Another Good Read…..

I've just finished The Ilusion of Separateness by Simon Van Booy for my July book club. I'm glad someone suggested it - an excellent read.

Not easy to summarize, but the novel is inspired by true events and tells the interwoven stories of approximately eight different people beginning as their paths cross just prior to World War II and ending in the present. Small moments of human kindness link the characters - even though they never realize it.

And there was one passage that really grabbed me. It was referring to one specific character, a German soldier, and how he'd been conscripted into The Hitler Youth as a very young boy. "He did what they told him to do. We would have done anything they told him to do. He hid inside the pronoun we."

Hiding inside the pronoun "we"…..what a perfect way to describe an excuse for almost any behavior. The "we" provides anonymity and safety and the illusion that "everyone is doing it so it must be OK." Sometimes hiding in the we can be a good thing - an anonymous donation to the charity of your choice,  standing as one of hundreds cheering from the stands as your favorite team takes a win, joining a one-day-volunteer-event to clean up the beach. "We-ness" can be a good thing and help you feel good about being part of something bigger than yourself.

But then there's the negative side of the "we"….. the hide-in-plain-site hatred that can feed itself with today's technology and on-line support. The gang that roams city streets at night with both numbers and darkness to hide their activities.

If any of the individuals hiding in this "we" were confronted…..how many would be able to stand as an individual and defend their opinions and/or actions? Would they back down if they didn't have numbers on their side?

It was just a small passage in a novel…..but still, it made me think. Maybe that's what reading should do.