This post is a direct follow-up to my post from two weeks ago: “What Really Goes On In Hell.” I encourage you to read that post before diving into this one.
To summarize the previous post in a few sentences: In the afterlife, sinners who did not repent in this life are taught/punished in the next life by experiencing their sins from the victim’s point of view. They have a perfect knowledge of the suffering their actions cause. Sinners gain an understanding of their victims.
The goal of this suffering is to teach a sinner that the victim is as human as him/herself. God or Jesus insists that the sinner sits with that person’s pain until they can humanize the person who suffered. That (hopefully and eventually) leads the sinner to remorse, repentance, and genuine change.
I’m going to use the word ‘humanize’ to describe the goal of hell’s suffering. The sinner is to humanize the people who suffered due to the sinner’s actions. Similar words include empathy, compassion, respect, and human dignity. It’s partly a feeling, but mostly a decision to treat each individual as if they are as human as you are. When Jesus said to love your neighbor as yourself, this is what he meant. See your neighbor’s humanity as equal to your own humanity. You are both human. The feeling is empathy; the behavioral choice is equality. You don’t have to sympathize with or excuse any actions — you just have to acknowledge that everyone is as human as you are.
Why? Why insist that individuals humanize other individuals? Why is dehumanizing individuals such a terrible sin?
An Eternal Society
I believe in an afterlife, and I believe we will continue to be individuals in the afterlife. We will live in a society. D&C 130:2 says, “And that same sociality which exists among us here will exist among us there.” For this society to last as long as heaven lasts (forever?), this society has to be stable.
What makes a society stable?
Stability Through Conformity Doesn’t Work
For many Christians and Mormons, the stability of heaven is based on conformity. Mormonism teaches that you get to the Celestial Kingdom by conforming. Everyone in the CK has the same beliefs and follows the same rules, and that creates societal harmony. It’s conformity — ultimate and eternal voluntary confirmity. We’re taught that Satan’s plan was to force everyone to keep the commandments. God’s plan is to see who voluntarily keeps the commandments, and then gather them together into one place. Non-conforming people are banished to lower kingdoms.
The danger in basing a society on conformity is what to do when someone doesn’t want to conform. Sure, you can start out with conformity by excluding everyone who doesn’t conform. But Mormons believe in eternal increase — children. The rising generation isn’t going to conform just because their parents did, as a couple of utopias in the Book of Mormon found out.
Mosiah 26:1 “There were many of the rising generation who could not understand the words of king Benjamin, being little children at the time he spake unto his people; and they did not believe in the tradition of their fathers.” This despite the fact that King Benjamin told his listeners to teach their children these things; see Mosiah 4:14-15. Centuries later, shortly before Christ’s appearance, when the Lamanites were more righteous than the Nephites, they had the same problem. 3 Nephi 1:30 “And thus were the Lamanites afflicted also, and began to decrease as to their faith and righteousness because of the wickedness of the rising generation.”
And what if someone changes and doesn’t want to conform anymore? Do they get thrown out?
Conformity is ultimately based on fear. “Do as you’re told or we’ll throw you out.” Fear isn’t a stabilizing emotion. Eventually, people conquer their fears. Or they fear conformity more than they fear ostracism. Or they get angry at the person whom they fear. Fear is temporary control, and therefore it is only temporary stability.
This theme comes up over and over again in history. People get sick of following rules and conforming to a society that dehumanizes them. The British colonists didn’t want to follow the rules about taxation if they weren’t allowed a voice in creating the tax laws. The USA fought a civil war to stop the dehumanization of slavery. We’re watching the unrest in Iran right now — people pushing back against authoritarianism and conformity. Europe colonized and exploited countries all over the globe, and those countries fought for independence and freedom.
Everyone, every society, eventually fights against forced conformity and dehumanization.
Societies that expect everyone to think and feel the same, to believe the same things, value the same things, don’t last. This is true whether the society is rightwing fascism or leftwing communes. The instability of rightwing fascism is pretty apparent right now. Leftist communes don’t last very long either (they never get as big as the fascism that takes over entire countries). Neither type of society has an effective way to deal with problems, friction, assaults on others, abuse of power, changes in leadership, or any issue that crops up when you put a bunch of people in one place for a long time. Rightwing conformity produces tyranny and cruelty as they try to force conformity as people rebel. Leftwing conformity falls apart when everyone wanders off because they don’t know how to work through disagreements and someone breaking the rules.
Stability Through Humanization
The other option for a long-term stable society is humanization. Imagine a society that acknowledges the basic humanity of every individual therein. Imagine an economic system that distributes resources, encourages innovation, compensates for differing abilities and disabilities, and respects the humanity of the cashier at the gas station as much as the CEO in a corner office. Pass laws that are aimed at protecting individual dignity and respect. Someone arrested for a terrible crime gets decent food, medical care, shelter, and clothing, even while being held accountable for the crime. Laws apply to everyone — a federal judge charged with DUI can’t get that charge dismissed just because he’s a federal judge. Penalties are fair — a Black man who steals $30 from a gas station cash register doesn’t spend as much time in jail as a white man who defrauds Medicaid for $30,000,000.
