Man's inhumanity to man: Difference between revisions

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The phrase "'''Man's inhumanity to man'''" is afirst linedocumented fromin the [[Robert Burns]]' 1784 poem "'called ''Man was made to mourn: A Dirge'''". Thein line1784. andIt theis poempossible havethat sinceBurns beenreworded quoteda insimilar relationquote to thefrom [[problemSamuel ofvon evilPufendorf]] who in 1673 wrote, especially"More referencinginhumanity warshas andbeen genocidedone by man himself than any other of nature's causes."

{{TOC right}}

==SynopsisRobert Burns==

[[File:Robert Burns 1.jpg|thumb|100px|left|[[Robert Burns]] by [[Alexander Nasmyth]], 1787]]

"Man was made to mourn" is an eleven stanza [[dirge]] by [[Robert Burns]] first published in 1784.<ref name="Burns">{{cite web |author=Robert Burns |author-link=Robert Burns |year=2005 |title=Burns Country |url=http://www.robertburns.org/works/55.shtml |accessdate=13 November 2009 |work='Man was made to mourn: A Dirge' |publisher=robertburns.org}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Leask |first=Nigel |date=2010-06-24 |title=Pastoral Politics |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/6405/chapter/150185374 |journal=Robert Burns and Pastoral: Poetry and Improvement in Late Eighteenth-Century Scotland |language=en |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199572618.003.0005}}</ref> The poem was originally intended to be sung to the tune of the song "[[Peggy Bawn]]". It is written as if it were being delivered by a wiser old man to a "young stranger" standing in the winter on "the banks of Aire".<ref name=":0" /> It includes the stanza:<ref name="Burns" />

{| border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" align="center" width="30%" style="background-color: #EEEEEE;"

|-----

|''Man was made to mourn: A Dirge''<ref name=Burns>{{cite web

|accessdate=13 November 2009

|url=http://www.robertburns.org/works/55.shtml

|title=Burns Country

|author=Robert Burns

|author-link=Robert Burns

|work='Man was made to mourn: A Dirge'

|publisher=robertburns.org

|year=2005}}</ref>

<blockquote><div style= "font-size:87%;">

Many and sharp the num'rous ills<br/>

Inwoven with our frame!<br/>

More pointed still we make ourselves<br/>

Regret, remorse, and shame!<br/>

And man, whose heav'n-erected face<br/>

The smiles of love adorn, – <br/>

Man's inhumanity to man<br/>

Makes countless thousands mourn!<br/>

</div></blockquote>

|}

==Phrase defined==

Many and sharp the num'rous ills<br />

The phrase 'Man's inhumanity to man' is defined by its component parts.

Inwoven with our frame!<br />

More pointed still we make ourselves<br />

Regret, remorse, and shame!<br />

And man, whose heav'n-erected face<br />

The smiles of love adorn, – <br />

Man's inhumanity to man<br />

Makes countless thousands mourn!

The word "Man" followed by a " 's " ...

== Analysis ==

'''’s'''- /s, z before a voiced consonant/

Burns based the poem on the song "[[The Age and Life of Man]]", a [[ballad]] that dated to the 17th century. He later said he had heard his mother sing the song.<ref name=":0" />

· prefix archaic (used chiefly in oaths or declarations) God’s or Man's.

– ORIGIN shortened form.<ref name=COD> {{cite dictionary

|dictionary=[[Concise Oxford English Dictionary|Concise Oxford Dictionary]] |edition=10th

|author=Pearsall, Judy

|entry=Man was made to mourn: A Dirge

|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]

|year=2001}}

NOTE: Rather than being a direct revision of the ninth edition, it was based on the larger [[Oxford Dictionary of English|New Oxford Dictionary of English]] (1998), which Pearsall had edited. Its compilation had involved a re-analysis of much of the core vocabulary using the [[British National Corpus]]. The tenth edition was also issued as an electronic resource, as a computer optical disc.</ref>

