(9 of 11)
Is individualism being purposely denied by such associations? One of the consequences of allowing great forces to be unleashed in this century is that the individual has found himself with very little stature or power of his own. Communist hordes overran China; Hiroshima went up in a golden bulb; revolutions flickered and were doused in East Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland. What place had any one person in such moments? That the individual has lost any sense of his own importance may be due in part to the social conformities, or to the existence of the Bomb, or simply to talk about the Bomb. But it is also due to the forfeiture of individualism that took place at the beginning of this period, the thought that if one were truly to let things be, then individuals must by necessity be overwhelmed by massive sweeps and surges.
A picture forms showing 60 years of hectic freedom leading to powerlessness, ennui and immobility. Yet the picture is exaggerated. It is convenient to think of a time in the thrall of science as absent of religious faith, but one look at the millions of Poles, Guatemalans, Irishmen, Americans and Englishmen drawn to the recent visits of Pope John Paul II suggests that all the mysteries of existence do not bubble up only in laboratories. One reason the martial-law government of Poland so fears the Pope's influence in that country is that he reaches feelings in the people no government can come close to. For all the stark, monstrous visible evidence of our times, the mind still retains a shrine for invisibilities. One can never comprehend a place like Iran without acknowledging as much, although Iran has also proved that faith unleashed may act no more gently than other executioners.