The USA tried this. The Declaration of Independence declared “all men are created equal” and the USA hung on long enough to expand the promise of legal equality to Black people, and eventually to women. Equality was the goal and the ideal. Now, equality has been thrown out and society is rapidly destabilizing as a result.
But picture a society built on humanization. Judges that humanize both criminals and victims. Law enforcement that humanizes the people they arrest. CEOs who humanize their employees. Politicians who humanize (rather than demonize) the people who will be affected by the laws they pass. Men who humanize women and vice versa. Parents who humanize their children. White people who humanize people of color. Straight people who humanize gay people. Teachers, nurses, doctors, bureaucrats, lawyers, tech bros, bankers, parents, preachers — everyone sees everyone else as a full human being.
This type of society has the flexibility to deal with problems, friction, assaults on others, abuse of power, changes in leadership, and other issues that crop up when humans live together. Like Michael said in The Good Place, “What matters isn’t if people are good or bad. What matters is if they’re trying to be better today than they were yesterday” (from the episode ‘A Chip Driver Mystery’). Michael also pointed out that, “People improve when they get external love and support. How can we hold it against them when they don’t?”
Living in a society is about growth and learning. It’s not a place you go once you’ve learned to follow the rules perfectly. It’s a place where you learn why rules exist, how to be better than you were yesterday, and how to give love and support so others can improve. Again from The Good Place: “Why choose to be good every day when there is no guaranteed reward now or in the afterlife… I argue that we choose to be good because of our bonds with other people and our innate desire to treat them with dignity. Simply put, we are not in this alone.”
I’ve been using the word “hell” to describe the process of learning to humanize the people a sinner hurts. But what if it’s more like The Good Place? The punishment of hell is perfectly tailored to teach sinners how to humanize others, and the suffering lasts only as long as needed to teach that lesson; the suffering never inflicts more on the sinner than what the sinner inflicted on someone else. The perfect balance of justice and mercy.
Conclusion
Stable societies are built on a level playing field. Societies built on injustice and inequality are inherently unstable. If we’re going to exist forever in a society, our best bet for stability is to humanize every person in it. And when someone dehumanizes someone else, they get to join the victim in their suffering until they agree to change.
Questions:
- Have you read novels about rules-based dystopias? A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle had Camazotz. The Uglies trilogy by Scott Westerfeld was a confirmity-based dystopia. Of course 1984 by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley are the most famous conformity based dystopias. A Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. I could go on. Lots of authors explore the dangers of a conformity based society. Do you agree or disagree with the general conclusion that conformity based societies are cruel and unstable?
- What do you think of the idea that a society based on humanizing everyone would be more stable?
- When I say you should humanize everyone, do you automatically object because you think I mean we would let wrongdoers off the hook? Why do you think that? Reread the post and figure out why that wouldn’t happen in a humanized society.
Wheat & Tares 
Quite an intriguing read. My compliments. One question for you: do you personally believe that there is such a thing as “Evil” in the World? Something which goes beyond just awful human behavior? Conversely, does “Good” exist – which goes beyond just positive human behavior? Thank you.
You have said quite alot in this post. I agree whole heartidly with the points being made here. I just wish more of us could/would read this post and ponder upon your thoughts.
With respect to LDS theology, I don’t think the point of hell is to suffer until you understand and change. This thwarts the basic tenet that we are allowed to choose. If the pre-existence narrative is correct, then 1/3 of everyone was allowed to choose to follow Satan. For eternity. There was no forcible understanding of basic humanity.
LDS people have a hard time letting go of the idea that others really have a chance to choose poorly. Especially family members. My idea is that people will end up where they are comfortable. You can see this in society. We tend to hang out with those who are like us. If you’re a murderer, a thief, a slacker, a grifter, or just a rule follower, you will likely be happier surrounded by those like you and you will self-choose to be with them. There are of course, people, who by circumstance, find themselves surrounded by those people, but who strive to get to a different, better place. I think that is where those people will have a better opportunity, but again by choice.
I do think that those who have sinned against another will have a perfect knowledge of how they impacted those they’ve hurt and likely suffer for it. But again, it doesn’t mean they will change. Look at Satan. Again he has the knowledge but chooses sin anyway.
Conformity only works so far. You can do the steps without believing or internalizing them. You can also conform in the ways that society expects you to, but choose not to conform in the ways you can get away with.
The eternal society is pretty much given to us as Enoch’s Zion. I guess you can sort of legislate your way to it, but it seems to me it is an internal pureness of heart that caused everyone to strive for this perfection, not commandments or laws. This is how I see “heaven.” Only those who have internalized love and selflessness, purity and meekness will make it. Following rules won’t get you there.