April 28, 2025
Embracing Complexity by Bethany Saltman in an interview with Chris Hedges
“Sometimes, when we struggle with understanding the religious and ideological extremism we hear about in the news, we wonder, "How do people get that way? Why don't they listen to each other?" But if we really want to understand it, all we have to do is look at ourselves. We all struggle with ambiguity, and we all have tendencies toward fundamentalism. How often do we objectify people and situations by putting them into a box: "He is like this; she is like that"? We have fundamentalist attitudes toward others when we simply refuse to let them be bigger than our subjective, objectified view of them.
Embracing complexity liberates the mind from the disturbing emotions associated with judgment and fundamentalism. When we stop objectifying things, we can't help but feel a tenderness toward the world. The tenderness we feel when we stop objectifying others is, again, so brilliantly illustrated in Dead Man Walking. When we are introduced to the protagonist's mother and his family, we suddenly realize, "Oh, he is not only a murderer, he is a son and a brother too." We start to see his vulnerabilities, what influenced him, his own fears, and the pain in his inability to look at the wretchedness of his actions. Because we start seeing more of him, as viewers we hang in there and eventually witness his painful and inspiring awakening. And we realize that a refusal to see him as anything but evil would have only cut us off from our own wisdom and compassion.”
Invitation: “…we start seeing… our own wisdom and compassion…”
*Interview with Bethany Saltman, "Moral Combat: Chris Hedges on War, Faith, and Fundamentalism." The Sun, no. 396, December 2008.
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As Bethany Saltman invites us to embrace complexity, I think of the wisdom of the touchstone used in Courage work to "turn to wonder." She says: "Embracing complexity liberates the mind from the disturbing emotions associated with judgment and fundamentalism. When we stop objectifying things, we can't help but feel a tenderness toward the world." Therefore, holding onto fundamentalism leads its followers to the lack of compassion and empathy when dealing with those they see as "the other" -- immigrants, those who are black and brown, and trans people.
Complexity embraced,
fundamental (sans ism)
to understanding.