the only way to be humanitarian.^6 This is important if we are to avoid only seeking
the kind of bittersweet humanitarian success envisaged by Goethe in 1787: “I must
admit that I too consider it true that humanity will finally be victorious, but I also
fear that the world will turn into a vast hospital and each of us will become the
other’s humane nurse”.^7 To do so would be like seeing health only in terms of what
went on in hospitals.
A more tempting vision of humanity is suggested by David Miller, who
enjoins us “always to see human beings as both patients and agents: needy and
vulnerable creatures who cannot survive without the help of others, but at the
same time people who can make choices and take responsibility for their lives”^8
Success on these terms seems both more in keeping with the argument presented
here, and, though in no way easy, perhaps a more realistic goal to aim for.
Admittedly, Miller’s political vision of humanity is one that reveals the intractability
of the dilemmas of humanitarian representation explored in Chapter 3: to take the
individual for the whole? To portray the vulnerable victim, or the feel-good success
story? To somehow convey both is both necessary and extremely difficult. It may be
best achieved through the kind of sustained storytelling, such as in novels,
identified by both Rorty and Lynn Hunt as crucial to the development of a richer
sense of common humanity. While humanitarians were seen, in the Introduction, to
be recognising the political nature of their endeavour and “acknowledging that they
have been speaking prose”, they cannot afford to forget how to write poetry, if they
6
This relates to the debate on the risks facing aid workers in the field. Laura Hammond
argues that the integrity of a list of principles is not crucial in determining the safety of aid
workers, since those attacking them in recent conflicts are concerned with the symbolic
power of attacking humanitarianism. Indeed, she argues that humanitarian integrity can
lead to a false sense of security, though they clearly have value in other respects. For her,
reducing risk is linked to the strength of the relationships they can build with the recipients
of their aid, and the accountability with which they act with regard to them. Hammond,
"The Power of Holding Humanitarianism Hostage and t 7 he Myth of Protective Principles".
Cited in Alain Finkielkraut, In the Name of Humanity: Reflections on the Twentieth Century
(London: Pimlico, 2001), 89. 8
David Miller, National Responsibility and Global Justice (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2007), 21.