The Exhaustion of Humanity: A Spiritual Reflection on Power, Cruelty, and Conscience

5-23-2026

An Interview Reflection by Rev. Paula Josephine Sadler

Introduction

There are moments in human life when we stop and truly look at the history of our species—not through propaganda, nationalism, religious dogma, or political identity, but honestly. When we do, it can be deeply overwhelming.

How do human beings repeatedly reach a point where they are willing to torture, enslave, imprison, lynch, burn, stone, silence, segregate, invade, and destroy one another?

How do entire populations become convinced that cruelty is righteousness?

How do governments, religions, and political movements convince ordinary people that some human beings are less deserving of dignity, compassion, freedom, or even life itself?

Throughout history, humanity has witnessed:

• slavery,

• genocide,

• inquisitions,

• colonial violence,

• witch burnings,

• racial segregation,

• authoritarian regimes,

• concentration camps,

• religious wars,

• political purges,

• lynchings,

• torture,

• anti-LGBTQ persecution,

• misogyny,

• and mass dehumanization.

And still, humanity struggles with many of these same patterns today.

This interview reflection explores the emotional, spiritual, psychological, and historical questions surrounding authoritarianism, violence, propaganda, collective denial, and moral consciousness.

It asks difficult questions:

• Why do human beings harm one another?

• Why do societies normalize cruelty?

• Why do authoritarian leaders gain followers?

• Why are some truths denied even when evidence becomes overwhelming?

• Why are compassion and empathy sometimes treated as weakness?

• And how do we continue living with hope after seeing what humanity has done throughout history?

This is not merely a political discussion.

It is a spiritual and moral inquiry into the human condition itself.

Section I — The Weight of Human Cruelty

Paula Sadler:

“I was just thinking about how difficult it is to live on this planet. There are so many bad people. There are people that do terrible things to other humans all throughout history: murder, rape, violence, war, anger, belittlement, abuse, bigotry, hatred, lynching, burning at the stake, drowning in the river, being stoned to death, beheaded, tortured. It is so troubling.

How could we do this to other humans?

How do we even get to a place like that?

What's even more troubling is one human doing that to another who hasn't done anything wrong.

Where do we learn this right from wrong?

We have laws that are unjust. We have value systems based on false virtue and false morality. Flawed morality. Flawed virtue.

To kill women and people who were natural and herbal healers, calling them witches.

To burn people at the stake during the Inquisition.

To have religious wars claiming one God proclaimed they should do so.

To kill people because they don't believe in Christianity—or to kill Christians because they do believe in Jesus.

What a terrible and horrible history humankind has had.”

Response:

The emotional exhaustion expressed in these reflections is rooted in one of the deepest realizations a human being can experience:

humanity is capable of both extraordinary love and extraordinary cruelty.

History demonstrates repeatedly that human beings can construct entire systems that normalize violence and dehumanization. These systems are often upheld not only by force, but by ideology, fear, religious certainty, nationalism, propaganda, economic interests, and social conformity.

Throughout history, countless acts now recognized as morally horrific were once defended as righteous, lawful, necessary, patriotic, or holy.

Examples include:

• slavery,

• segregation,

• colonial conquest,

• witch trials,

• public executions,

• torture,

• forced conversions,

• genocides,

• anti-LGBTQ criminalization,

• misogyny,

• religious persecution,

• racial supremacy,

• and authoritarian repression.

One of the most disturbing truths in history is that many people who participated in these systems did not believe themselves to be evil.

Many believed they were morally justified.

That realization forces humanity to confront a terrifying question:

How often does cruelty disguise itself as righteousness?

Section II — How Ordinary People Become Part of Horrific Systems

Paula Sadler:

“There are people who revel in hatred and violence and who still believe in those systems. They would kill for those beliefs.

How can people be so blind?

How can someone rise to power who hurts so many people, yet still has followers who believe in him completely?

When we look back throughout history, there were many leaders who caused death and destruction, yet their followers loved them.

They believed in them.

