Fear+Hatred+Denial = Vicious Persecution
It's an age-old formula and one that has proven time and again that it is fool-proof. You can convert most of the people most of the time. Most people can be reasonable, can overlook the fact that some people are by nature different than they are. Aside from the fact that most people don't want to be perceived as being different. For in sameness comes acceptance. And acceptance equals tribal inclusion. Anyone outside of the norm, not part of the tribe, which protects its own, is fair game. Even so, people can be persuaded by their own innate sense of decency and compassion that even those outside their clan should be treated with basic civility. Personal tastes and discrimination aside, most people think, under ordinary circumstances, that those unlike themselves can be tolerated at a distance. And thus is distance kept, a minuet of acknowledgment if not quite acceptance.Yet people are also susceptible to manipulation of the grossest kind. Threaten anyone's stability, their place in their society, their own well being and material possessions and you lay wide open the opportunity to coerce, persuade, distort, malign and irreversibly alter the landscape of acceptance. Allegiance to tribe, to association of like, whether it be through religion, geography, ideals or ethnic origins exerts a far stronger grip on the imagination than the idea that even those others who do not share a like background are worthy of inclusion.
Instil fear in people by disturbing the equilibrium of their existence and hatred is bred. From hatred comes denial; denial of equality, of worthiness, of consideration. At that point the adversary real or imagined can be singled out for punishment of any kind, including the kind of vicious persecution leading to expulsion and ultimately death.
We've seen that scenario played out ad infinitum, from ancient history to the present. In the last few years alone, parts of Africa and eastern Europe have demonstrated just how slight a veneer civilization is, how close humans are to the primeval urges to consolidate territory, to vanquish competitors for advantage in the ongoing search for adequate food, shelter, mates. Here too the world deplores, yet looks on, ostensibly helpless to effect a rescue.
But the universal long ago became specific in its identification of a sole identifier for suspicion, accusation, fear, hatred, persecution, expulsion, death. The specific becomes the universal Jew, wherever he or she may be, the pariah among nations.
Wearily, Jews world wide once again live through the despair of seeing the leader of a country identify Jews, accuse Jews, deny Jews, commit to wholesale slaughter of Jews. The new and duly elected President of Iran has pinpointed his country's evil nemesis: Jews. Jews who control world media, banking, exclusive clubs, military, who have tentacles reaching into every country of the world for ultimate domination. And Israel personifies that dedication to total domination, intending, as he claims, to stealthily, determinedly take over the entire Middle East. And from there, the rest of the world. It bodes ill, does it not, for a leader of a populous and wealthy country to publicly insist that his country has the right and the blessing of god to destroy another, neighbouring country?
We've seen it before, we'll see it again. And let's hope that the consequences will be different this time around. Other nations cannot be benign, but forgetful and well-meaning yet ineffectual on-lookers forever. Or can they?
Then there is the spectre of Israel's closest neighbour with whom a disputed and long-overdue settlement can finally find agreement, voting overwhelming to install their own leadership sworn to the obliteration of the Jewish State. Oh, I don't for one minute believe that there doesn't exist countless upon countless Palestinians who deplore and despair of the situation, who wish nothing other than to find and secure a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians, which could inevitably spread throughout the entire region in a final settlement of agreement and mutual prosperity. Wishing, alas won't make it so.
Realistically speaking, we all know what happens to those who disagree with the militant hatred-mongers: that old dictum, that "you are either with me or against me" plays out daily with the death of moderates at the ruthless hands of militant tyrants and their followers. Again, fear comes into play with those people who have succeeded in maintaining their humanity being forced to hide it for fear of sharing the fate of those their leaders have earmarked for destruction. It becomes easier to hoist one's intelligence far, far up on a shelf until such time, in retrospect, one can haul it back down again and begin to think rationally and experience true regret for inaction. Too late.
Survivors write books, promulgate recognition of the wrongs done against them and their kind while the world looked on passively, but with regret. The right-minded will murmur what a dreadful shame it was, how it might have been different if they'd only understood the extent of the horror, and such a thing will never, ever be permitted to happen again on their watch. And the world grinds on.
posted by Pieface @ Sunday, January 29, 2006
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