'''inhumanity'''

The scholar [[Nigel Leask]] writes that the poem includes "surprisingly contemporary themes," noting its "lament for the harshness and brevity of human life" and direct criticism of "hundreds labour[ing] to support / a haughty lordling's pride." It does not offer these poor hope, emphasizing the negative sentiment that "man was made to mourn." Leask also notes that the poem supports a [[right to work]] by criticizing a lord who will not hire a former farmer looking for work.<ref name=":0" />

· n. (pl. inhumanities) cruel and brutal behavior.<ref name=COD/>

'''to'''

Burns initially wrote the poem in response to pervasive "economic and social injustices" in society.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Roth |first=Hans Ingvar |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NM9tDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA159&dq=%22Man's+inhumanity+to+man%22+idiom+burns&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwirk4De6KT6AhU_hYkEHV39ABoQ6AF6BAgDEAI#v=onepage&q=%22Man's%20inhumanity%20to%20man%22%20idiom%20burns&f=false |title=P. C. Chang and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights |date=2018-09-10 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=978-0-8122-9547-4 |pages=159 |language=en}}</ref> It was well-received. Scholar Carol McGuirk describes the poem and "[[Despondency, An Ode]]" as serving as a touchstone "for later poets in and out of Scotland."<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=McGuirk |first=Carol |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-C47CgAAQBAJ&pg=PT216 |title=Reading Robert Burns: Texts, Contexts, Transformations |date=2015-10-06 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-31734-0 |language=en}}</ref>{{Rp|page=68}} However, in the years since its publication, the poem has been more broadly applied to wars and genocides.<ref name=":1" />

· prep.

1 expressing direction or position in relation to a particular ___location, point, or condition.<ref name=COD/>

'''man'''

=="Man's inhumanity to man"==

· n. (pl. men)

It is possible that Burns reworded a similar quote from [[Samuel von Pufendorf]] who in 1673 wrote, "More inhumanity has been done by man himself than any other of nature's causes."{{Cn|date=September 2022}} In 1798 the English poet [[William Wordsworth]] adapted it in his ''[[Lines Written in Early Spring]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dabundo |first=Laura |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KMeOAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA68 |title=Encyclopedia of Romanticism (Routledge Revivals): Culture in Britain, 1780s-1830s |date=2009-10-15 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-23235-1 |pages=68 |language=en}}</ref>

1 an adult human male.

2 a male member of a workforce, team, etc.

3 a husband or lover: man and wife.

4 a person. Ø human beings in general; the human race.

– USAGE The generic use of man to refer to ‘human beings in general’ has become problematic in modern use; it is now widely regarded as old-fashioned or sexist. Alternative terms such as the human race or humankind may be used in some contexts, but elsewhere there are no established alternatives, for example for the term manpower or the verb man. <ref name=COD/> Or as in "man's inhumanity to man."

==Notable uses of the phrase==

The line "man's inhumanity to man" has been widely quoted since Burns' poem was first published, in reference to wars, mistreatment of indigenous people and nations, and, according to historian Mark Celinscak, other "acts of extreme violence".<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Celinscak |first=Mark |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3LnwCgAAQBAJ |title=Distance from the Belsen Heap: Allied Forces and the Liberation of a Nazi Concentration Camp |date=2015-01-01 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-1-4426-1570-0 |pages=11 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hughey |first=Michael W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=alTeCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA55 |title=New Tribalisms: The Resurgence of Race and Ethnicity |date=2016-03-29 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-349-26403-2 |pages=55 |language=en}}</ref> It is still broadly associated with Burns' poem.<ref name=":1" /> Celinscak writes that the phrase has become [[wikt:Banal|banal]] due to "decades of overuse", noting that it was commonly used to describe the [[Bergen-Belsen concentration camp]] during World War II.<ref name=":3" /> The line was cited six times by [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] in his autobiography.<ref name=":2" />