They were part of the suffering that followed.”

Response:

One of the most important lessons of history is that authoritarian movements rarely begin with mass violence.

They begin with:

• fear,

• scapegoating,

• humiliation,

• propaganda,

• economic instability,

• conspiracy thinking,

• tribal identity,

• and the dehumanization of targeted groups.

Authoritarian leaders often present themselves as:

• saviors,

• protectors,

• restorers of greatness,

• defenders of morality,

• or guardians against perceived enemies.

These movements psychologically divide the world into:

• pure versus impure,

• patriots versus traitors,

• believers versus enemies,

• “real people” versus outsiders.

Once populations are convinced that certain groups are dangerous, immoral, inferior, corrupting society, or threatening civilization itself, cruelty becomes easier to justify.

History repeatedly shows this pattern.

Examples include:

• Nazi Germany,

• Stalinist purges,

• Maoist political campaigns,

• the Inquisition,

• segregationist systems,

• apartheid,

• anti-LGBTQ persecution,

• extremist nationalist movements,

• and colonial empires.

The philosopher Hannah Arendt described part of this phenomenon as “the banality of evil”—the frightening reality that ordinary people can become participants in destructive systems when fear, conformity, obedience, and ideology overpower empathy and moral reflection.

Many participants were not psychopathic monsters.

Some were:

• fearful,

• indoctrinated,

• opportunistic,

• career-driven,

• obedient,

• or morally disengaged.

That reality is deeply unsettling because it reveals how vulnerable human beings are to manipulation under certain conditions.

Section III — Crimes Never Brought to Justice

Paula Sadler:

“What percentage of violent crimes against others are never able to be prosecuted?

How many rapists and murderers go free?

How many white-collar crimes never make it into the system?

There are people who do terrible things who are never caught.

Some have money or power and evade justice completely.

That is where we're at right now.”

Response:

Criminologists and historians acknowledge a difficult reality:

many harmful acts throughout history are never fully addressed through formal justice systems.

This includes:

• violent crime,

• sexual assault,

• corruption,

• political violence,

• financial exploitation,

• organized crime,

• human trafficking,

• and state violence.

Many crimes are:

• never reported,

• never investigated,

• never prosecuted,

• or never acknowledged publicly.

This becomes even more complicated under authoritarian systems where governments themselves control:

• courts,

• police,

• military power,

• media,

• education,

• and historical narratives.

In such systems, the people committing the abuses may also control the definition of legality itself.

History contains many authoritarian leaders responsible for mass suffering who were never imprisoned.

Some died in power.

Others avoided full prosecution.

Yet over time, documents emerged, archives opened, survivors spoke, historians investigated, and truths gradually surfaced.

One of the recurring patterns of history is this:

legal justice and moral truth are not always the same thing.

Some guilty people die free.

Some innocent people die condemned.

Yet historical truth often survives longer than systems of power expect.

Section IV — The Followers Who Remained After the Leaders Died

Paula Sadler:

“There are followers of leaders who caused such death and destruction who, even after the death of their leader, still believe in carrying on the values and agenda that were proposed.

They pass it on generation after generation.”

Response:

The death of an authoritarian leader does not automatically end an ideology.

Often the ideology survives because it became emotionally embedded into:

• identity,

• religion,

• nationalism,

• family systems,

• social structures,

• and generational memory.

After destructive regimes collapse, many followers remain alive.

Some experience:

• denial,

• shame,

• silence,

• rationalization,

• or psychological compartmentalization.

Others continue defending the ideology itself.

This has occurred repeatedly throughout history.

Examples include:

• neo-fascist movements after World War II,

• white supremacist movements after slavery and segregation,

• extremist religious sects,

• authoritarian nationalist movements,

• and generational prejudice passed through families and institutions.

The end of slavery did not end white supremacy.

The end of segregation did not immediately end racism.

The collapse of fascist governments did not erase fascist ideology.

Human beings often inherit narratives long before they critically examine them.

