Man’s Inhumanity to Man

Lack of empathy is a timeless scourge

Vicelin Distributing Bread Among the Poor by Christoffer Wilhem Eckersberg, 1812 (Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design - public domain CC BY 4.0)

“Man’s inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn!”
— Robert Burns, 1784

There is nothing new about inhumanity and imbalance, our topic earlier this week. The human race has been dealing with classism since the first time one man made another serve him.

The phrase “man’s inhumanity to man” originated in the Robert Burns poem “Man Was Made to Mourn: A Dirge” in 1784, giving us a glimpse of the struggle of man in a feudal society.

In just 11 stanzas, we find themes that are just as fresh and raw today, amid billionaire oligarchs and the great unwashed masses, a startling parallel to the 18th-century classes of society:

When chill November’s surly blast
Made fields and forests bare,
One ev’ning, as I wander’d forth
Along the banks of Ayr,
I spied a man, whose aged step
Seem’d weary, worn with care;
His face was furrow’d o’er with years,
And hoary was his hair.

“Young stranger, whither wand’rest thou?”
Began the rev’rend sage;
“Does thirst of wealth thy step constrain,
Or youthful pleasure’s rage?
Or haply, prest with cares and woes,
Too soon thou hast began
To wander forth, with me to mourn
The miseries of man.

“The sun that overhangs yon moors,
Out-spreading far and wide,
Where hundreds labour to support
A haughty lordling’s pride; —
I’ve seen yon weary winter-sun
Twice forty times return;
And ev’ry time has added proofs,
That man was made to mourn.

Today’s working class, employed by companies like Tesla, Amazon or the like, is supporting the space-bound dreams of the CEO — just as Burns gave us with: “Where hundreds labour to support / A haughty lordling’s pride”.