Decisions in the Midst of Conditions


I reread this book because of current circumstances in the United States, and I strongly recommend it. While my experiences, and most individuals in America, are nothing like what Viktor Frankl survived in Auschwitz, his insights as a concentration camp survivor are valuable for guiding our decisions today.

A pertinent excerpt from Viktor Frankl's book MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING  
(Please Note: In this excerpt I have inserted the word 'human' when he used the word 'man'.)

    A human being is not one thing among others; things determine each other, but humans are ultimately self-determining.  What we become- within the limits of endowment and environment- we make for ourselves. In the concentration camps, for example, in this living laboratory and on this testing ground, we watched and witnessed some of our comrades behave like swine while others behaved like saints.  Humans have both potentialities within themselves; which one is actualized depends on decision but not on conditions. 
      Our generation is realistic, for we have come to know humans as they really are.  After all, certain humans invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, there are other humans who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord's Prayer or the Shema Ysrael on their lips.  

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