Hatred, fear, prejudice, and dehumanization are frequently taught socially through:

• family systems,

• political rhetoric,

• religious dogma,

• propaganda,

• selective historical memory,

• and cultural conditioning.

Yet history also shows that moral consciousness can evolve.

Beliefs once widely accepted are now recognized by many as profoundly unjust.

Progress is not linear or guaranteed, but human societies can change.

Section V — False Morality and the Abuse of Religion

Paula Sadler:

“There are people who believe this is a white Christian nation and that everyone should be Christian.

They believe it is okay to dehumanize women and minorities and people of other religions.

They claim righteousness while saying things that aren't true.

They are caught in a great lie and have been deceived.”

Response:

Throughout history, religion has been used both:

• to liberate,

• and to oppress.

Some of humanity's greatest moral movements were inspired by spiritual principles:

• abolition movements,

• civil rights movements,

• humanitarian efforts,

• nonviolence movements,

• recovery movements,

• and teachings centered on compassion and dignity.

Yet religion has also been weaponized to justify:

• conquest,

• slavery,

• persecution

Section VI — Slavery, Racial Supremacy, and the Dehumanization of Human Beings

Paula Sadler:

“What kind of terrible world is it where people believed it was acceptable to enslave other human beings, force them against their will, separate families, beat them, sell them, rape them, lynch them, and treat them as less than human?

And not only in America, but throughout the world and throughout history.

What kind of society convinces itself that another race is inferior?

How could entire populations normalize segregation, racial violence, and dehumanization?

How many people throughout history participated in these systems while believing themselves righteous?”

Response:

Slavery and racial supremacy represent some of the clearest examples of how human beings can construct entire moral systems around dehumanization.

For centuries, slavery was defended politically, economically, religiously, scientifically, and culturally. Entire societies normalized the ownership of human beings as property.

Families were separated. Bodies were controlled. Languages and identities were erased.Violence became institutionalized.

And perhaps most disturbing of all, many participants believed themselves morally justified.

Racial supremacy systems relied upon one of the oldest and most dangerous psychological mechanisms in human history: the belief that some human beings are more valuable than others.

This pattern appeared throughout colonial empires, segregationist systems, apartheid structures, caste systems, genocides, and nationalist movements across the world.

Human beings created elaborate systems to justify domination:

• pseudoscience,

• religious interpretation,

• nationalism,

• economic necessity,

• fear,

• and myths of superiority.

The legacy of these systems did not disappear when laws changed.

Generational trauma continued. Economic inequality continued. Social conditioning continued. Fear continued.

And throughout history there have always been people attempting to romanticize or minimize oppressive systems after the damage was already done.

This is why historical truth matters.

Without honest confrontation, societies often pass unresolved trauma and distorted narratives from generation to generation.

One of the great moral tests of humanity is whether people can recognize the full humanity of others even when society teaches them not to.

Section VII — LGBTQ People, Women, and the Fear of Difference

Paula Sadler:

“There are people who believe LGBTQ people and transgender people represent some kind of danger to society or to children.

There are people who believe women should have fewer rights, less autonomy, and less freedom.

There are people who believe those who are different should be silenced, hidden, criminalized, or excluded.

History shows this pattern over and over again.

People who are different become targets.”

Response:

Throughout history, societies have often projected fear onto people who challenge traditional systems of identity, power, gender, religion, or social conformity.

Women accused of witchcraft. Gay people criminalized. Transgender people dehumanized. Queer communities scapegoated. Artists censored. Spiritual dissidents persecuted. Minorities treated as threats.

The pattern repeats throughout history because authoritarian and fear-based systems often rely upon defining outsiders.

Difference becomes symbolic.

Instead of confronting economic instability, corruption, inequality, or institutional failure, societies frequently redirect fear toward vulnerable populations.

This process creates moral panic:

• accusations of corruption,

• accusations of impurity,

• accusations of danger,

• accusations of threatening children,

• accusations of threatening religion,

• accusations of destroying civilization itself.