[[File:Samuel von Pufendorf2.jpg|thumb|left|100px|[[Samuel von Pufendorf]]]]

===In Referencesreference to man===

"More inhumanity (to man) has been done by man himself than any other of nature's causes." [[Samuel von Pufendorf]], 1673.<ref name=Pufendorf>{{cite web

|accessdate=13 November 2009

|url=http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=888&chapter=66067&layout=html&Itemid=27

|title=The Whole Duty of Man According to the Law of Nature

|author=von Pufendorf, Samuel

|work=The Whole Duty of Man

|publisher=[[Liberty Fund, Inc.]]

|year=2003}}{{Full citation needed|date=September 2014}}

Note: Translated by [[Andrew Tooke]], editor, Ian Hunter and David Saunders, with Two Discourses and a Commentary by Jean Barbeyrac, translated by David Saunders (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2003).</ref>

"Man's inhumanity (towards man) comes from within, due to the lack of [[cardinal virtues]]." An unknown Catholic priest, date unknown.<ref name=CP>{{cite web

|accessdate=13 November 2009 |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03343a.htm

|title=Cardinal Virtues

|author=Rickaby, John

|work=Catholic Encyclopedia

|publisher=Robert Appleton Company

|year=1908}}

Note: A possible conjoined phrase from an unknown priest referencing [[Plato]]'s scheme of man's inhumanity and St. [[Thomas Aquinas]] four [[Cardinal virtues]].</ref>

"There is only one way in which one can endure man's inhumanity to man and that is to try, in one's own life, to exemplify man's humanity to man." [[Alan Paton]].<ref name=Paton>{{cite web

|accessdate = 13 November 2009

|url = http://paton.ukzn.ac.za/findus779.aspx

|title = The Alan Paton Centre & Struggle Archives

|author = Paton, Alan

|publisher = University of Kwazulu-Natal

|year = 2009

|url-status = dead

|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20090830234508/http://paton.ukzn.ac.za/findus779.aspx

|archivedate = 30 August 2009

|df = dmy-all

}}</ref>

"The inhumanity of man toward man is our greatest sin." [[Ellen G. White]], 1895.<ref name= White>{{cite web

|url=http://www.gilead.net/egw/books/manuscript-releases/Manuscript_Releases_Volume_Nineteen/index.htm

|title=MR No. 1374—Bear Witness to Christ Before the World; How to Conduct the Christian Warfare

|author=Ellen G. White

|work=Manuscript Releases Volume 19, 1895

|publisher=Review and Herald Publishing Association

|year=1915 }}</ref>

"Man's inhumanity to man is equaled only by man's inhumanity to himself." [[Edmund Bergler]], 1949.<ref>Edmund Bergler, ''Principles of Self-Damage,'' International Universities Press, Inc., Madison, CT. 1992. p. xxxv. (First published by Philosophical Library, Inc. 1959.)</ref>

"Man's inhumanity to man crosses continents and decades." Anthony Venutolo, 2009.<ref name= Venutolo>{{cite web

|accessdate=26 December 2009

|url=http://www.nj.com/entertainment/arts/index.ssf/2009/02/mans_inhumanity_to_man_crosses.html

|title=Man's inhumanity to man crosses continents and decades in 'The Investigation'

|author=Venutolo, Anthony

|work=The Star Ledger and Nj.com (Arts, N.J. Stage), February 6, 2009

|publisher=New Jersey On-Line LLC. The Star Ledger

|year=2009 }}</ref>

"Why do we hunt and persecute each other? Why is our world so full of man's infamous inhumanity to man – and to woman?" [[Riane Eisler]], 1987<ref name= Eissler>{{cite book

|title=The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future

|url=https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/084466734X/cassiopaea

|last=Eisler

|first=Riane

|author2=

|year=1994

|publisher=Harper Collins & Peter Smith Publisher

|___location=New York

|isbn=978-0844667348

|accessdate=30 January 2009 }}</ref>

[[File:Emma Goldman seated.jpg|thumb|100px|right|[[Emma Goldman]], circa 1911]]

