I must admit this is an unexpected combination of books. Fredrik Backman (a Swedish author) wrote Folk med ångest or in English, Anxious People in 2019, and On Liberty which John Stuart Mill wrote in 1859. Anxious People, I read in my Reading i Sverige book club, and On Liberty, I read in my Great Books of the Western World reading project. One is a humorous, lonely, and wise account of modern life, the other a philosophical treatise on individual liberties. Surprisingly, they spoke to each other and reminded me of work I have done in the past.
Anxious People is set in a small town in Sweden. The story is about ordinary people,' idiots,' where one becomes a bank robber. The bank robber inadvertently takes hostages. The dialogue of the hostages illuminates the anxieties of living in the modern world. Human relations are complicated because of different beliefs, seemingly different values, lost chances, failure to communicate, grief, and many other factors. Throughout the book, it is the unveiling of the individuals through dialogue that brings healing and peace. 'You can't carry the guilt and the shame and the unbearable silence on your own, and you shouldn't have to.'
Mill emphatically puts forth that dialogue is essential for individual liberties. It is through the work of understanding other's views that we do not become intellectually lazy and morally corrupt: 'But the price paid for this sort of intellectual pacification is the sacrifice of the entire moral courage of the human mind.' Mill would say we cannot know different views by listening to media commentators or reading snippets here and there on social media. The only way to maintain our own individual liberties is by listening to someone we know and by listening for understanding. He seems to be saying we need to have friends who think differently than we do. '(M)ust hear them (opinions) from persons who actually believe them, who defend them in earnest'. If we do that, then there is hope for peace. '(T)here is always hope when people are forced to listen to both sides; it is when they attend only to one that errors harden into prejudices, and truth itself ceases to have the effect of truth, by being exaggerated into falsehood.'
This humble listening, as I called it while doing Multi-Faith work in Indiana, is not easy. As the religion teacher at a college preparatory school, I brought a group of parents together, all from different religions, to discuss the differences in our faiths. The intent was not necessarily to discuss what we had in common, though that was discussed, too. I wondered if we still disagreed after our dialogue, could we be in this community together? Could we be friends? 'At Complete Peace' is a blog entry I wrote in 2012.
'And finally, there was a simple but profound statement. A Muslim gentleman said that when he was at HIP (Haven Interfaith Parent) meetings, he was at complete peace. HIP is a group where we have discovered we have much in common, but we also discuss our differences. What a wonderful testament to the importance of multi-faith work, being at complete peace.'
As Mill says, 'giving honor to everyone, whatever the opinion he may hold, who has calmness to see and honesty to state what his opponents and their opinions really are, exaggerating nothing to their discredit, keeping nothing back which tells, or can be supposed to tell, in their favor. This is the real morality of public discussion, and is often violated.' Let’s speak words of peace.
- Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals (1785) by Immanuel Kant
- Anxioux People (2019) by Fredrik Backman
- Meadowlands (1996) by Louise Glück
- On Liberty (1859) by John Stuart Mill
- Paradise Lost (1663) by John Milton
- Psalm (5th Century BC) by King David and Solomon
- Averno (2006) by Louise Glück
- Kajsa Kavat (1950) by Astrid Lindgren
- Paradise Regained (1671) by John Milton
- Proverbs (8th Century BC) by King Solomon
- Tale of Two Cities (1859) by Charles Dickens