These narratives have appeared repeatedly throughout history in different forms.

The language changes. The targets change. But the psychological structure often remains remarkably similar.

What is especially painful is that many people targeted by these systems are simply trying to live authentic lives with dignity, safety, equality, and peace.

And yet societies repeatedly frame them as enemies.

The refusal to allow people their humanity is one of the deepest moral failures repeated throughout human history.

At its core, the fear of difference is often rooted in insecurity, conditioning, fear of change, and the human desire for certainty and control.

But moral evolution requires expanding empathy beyond tribal identity.

Human dignity cannot depend upon conformity.

Section VIII — Propaganda, Fear, and the Psychology of Authoritarianism

Paula Sadler:

“How do populations become convinced that cruelty is righteousness?

How do people become so blind?

How do followers continue defending leaders and movements even after enormous suffering and destruction occur?

How can lies become more powerful than truth?”

Response:

Authoritarian systems rarely survive through force alone.

They survive through narrative.

Propaganda reshapes reality itself by controlling:

• fear,

• identity,

• information,

• emotion,

• and belonging.

Throughout history, authoritarian movements have often emerged during periods of:

• instability,

• humiliation,

• economic fear,

• cultural change,

• political division,

• and collective anxiety.

Leaders rise promising:

• restoration,

• certainty,

• protection,

• moral clarity,

• national greatness,

• and enemies to blame.

Followers often become emotionally attached not only to the leader, but to the identity and belonging the movement provides.

This can create a dangerous psychological dynamic: truth becomes secondary to loyalty.

Evidence becomes threatening. Criticism becomes betrayal. Compassion becomes weakness. Complexity becomes intolerable.

The world becomes divided into:

• patriots versus enemies,

• believers versus outsiders,

• pure versus corrupt,

• “real people” versus dangerous others.

Once populations become emotionally invested in these divisions, dehumanization becomes easier.

History repeatedly demonstrates that propaganda works most effectively when it activates:

• fear,

• grievance,

• humiliation,

• identity,

• and the desire for certainty.

This has occurred across:

• fascist movements,

• extremist religious movements,

• racial supremacy systems,

• authoritarian governments,

• cults of personality,

• and nationalist movements throughout history.

One of the most frightening realities of human psychology is that many people genuinely believe they are morally righteous while participating in harmful systems.

That realization forces humanity to confront a difficult truth: human beings are deeply vulnerable to manipulation when fear overpowers empathy and critical thought.

Section IX — Compassion Is Not Weakness

Paula Sadler:

“Compassion is not weakness.

Treating others with kindness, dignity, respect, empathy, and unconditional love is not weakness.

It is strength.”

Response:

Human history often glorifies domination, aggression, conquest, control, and power.

But compassion requires a different kind of courage.

Cruelty is often easy. Humiliation is easy. Hatred is easy.Violence is easy.

Empathy requires moral imagination.

Compassion requires the willingness to recognize the humanity of others even during fear, disagreement, conflict, or uncertainty.

Throughout history, many of humanity’s most important moral movements were built not upon domination, but upon conscience:

• abolition movements,

• civil rights movements,

• nonviolent resistance,

• humanitarian efforts,

• recovery movements,

• peace movements,

• and struggles for equality and dignity.

Compassion is not passive surrender. It is active moral resistance against dehumanization.

The refusal to become cruel in response to cruelty is strength.

The refusal to surrender conscience to propaganda is strength.

The willingness to seek truth even when it is painful is strength.

Compassion is not weakness because compassion refuses to abandon humanity itself.

At the center of nearly every spiritual tradition lies some version of this principle: human beings are meant to recognize dignity in one another.

When societies lose that capacity, they begin losing themselves.

Section X — Hope, Truth, and the Future of Humanity

Paula Sadler:

“It is hard to go on living in a world where this can even happen.

But eventually the truth comes out.

Even if not through courts or governments, there is a reckoning.

History eventually speaks.

And we must continue seeking truth, conscience, compassion, and hope.”

