The Chinese proverb says that “those who fears to suffer, suffers from fear”. Since it’s impossible to escape suffering, the ostrich tactic applies, as it prefers to close its eyes to reality.
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Newsroom (08/09/2024 15:37, Gaudium Press) I’ve never seen the scene, but I’ve been told of an ostrich tactic. When it sees a predator, the bird, which looks like it escaped from the Jurassic era, focuses all its defense not on running away, but on hiding. How do you hide such a wealthy body? “It’s easy,” says the ostrich, “just stick your head in the ground; I won’t see my predator, and he certainly won’t see me either.”
It’s an ancient procedure, with several failures perhaps greater than the number of years it has existed, and yet some people use it time and time again and convince themselves that they’re right. I say people because not only ostriches use it. Among humans, this strategy has been given two names: optimism and pessimism.
Deceit and cowardice
I don’t know how optimism has survived in this land of ours. And I’m not just saying this because all the great things in the world – which are, in principle, the object of hope – are being persecuted and extinguished; nor even because it seems like an infrequent event – at least for me – when everything turns out well for us. I don’t know how optimism survives simply because it’s a mistake.
The same goes for pessimism. At a superficial glance, one could conjecture that the position taken by its adherents towards the future, people, advice, life, and everything, is a mature prudence. I would agree with this assumption if there were a truly fair balance in these misgivings. But if the caution caused by the pessimistic analysis degenerates into a premise that a priori rejects any probability of success, then of course any initiative will also become impossible. And in my language, this is called cowardice. After all, as Ernest Hello rightly pointed out, “the man who gives up can do nothing and prevent everything. The man who doesn’t give up moves mountains. What man has the right to utter the word impossible when God has promised his presence and his help?”
Sophisms that explain but don’t justify
Nevertheless, everyone has their reasons for believing the lie they tell themselves. Says St. Augustine, “the love of truth is such that those who love something else want what they love to be the truth. Since they will not be deceived, they hate to be convinced of their error”. So what does the “ostrich” believe?
Experience shows us that events have an inveterate habit of going awry. Based on this observation, the famous Murphy’s laws were devised: nothing is so bad that it can’t get worse; the probability of the carpet getting dirty is directly proportional to its quality; the color of the traffic light depends on the driver’s hurry, green on a quiet journey and red in the event of a delay.
These conclusions are the result of what is known in logic as the dialectic of insufficient enumeration or, depending on the modality, converted accident. They are the result of hasty observations: we only realize that the traffic light is red when we’re in a hurry.
Behind all this, the real conclusion is that suffering is part of this life, and the efforts one makes to escape it are pointless. The Chinese proverb says it well: “He who fears to suffer suffers from fear”. Or, as Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira once said: “The most suffering life is that of the one who runs away from suffering”. Therefore, if escape is not possible, the ostrich tactic applies, preferring to close one’s eyes to reality.
In the case of the optimist, the system is to think that adversity doesn’t exist or is very easily overcome: by ignoring it, perhaps one day it will disappear. The pessimist is not so blatantly deluded; rather, he realizes that it is impossible to escape the crosses. His mistake, however, lies in taking them for an insurmountable evil, which an omnipotent “executioner” called the Creator has imposed on us to make our lives bitter. He forgets that the cross is proof of Providence’s love and that “all” – all! – “All things work together for good for those who love God” (Rom 8:28).
Deep down, the problem that leads to both extremes is the same: worrying too much about oneself, one’s problems, and one’s well-being. In other words, selfishness.
Consulting the teacher of life
These two lies of selfishness, which in the small movements of everyday life can even take on a picturesque air, are extremely dangerous, especially when transposed to the large scale of world events. Our dear History, whom Cicero called magistra vitæ – teacher of life – proves this with an example taken from one of its most browsed pages: the prelude to the Second World War.
It was 1938. Hitler, backed by Mussolini, proposed to invade Czech territory. Obliged by an old pact with what was then Czechoslovakia, France, and England decided to support the threatened ally. War is imminent. The Führer promises the prime ministers of both allied nations, Daladier and Chamberlain, not to invade Poland if they accept the annexation of the Sudetenland to the German Reich. Deluded, on the one hand, that the Nazis would honor their word, and terrified, on the other, in the face of German military power, the premiers of France and England sign the agreement.
Whether out of optimism or pessimism, Chamberlain and Daladier acted like real ostriches: to save their skins, they capitulated, refusing to come to the aid of a free, friendly, and, above all, needy nation. What was the result?
When Churchill, the old fox – for he had already crossed the threshold of old age when he began the great odyssey of his life – heard about what had happened, he gave a sententious opinion: “You had to choose between dishonor and war; choose dishonor and you will have war”. Indeed, months later, the Germans advanced on the rest of Czechoslovakia and then invaded Poland, starting the war.
Finally, the solution
Dear reader, having outlined the evil, we present the cure, which is very simple: for imbalance, balance.
What is the point of balance in man’s moral structure? There is not one, there are four and they are called cardinal virtues. Temperance: is found in those who analyze reality without excitement and, consequently, see it as it is. Fortitude: makes you face up to the circumstances. Prudence: dictates the rules for acting according to reason and facts. Justice: defends the truth, does not lie either to oneself or to others, and gives things their due value. Let’s sum up a little: the solution is the practice of virtue and the love of truth, that is, of God.
Text taken from the Heralds of the Gospel Magazine no. 261, September 2023. By Ângelo Francisco Neto Martins.
Compiled by Dominic Joseph
