Patton Oswalt is an American stand-up comedian, writer and actor. Yesterday, after the bombing in Boston, he posted the below message to his Facebook page – and it went viral…
By PATTON OSWALT
Boston. Fucking horrible.
I remember, when 9/11 went down, my reaction was, “Well, I’ve had it with humanity.”
But I was wrong. I don’t know what’s going to be revealed to be behind all of this mayhem — one human insect or a poisonous mass of broken sociopaths.
But here’s what I DO know. If it’s one person or a HUNDRED people, that number is not even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the population on this planet. You watch the videos of the carnage and there are people running TOWARDS the destruction to help out. (Thanks FAKE Gallery founder and owner Paul Kozlowski for pointing this out to me). This is a giant planet and we’re lucky to live on it but there are prices and penalties incurred for the daily miracle of existence. One of them is, every once in a while, the wiring of a tiny sliver of the species gets snarled and they’re pointed towards darkness.
But the vast majority stands against that darkness and, like white blood cells attacking a virus, they dilute and weaken and eventually wash away the evildoers and, more importantly, the damage they wreak. This is beyond religion or creed or nation. We would not be here if humanity were inherently evil. We’d have eaten ourselves alive long ago.
So when you spot violence, or bigotry, or intolerance or fear or just garden-variety misogyny, hatred or ignorance, just look it in the eye and think, “The good outnumber you, and we always will.”
Top Comments
"Civilization is a failure" is a quote that comes to mind when these horrible things humans are capable of doing to each other any day, any where in the world.
I have spent the last few days in Cambodia. So evil and standing by while evil is carried out by others is at the fore front of my mind.
I too noticed the people running to help in Boston. But it is with a little space I am connecting things up and considering where I need to go and what I should do in my own life.
Evil will flourish when good men (or women) do nothing.
"Evil will flourish when good men (or women) do nothing."
I heard this (or a variation) a few years ago, and it really was like a smack in the face for me. It's incredibly true, difficult as it is to see it at first. We can sit at home and 'tut tut' all we like, but "if we aren't part of the solution we're part of the problem".