===In reference to women===

"Woman's Inhumanity to Man," a lecture topic by [[Emma Goldman]], April 1912.<ref name= Goldman>{{cite web

|accessdate=26 December 2009

|url=http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Goldman/Guide/chronology0119.html

|title=EMMA GOLDMAN

|author=Falk, Candace

|work=EMMA GOLDMAN: A GUIDE TO HER LIFE AND DOCUMENTARY SOURCES

|publisher=University of Berkeley, Sunsite

|year=1995 }}</ref>

""Man's inhumanity to man"—the phrase is all too familiar ... a profound silence prevailed about woman's inhumanity to woman. Women's aggression may not take the same form as men's, but girls and women are indeed aggressive, often indirectly and mainly toward one another." [[Phyllis Chesler]], May 2009.<ref name= Chesler>{{cite web

|accessdate=26 December 2009

|url=http://www.phyllis-chesler.com/books/womans-inhumanity-to-woman

|title=Woman's Inhumanity to Woman

|author=Chesler, Phyllis

|work=Woman's Inhumanity to Woman – reviews

|publisher=Lawrence Hill Books,The Phyllis Chesler Organization

|year=2009

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090606204538/http://www.phyllis-chesler.com/books/womans-inhumanity-to-woman

|archive-date=6 June 2009

|url-status=dead

}}</ref>

"Man's inhumanity to woman – War has shattered many ... women's lives." Marty Logan, 2006<ref name= Logan>{{cite web

|accessdate=26 December 2009

|url=http://www.nepalitimes.com/issue/2006/01/13/Review/10135

|title=Man's inhumanity to woman

|author=Logan, Marty

|work=Nepali Times, January 2006

|publisher=[[Himalmedia]] Private Limited

|year=2006 }}</ref>

"Man's inhumanity to man begins with man's inhumanity to woman."

[[Marilyn Stasio]], 2008<ref name= Stasio>{{cite news

|accessdate=26 December 2009

|url=https://www.variety.com/review/VE1117938661.html?categoryid=33&cs=1

|title=Blasted

|author=Stasio, Marilyn

|work=Variety, October 9, 2008

|publisher=RBI, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.

| date=9 October 2008}}</ref>

===In reference to religion===

"More of man's inhumanity to man has been done in the name of religion than any other cause." Author unknown, circa 1929.<ref name=News>{{cite web

|accessdate=13 December 2009

|url=http://www.thedickinsonpress.com/

|title=A letter from Germany

|author=Bratten, Frances C.

|work=Dickinson Newspaper

|publisher=Dickinson News

|year=1955}}

Note: From a newspaper clipping quoting Sgt. Richard L. Carpenter's letter home from Germany to his mother. Carpenter is citing a quote from 1929. Date is not on clipping but letter written home "... in January 1955."<br/>Note: The Dickinson Press took over Dickinson News.</ref>

[[File:Martin-Luther-King-1964-leaning-on-a-lectern.jpg|thumb|right|100px|[[Martin Luther King Jr.]] in 1964.]]

===In reference to African-Americans===

"This is the most tragic picture of man's inhumanity to man. I've been to Mississippi and Alabama and I can tell you that the hatred and hostility in Chicago are really deeper than in Alabama and Mississippi." Dr. [[Martin Luther King Jr.]], 1966<ref name= Ralph>{{cite book

|title=Northern Protest: Martin Luther King, Jr., Chicago, and the Civil Rights Movement

|last=Ralph

|first=James

|author2=

|year=1993

|publisher=Harvard University Press

|___location=

|isbn=0-674-62687-7

|url-access=registration

|url=https://archive.org/details/northernprotestm00ralp

}}</ref>

"For most of this country's history, we in the African-American community have been at the receiving end of man's inhumanity to man. And all of us understand intimately the insidious role that race still sometimes plays – on the job, in the schools, in our health care system, and in our criminal justice system." [[Barack Obama]], 2008<ref name=Obama>{{cite web

|accessdate=9 January 2010

|url=http://sweetness-light.com/archive/repost-obamas-radical-socialist-worldview

|title= Remarks of Senator Barack Obama: The Great Need of the Hour

|author= Obama, Barack Hussein

|work=Obama's Socialism – In His Own Words

|publisher=Sweetness & Light

|date=10 January 2008}}</ref>

===In reference to George Orwell's novel ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''===

