When contempt is studied, America will be safe

As parents of a 17-year-old in the midst of visiting college campuses - including the New Brunswick area - we are saddened and shocked by the horrific occurrence at Virginia Tech. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the 32 men and women.

A stunned nation is asking itself, "How can this have occurred?" We are impelled to say that the philosophy aesthetic realism founded by the American educator Eli Siegel explained the reason. It showed that contempt is the "false importance or glory," a person gets by making less of another human being. Contempt is the cause of all injustice and human cruelty.

We learned it is in every person and can be very ordinary - for example, appearing to listen to another while thinking - "What an idiot!" But it can be taken very far. In his book "James and the Children," Eli Siegel wrote: "[A]s soon as you have contempt, as soon as you don't want to see another person as having the fullness that you have, you can rob that person, hurt that person, kill that person."

When contempt is studied, understood and criticized - including in oneself - America will be kind and safe.

Lauren and Bruce Blaustein

New York City