Response:

To study history honestly is to confront both:

• humanity’s capacity for destruction,

• and humanity’s capacity for transformation.

Human beings created:

• wars,

• genocides,

• torture,

• slavery,

• authoritarian systems,

• nuclear weapons,

• and unimaginable suffering.

But human beings also created:

• art,

• music,

• philosophy,

• spiritual teachings,

• humanitarian movements,

• recovery communities,

• democratic ideals,

• and movements for justice and equality.

History is not only the story of cruelty.

It is also the story of resistance.

Even during humanity’s darkest periods, there were always people who:

• protected the vulnerable,

• spoke truth,

• hid persecuted families,

• resisted authoritarianism,

• documented injustice,

• preserved compassion,

• and refused to surrender conscience completely.

These people are often not the most powerful figures in their own era.

But history frequently remembers them differently than the systems they resisted.

Truth has an unusual persistence.

Archives open. Witnesses speak. Documents emerge. Future generations reassess the past.

Sometimes societies only fully understand their moral failures decades later.

That realization is painful. But it is also evidence that conscience survives.

The exhaustion many people feel today is real:

• political exhaustion,

• emotional exhaustion,

• spiritual exhaustion,

• historical exhaustion,

• and moral exhaustion.

Many people feel overwhelmed by:

• division,

• propaganda,

• violence,

• fear,

• dehumanization,

• corruption,

• instability,

• and the feeling that humanity keeps repeating the same destructive cycles.

But exhaustion does not have to become surrender.

The future of humanity may ultimately depend upon whether enough people choose:

• compassion over cruelty,

• truth over propaganda,

• dignity over domination,

• empathy over fear,

• and conscience over blind allegiance.

Humanity must continue evolving morally, spiritually, emotionally, and psychologically if it hopes to survive its own capacity for destruction.

Eventually the truth comes out.

Eventually history speaks.

Eventually humanity must confront itself.

God save us.

Additional Author’s Notes and Thought Process

Expanded Reflections on Religion, Nationalism, Authoritarianism, and the Present Moment

Rev. Paula Josephine Sadler

I also struggle deeply with the contradiction between the teachings of Jesus centered on love, compassion, forgiveness, dignity, humility, and care for others, and the ways religion has so often been used throughout history to justify violence, exclusion, oppression, fear, punishment, supremacy, and control.

How did humanity move so far away from compassion while still claiming righteousness?

How did systems built around spiritual teachings become capable of persecution, inquisitions, forced conversions, colonialism, hatred, and exclusion?

How did people convince themselves they were morally justified while harming others in the name of God?

This is one of the deepest spiritual contradictions in human history.

Throughout history, many authoritarian movements and oppressive systems fused religion with nationalism, power, racial hierarchy, and political control. Entire populations became convinced they were chosen, superior, morally righteous, or divinely justified in dominating others.

This has happened across many nations, empires, religions, and political systems throughout human history.

It is difficult not to see echoes of those patterns in the modern world.

There are people today who believe the United States belongs only to certain kinds of people. There are people who believe America should be governed as a white Christian nation, where those who are different—racially, spiritually, politically, culturally, sexually, or in gender identity—are viewed as threats rather than fellow human beings deserving dignity and equality.

There are people who believe LGBTQ people, especially transgender people, represent some kind of danger or corruption despite overwhelming evidence that LGBTQ people are simply human beings trying to live authentic lives with dignity, safety, and equality.

There are people who genuinely believe cruelty, exclusion, humiliation, and dehumanization are forms of moral strength.

That realization is frightening.

History repeatedly shows that societies often create moral panic around minorities, outsiders, dissidents, immigrants, women, spiritual thinkers, artists, queer people, and marginalized communities. Fear becomes weaponized politically and socially. Entire populations are convinced that another group is somehow threatening civilization itself.

Once that happens, cruelty becomes easier to justify.

