Act Versus Actor

A lesson I learned several years ago is to separate the act from the actor. When someone acts—the impact being either good or bad—I have come to believe that it's crucial to focus on that action, not the actor. An action is a temporary thing; it occurs and then is gone. Actors can stick around.

What this means to me is, if someone commits an act that is problematic for me, it's better for me to focus on that act. If the act is harmful, I can oppose or condemn it, without condemning the actor. I can see the act as wrong and direct my attention toward responding to it.

If, however, I put my focus on the person who committed the spiteful act, it's easy to label him a bad person. Labels stick. Maybe that person was confused and upset when he did that “dastardly” deed. If I label him as defective or wicked, I fix him in my mind as someone who is irredeemable; a “bad guy,” who must be dealt with harshly. The danger is that I do not allow him to change his ways and become a “good guy.” This negative labeling of certain people leads to divisions and wars. It leads to our unforgiving prison system.

By focusing on the act, however, I can avoid stigmatizing offenders and give them space to reform, or for me to develop some compassion for them. This makes forgiveness a far easier thing to do, because it allows people to change.

There's another side—a flip side—to this coin: when someone acts in a good way or a moral way, I think it's still better to focus on the action, rather than the actor, and be thankful for it. Just as we tend to condemn bad actors and conclude they are defective individuals, we elevate those who do good things; and by so doing, we turn them into demigods. Rather than celebrate what they did, we tend to honor their person; we put them on a pedestal, as if they were superior to us normal human beings. We lose sight of the fact that they are just another person who has done something special.

This kind of hero worship can be as insidious as the denunciation of someone who commits a harmful act, because we transform the good actor into someone better than most people. We lose sight of the fact that we should be honoring the act, not the person. We thus feed their ego and transform them into some kind of icon. What's worse, if they don't keep performing good deeds, we often become vindictive and vicious towards them.

I think it's more positive and productive to put attention to the act, rather than the actor. Acts come and go. Acts can be mistakes or graceful behavior. Either oppose them or honor them. Then allow the actor to be just another normal human being who happened—in this one instance—to do something either reprehensible or wonderful. Don't make them into either a scoundrel or a god.