"Fundamentally, though, humankind is pretty crap." Discuss.

[mongers]

Reading an old article about Channel 4's rather good reporter, Lindsey Hilsum, I was rather struck by here conclusion to the interview. So do you agree with her ?

The article is here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2006/may/28/features.magazine17

Lindsey Hilsum

Foreign correspondent, 47, London

The Observer, Sunday 28 May 2006


Having grey hair is a good thing. I am taken more seriously, partly because it's obvious you've been around a fair bit. The notion that television only likes young women is not true.

My first story came from Central America. I wandered over by myself, typed it up and posted it to The Guardian. It was published several months later because it took a while to get there.

The process of growing older is of forcing yourself to remain open-minded. The easiest thing to be is close-minded, to think that you know it all because you've been there. Some people drive me mad. They sit and theorise, finding a story to fit their beliefs. That's totally wrong.

To go out and start reporting is much more difficult and dangerous than it was. Iraq is the most dangerous conflict any of us have covered.

What gets me about Iraq is that everybody I knew there before the war wanted it, because they said nothing could be worse than living under Saddam. We had a government minder called Mohammed. He was very happy when the Americans came into Baghdad. Within a day he had to save the life of a little girl who had been shot by the US Marines. In December 2004 he was kidnapped as he was preparing for his wedding. I haven't heard from him since.

I dealt with those early days in Rwanda at the start of the genocide on my own. That taught me that I can cope in an emergency by myself. You witness the depths of what humanity can do and you know it's nothing to do with race or religion, it's a deeply human thing.

The worst journalists are people who go to places knowing what's right and what's wrong, which side is good and which is bad. You have to be prepared to have your expectations overthrown.

Under pressure, people will murder their neighbours because they are told to do so. Few people will resist that. People would say, 'Gosh, if you'd been one of those Hutus in a village do you think you would have been the one to stand up and say no?' As an article of faith you would have to say yes, you believe you would've stood up and done the right thing. I didn't need psychological help, I needed philosophical help, because that left me completely blank.

If you see lots of really dreadful things it distances you from people who have not.

I recently told my taxi driver I'm off to Paris because I'm fed up with visiting tough places. He said: 'You really are the chief person of horrible visiting.' I thought: that's my epitaph, isn't it?

I have a Rwandan friend who is a survivor of the genocide. Her whole family was murdered. She did a course in counselling students. I asked her how she could cope with students whingeing about their boyfriends and so on. She said, 'There is no hierarchy of pain. You mustn't judge that somebody else has suffered more.' One tries to learn from such an amazing outlook.

Journalism only scratches the surface. Certain things can only be expressed in, say, poetry or drama. Frequently I'm in situations where I see human dilemmas and if I had the ability to write poetry I would be able to express this much better.

Working as a foreign correspondent is like being unfaithful - I feel guilty about stories and people I leave behind. Iraq most of all. Rwanda too. I don't forget, but essentially journalists move on. It's always a search for something new. Now I'm uprooting and going to be Channel 4 News's Beijing correspondent. So I'm starting from scratch again in China. I have a knot in my stomach, but maybe it's good to be frightened again.

Psychologically I'm quite optimistic and philosophically I'm quite pessimistic, which sort of means one carries on. Politically, things can be done, genocide can be prevented and individuals can learn from history. Fundamentally, though, humankind is pretty crap.

[Eddie Teach]

my taxi driver

Personal driver or had she just been running her mouth a lot on the trip? 

[CountDeMoney]

I concur.  It's crap.

'There is no hierarchy of pain. You mustn't judge that somebody else has suffered more.'

Sure you can.

[11B4V]

Sounds like the person has a guilty conscience. Find a different line of work.

[Neil]

'Certain things can only be expressed in poetry'?

This person represents everything that is wrong in the world.

[Siege]

Lefty bitch full of herself.

[dps]

As a Christian, sure, my positiion is that we're all sinners, else why would we need a saviour?

[Zoupa]

To keep the opium flowing.

[CountDeMoney]

To keep the opium flowing.

Sometimes your Europeanism makes me throw up in my mouth.

[Neil]

As a Christian, sure, my positiion is that we're all sinners, else why would we need a saviour?

I think you're approaching the question from the wrong angle.

[Scipio]

Fundamentally, humanity is all we fucking have.  People who are down on humanity are spending too much fucking time worrying about other fucking people, and not enough time solving their own problems.  Hullman needs a Dr. Phil moment.

[Razgovory]

Humanity is pretty crap compared to what exactly?

[Jacob]

That's the kind of profound insight I'd expect from a slightly inebriated first year university student.

[Razgovory]

That's the kind of profound insight I'd expect from a slightly inebriated first year university student.

I'm not drunk.

[Slargos]

Psychologically I'm quite optimistic and philosophically I'm quite pessimistic, which sort of means one carries on. Politically, things can be done, genocide can be prevented and individuals can learn from history. Fundamentally, though, humankind is pretty crap.

I can't but agree. Of course, I don't see genocide as a negativism, but other than that? Sure.

I've come to the conclusion that for all my cynical bluster, at heart I am an unbridled optimist. I was taken aback the other day when a new colleague responded to my assertion that since we'd made an agreement of course I was going to hold up my end of it, with "I don't know you, so how can I trust you?" I realize that since I work from the assumption that others are trustworthy until proven otherwise, I also expect them to hold the same expectations of me.

That said, I skipped to the end so I don't know what else she said.