Racism. Xenophobia. Prejudice. Discrimination. It seems every word written against these forms of hatred will be ignored nonetheless. People feel targeted, shamed, belittled when hate is addressed. After all, hate is an emotion we all feel. Whenever these topics are brought up, whether privately or publicly, reality tends to shift a bit towards the severe, a razor’s edge of a bristled hair, a stinging grain of desert sand, the apathetic sigh of a bracing wind. Postures stiffen, ears prick up, faces freeze up as spaces heat up. Things that were so abstract, so indefinite a moment before suddenly harden, colder than ice, stiffer than statues, harder than bricks. Stares get haughty, eyes become fixed, glares concentrate into laser focus, seeing right through a person—seeing something else entirely, something far worse.

Words immediately become accusations, pointing fingers to knife points, a barbed wire to a solid wall dividing “us” and “them”, “the privileged” and the “underprivileged”, “the majority” and the “minority”, the “invader” and the “victim”. What needs to change about them to accommodate us. What’s wrong with them, what’s good about us. After all that back and forth, all that arguing, all that pain, a crude picture develops: Other people are self-serving. Other people take the blame. Other people are the problem.

Surely, this is nothing new. There is nothing new under sun. This is something we have always struggled with as humans everywhere, whether it be tribes pillaging for personal gain, or countries at war, or now more often, nations turning a blind eye to the calamities of other nations and the ensuing suffering of multitudes. We have always been self-interested. But the complacent belief that we have always been so and can do no better gives us no ideal to strive for. There is no moral high ground or honorable cause to fight for. There is only the brutality of willful selfishness, which itself, ironically, is universal and unifying.

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It would be a broad miscalculation however to make equivalencies of deeply ingrained, historical and institutional wrongs to the tenuous strivings of marginalized groups towards fairness and empowerment. The world as we know it has been formed—malformed—by brutal conquerors, the history books written in their languages, recording their triumphs and justifying the inequalities they created and continue to maintain.

The strong do not associate with the weak. The strong want to be separated from the weak. The strong do not want to become weak. No matter, how you spin or rationalize it, if the strong make no effort to help the weak, eventually, inevitably, the strong prey on the weak.

I could never presume to come up with any new or convincing argument against hatred, one that hasn’t already been said before, time and time again: Thou shall not judge lest ye be judged. Put yourself in the other person’s shoes. Love thy neighbor. All you need is love. Give peace a chance. Love conquers all. I can’t even write those sentences down without immediately hearing the common retorts of today, also profoundly lacking in originality: The world is not a nursery school. I don’t hate other people/races, I just love my own people/race more. We should not care for foreigners more than the people of our own country. We must protect against invaders. This is just PC Liberal/Leftist propaganda.

Yet, no amount of reasoning, law or action can ever hide or eliminate that crucial, stubborn fact that we are referring to fellow human beings when we talk about “foreigners”, “inferiors”, or “invaders”. Human beings, who are not fundamentally different from ourselves, no matter how much we wish and strive and claim otherwise.

It is 2018 and we have fully decoded our own DNA, which, it turns out, is 99.9% the same for all of us. Nothing can change that fact (for the time being). No amount of money. No difference in nationality or culture or race or religion or titles can change the fact that we are all human. Yet, we strive to be distinct from each other. This is not necessarily wrong if it is based on earned merit and not on diminishing or oppressing others. Unfortunately, the results are cruel and disastrous if we attempt to make ourselves superior in the countless other ways, blatant and subtle. Ironically, a firm belief in our own supremacy actually makes us act less human, more monstrous, not at all better or more superior.

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We have achieved, perhaps for the first time in history, mass connectivity. People all over the world can experience events and interact in real time. Anyone with an opinion can get feedback on that opinion. Anyone with an argument can incite a counter-argument. Witnessing these endless loops of assertion and dissent, evidence and doubt, affirmation and refusal can be overwhelming. Yet, we still cannot eliminate even the crudest forms of racism. We now find ourselves having to utter such things as, “Kids should not be in cages.” or “Racism is wrong, it is unacceptable and morally reprehensible.” We should know better. We have such powerful tools at our disposal, these things should be common sense by now.

