of truth of how we must respond when the moral and spiritual landscape shifts so dramatically.  Without a great deal of intentional spiritual formation the urge to put the moral and spiritual responsibility on those who are most victimized and vulnerable is visceral and universal.  The real danger is that this urge is the first step towards scapegoating and if left unchecked will always - if history has anything to teach us - lead to massive disaster.

The new landscape will present many with an opportunity to unleash hidden, latent, perhaps even unconscious prejudices.  The outbursts become normal. They collect into a new understanding of what is formally acceptable culturally and then eventually, legally.  How does it end for us in this new landscape we've entered?  I cannot say. No one can.  However, I can promise this: when left unchecked the moral and spiritual responsibility that is laid at the feat of the vulnerable, the victim, the weak, those unprotected by law or culture will lead towards collective scapegoating of some form or another - always violently.

Here's the opening two paragraphs.  I urge you to read the whole piece.