Throughout history, similar patterns have repeated themselves:

• accusations of corruption,

• accusations of impurity,

• accusations of danger to children,

• accusations of weakening society,

• accusations of threatening morality,

• accusations of threatening religion,

• accusations of destroying the nation.

These patterns appeared during:

• witch hunts,

• segregation,

• colonialism,

• anti-immigrant movements,

• anti-LGBTQ campaigns,

• authoritarian regimes,

• fascist movements,

• religious extremism,

• and racial supremacy systems.

That is one of the reasons history matters so deeply.

When we fail to study these patterns honestly, we become vulnerable to repeating them.

Part of what troubles me so deeply is witnessing how followers of powerful leaders can excuse cruelty, dishonesty, corruption, dehumanization, and authoritarian rhetoric because they feel emotionally, politically, culturally, or spiritually attached to the movement itself.

This is not unique to one country or one era.

History shows repeatedly that populations can become deeply attached to leaders who exploit fear, grievance, nationalism, economic instability, identity politics, and propaganda.

Many followers genuinely believe they are defending morality, civilization, religion, patriotism, or freedom, even while supporting systems that harm others.

That is one of the most frightening realities of human psychology.

I think about how many people throughout history later had to confront the truth of what they supported, defended, normalized, or ignored.

How many followers of authoritarian systems eventually realized they participated in something deeply harmful?

How many denied it?

How many justified it?

How many passed those beliefs on to future generations?

And how many remained unable to confront the truth at all?

These are not easy questions.

They are painful questions.

But if humanity cannot ask painful questions honestly, then we remain trapped in denial.

Part of my concern in the present moment is the fear that future generations may one day look back at this era with greater clarity than many people currently possess.

History often becomes easier to see after the damage has already been done.

Truth frequently emerges slowly:

• through archives,

• survivors,

• journalism,

• historians,

• whistleblowers,

• public testimony,

• cultural reflection,

• and generational reassessment.

Sometimes entire societies later realize they were manipulated by propaganda, fear, misinformation, nationalism, or authoritarian narratives.

Sometimes they do not fully realize it until decades later.

What exhausts me spiritually and emotionally is witnessing how easily human beings can be persuaded to fear, hate, scapegoat, or dehumanize others while believing themselves morally righteous in doing so.

And yet despite all of this, I still believe compassion is strength.

Empathy is strength.

Human dignity is strength.

The refusal to dehumanize another human being is strength.

The willingness to love in a world that teaches hatred is strength.

The willingness to seek truth, even when it is painful or inconvenient, is strength.

Compassion is not weakness.

It is one of the highest forms of moral courage humanity possesses.

And perhaps humanity’s survival depends upon whether enough people choose compassion, truth, conscience, and dignity over fear, domination, propaganda, and hatred.

Eventually the truth comes out.

Eventually history speaks.

Eventually humanity must confront itself.

God save us.

A Prayer to be shown the Truth

Dear God,

Please show the people of the world the truth about Trump, and what is happening in the White House, the United States government, and around the world that is harming people.

Especially show his followers the truth of the suffering being caused and the causes he stands for based on self-righteous indignation, false morality, false virtue, and the harm caused to minorities, Black and Brown people, LGBTQ people, transgender children and adults, women’s rights, and bodily autonomy.

Show them the truth before it is too late.

This is beyond political party.

This is about character. This is about conscience. This is about humanity itself.

Dear God, please do not let people use Your name to justify hatred, separation, cruelty, dehumanization, or division.

Let all people see the truth of who is causing harm to democracy, equality, compassion, and adding to the suffering and woes of humanity.

Please awaken the hearts and minds of the people.

Help humanity move beyond fear, hatred, propaganda, and division.

Help us remember compassion, dignity, empathy, truth, and love.

Thank You, God.

Amen.

Affirmation

I choose truth over fear. I choose compassion over hatred. I choose conscience over blind allegiance. I refuse to dehumanize others. I believe humanity can evolve. I believe truth survives. I believe compassion is strength. I will stand for dignity, equality, empathy, and love even in difficult times.