"Behind ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'', there is a sense of injustice, a tormented sense of the way political systems suppress individual thought. Man's inhumanity to man." Jean Eloi, 2002<ref name=Eloi>{{cite web

|accessdate=9 January 2010

|url=http://www.lombardf.com/~jean-eloi/pri/2nd1/ang/1984.html

|title= Message of 1984

|author= Eloi, Jean

|work=Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell

|publisher=marxists.org

|year=2002 }}

</ref>

[[File:Edward Bellamy - photograph c.1889.jpg|thumb|right|100px|Edward Bellamy, socialist, circa 1889]]

===In reference to the cities of Europe===

"It was in the great cities of Europe and among the hovels of the peasantry that my eyes were first fully opened to the extent and consequences of man's inhumanity to man." [[Edward Bellamy]] in support of socialism.<ref>''Edward Bellamy Abroad,'' by Sylvia E. Bowman.</ref>

===In reference to the trust and labor union===

"When man's inhumanity to man shall cease from the earth, and justice and equity reign supreme, we may well be rid of both the [[Trust (19th century)|trust]] and the labor union, each, in its way, a positive detriment to society." George Frazier Miller, 1910<ref name= Miller>{{cite web

|accessdate=1 February 2010

|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/gdc/scd0001/2007/20070525002so/20070525002so.pdf

|title=Socialism and its Ethical Basis

|author=Miller, George Frazier

|work=Hannibal Forum

|publisher=online archive: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

|year=1910 }}</ref>

[[File:Bakunin Nadar.jpg|thumb|100px|right|[[Mikhail Bakunin|Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin]] (1814–1876) [[revolutionary]] & theorist of [[collectivist anarchism]].]]

===In reference to states===

"The State, therefore, is the most flagrant, the most cynical, and the most complete negation of humanity. It shatters the universal solidarity of all men on the earth, and brings some of them into association only for the purpose of destroying, conquering, and enslaving all the rest. It protects its own citizens only; it recognizes human rights, humanity, civilization within its own confines alone. Since it recognizes no rights outside itself, it logically arrogates to itself the right to exercise the most ferocious inhumanity toward all foreign populations, which it can plunder, exterminate, or enslave at will." [[Mikhail Bakunin]], September 1867<ref name=Bakunin>{{cite web

|accessdate=9 January 2010

|url=http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/various/reasons-of-state.htm

|title=Rousseau's Theory of the State

|author=Bakunin, Mikhail

|work=Federalism, Socialism, Anti-Theologism

|publisher=marxists.org

|date=September 1867

}}

Note: Mikhail Bakunin Reference Archive cites: [http://tmh.floonet.net/articles/reasprop.html The Memory Hole] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080219110129/http://tmh.floonet.net/articles/reasprop.html |date=19 February 2008 }}</ref>

===In reference to health care===

"The real US healthcare issue: moral deficiency…man's inhumanity to man" Title of [[MSNBC]] article on healthcare, 27 December 2009

