In a striking scene from The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan by James Morier, first printed in 1824, a European doctor arrives in Persia with a remarkable offer: he can cure the blindness afflicting countless people.
The doctor expects gratitude, but instead hears a chilling reply from the ruler—why should he care whether his subjects can see? and explains that this is not the ruler's responsibility.
It is easy to dismiss this as fiction, satire from another century. But the truth is, the mindset it exposes has not disappeared.
The story is not really about medicine. It is about power detached from responsibility. When leaders no longer see the well-being of their people as their concern, suffering becomes invisible. Not because it isn’t there—but because it no longer matters to those in charge.