<ref name=MSNBC>{{cite web

|accessdate=9 January 2010

|url=http://rapwrites.newsvine.com/_news/2009/12/27/3683842-the-real-us-healthcare-issue-moral-deficiencymans-inhumanity-to-man-

|title=The real US healthcare issue: moral deficiency…man's inhumanity to man

|author=MSNBC rapwrites

|work=Newsvine, Inc., property of MSNBC

|publisher=MSNBC.com

|date=27 December 2009}}</ref>

===In reference to crises===

"All over the world we read of economic crises, social crises, ethnic conflicts and crises, national conflicts and crises, crises in family life, crises of poverty, crises of exploitation, crises of homelessness, crises of governmental oppression, crises of man's inhumanity to man and so on. The fundamental crisis is the turning away of men and women from spiritual and moral values." L. J. Mark Cooray, 1993<ref name= Cooray>{{cite web

|accessdate=1 February 2010

|url=http://www.ourcivilisation.com/cooray/peiris/crisis.htm

|title=The Crisis of our times

|author=Cooray, L.J.M.

|work=The Life And Character of Sir [[James Peiris]] (1856–1930)

|publisher=OurCivilization.com

|year=1993 }}</ref>

[[File:Gordon B. Hinckley, 2007.png|thumb|right|100px|[[Gordon B. Hinckley]] (1910–2008)]]

"Throughout all of human history, from the first murder to the present crises [the rise of socialism in America] and catastrophes, we have faced famine, depression, wars and rumors of wars, [and] countless examples of man's inhumanity to man." Gail B. Leatherwood, May 2009<ref name=Leatherwood>{{cite web

|accessdate=9 January 2010

|url=http://www2.hernandotoday.com/content/2009/may/09/ha-the-myth-of-socialism/

|title="Myth of Socialism"–A Democrat Responds

|author=Leatherwood, Gail B..

|work=Hernando Today Edition

|publisher=Tampa Tribune

|date=9 May 2009

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110711164326/http://www2.hernandotoday.com/content/2009/may/09/ha-the-myth-of-socialism/

|archive-date=11 July 2011

|url-status=dead

}}</ref>

===In reference to the ancient world===

"All of them covered in the darkness of man's inhumanity to man: Revolutions, expansionism ..." ESermons, 2009?<ref name=esermons>{{cite web

|accessdate=9 January 2010

|url=http://www.sermons.org/sermons/new_testament/john/john3_14-21.htm

|title= Sermon for John 3:14–21 – Something Good Can Happen in Nazareth

|author= ChristianGlobe Network

|work=ESermons

|publisher=eSermons.com part of CGN.org

|year=c. 2009}}</ref>

===In reference to the 20th century===

"It has been the worst of all centuries, with more of war, more of man's inhumanity to man, more of conflict and trouble than any other century in the history of the world." [[Gordon B. Hinckley]], 1999.<ref name= Hinckley>{{cite journal

|url= https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1999/05/thanks-to-the-lord-for-his-blessings?lang=eng

|title= Thanks to the Lord for His Blessings

|last = Hinckley

|first= Gordon B.

|author-link= Gordon B. Hinckley

|journal= [[Ensign (LDS magazine)|Ensign]]

|date= May 1999

}}</ref>

===In reference to socialism in the 20th century===

“The inhumanity of socialism as described by Edward Adams in 1913 has proven, that more inhumanity to man, since 1918, has been done in the name of socialism than any other cause. Dick Carpenter”

<ref>Direct quote from the ‘’’San Diego Evening Tribune’’’, Readers Comments section, 14 July 1969. San Diego Evening Tribune from Newsbank (1895 - 1940, excluding 1937). https://www.newsbank.com/. <br/>

Note: <br/>

Apparently this “The inhumanity of” comment is in reference to a 5 Dec 1913 paper entitled “THE INHUMANITY OF SOCIALISM” By Edward Francis Adams. See: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5624/5624-h/5624-h.htm <br/>

In turn the 1913 paper references a 1907 work which was reprinted on 10 Sept 2010. <br/>

A Plain Analysis Of Socialism by Lewis Franklin Eccles (1907) <br/>

Paperback: 196 pages<br/>

Publisher: Kessinger Publishing, LLC (September 10, 2010) <br/>

Language: English<br/>

{{ISBN|978-1165267699}}<br/></ref>

==References==

{{Reflist}}