But hate always seems to find a way to manifest itself. Now, its most powerful and prevalent manifestation is the idea that certain people are culturally inferior and therefore threaten our well-being and our civilization by their proximity or growing existence. This is a complex, far-reaching, and nuanced idea that must be taken seriously and addressed by leaders everywhere. Unlike claims of racial or genetic superiority, there is crucial validity to cultural superiority or cultural inferiority and this validity breathes new life into archaic and cruder forms of hate, as we are seeing now with the Trump administration and the prominence of right wing, populist parties throughout the world.

The validity is in the fact that we each have a culture and these cultures are subject to change. They are dependent on people to uphold them. They cannot continue to exist without repetition, tradition, reinforcement and dispersal. The culture of democracy, science, equal rights and individual freedom is indeed threatened by cultures of religious extremism, gender inequality, tribalism and authoritarianism. Ironically, the current popular remedy to these threats—so often falsely attributed solely to Islam or to poorer nations—is to elect an anti-immigrant, right-wing government that exemplifies none other than that very threat!

The cure to fundamentalism is not more fundamentalism. Terrorists and fanatics alike, on all sides, want nothing more than stricter laws, more walls, more isolation, and for other nations to turn a blind eye to their acts of cruelty. They do not want refuge for their many victims. Cross-cultural exchange, transparency, cooperation and open channels of communication are much greater threats to extremism in all its forms than border walls and travel bans.

Coming from a financially destitute Asian country myself, which has been called “culturally inferior” by some Westerners, I have experienced discrimination. I have felt their hatred. I have witnessed the fear that I may be contaminating the serenity of someone’s homeland or threatening civilization itself. The irony that my thoughts may be perceived by others as valuable here in this medium, while I still experience dismissal as an inferior in my daily life will never escape me.

But I don’t want to ever forget it. I hold my pain close to me as I interact with those who seem different from me. I know how it feels to be dehumanized, demonized, underestimated. I would not wish it on others. My wish is that people always consider that fellow human beings exist beyond any definitions and quantifications. Human beings who are capable of change, learning, and most of all, who feel the pain of being negatively assessed by others. The greatest irony of all may well be that we are led by hatred towards a dark path we never intended, even though the beautiful world we dream of was just steps within reach.

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Text and images by M.P. Baecker © 2018.

24 thoughts on “Civilization and Its Ironies”

  1. So, apparently, you slipped one under the radar of my drunken Reno birthday bash, MP. 😉 Thanks a million to Billy Mac for sharing and showing me the way! Shame on me!

    I’m so glad you wrote this. I saw your comment to Billy how this one isn’t being read as much and I have to tell you, the political fatigue is strong in the world today. All the anger and frustration is leading to naught, when it comes to change, so the outrage over school shootings and separated families and blustering buffoonish bosses bloviating belligerently seem to hardly faze us now for long. The money is coming in. The roof is strong. My 401k is doing well. I can’t do anything, anyway! The voices in our heads never stop telling us the end is near. Or, for those of us more optimistic, that someone will do something about it SOON.

    But they won’t. They can’t. Now without us. As difficult as it is, sometimes, to shake the apathy and summon the will to action, we must. We must write. We must counter the buffoonery with reason and resistance and truth.

    Like you did here.

    “The world as we know it has been formed—malformed—by brutal conquerors.”

    “a firm belief in our own supremacy actually makes us act less human, more monstrous”

    “We now find ourselves having to utter such things as, “Kids should not be in cages.””

    “there is crucial validity to cultural superiority or cultural inferiority and this validity breathes new life into archaic and cruder forms of hate”

    “The culture of democracy, science, equal rights and individual freedom is indeed threatened by cultures of religious extremism, gender inequality, tribalism and authoritarianism.”

    “The cure to fundamentalism is not more fundamentalism.”

    You make me want to be a better man. Your thoughts, in this medium, in this world, are so invaluable. Thank you for your voice, your mind, and your heart, my friend.

    And thank you again, Billy, for not letting me miss this brilliant work. I am inspired again, and that’s rare for a Tuesday. 🙂

    Liked by 3 people

    • I didn’t doubt you for a second Tom!!! 🤗😄
      I figured that you had a big birthday celebration and I hope you enjoyed it to the fullest!!!🎉🎂🍾

      We care about the world but we can’t let bad politicians and other people’s bad attitudes/decisions determine our mood for us!!! Life is too precious, our time too short!!! Cheers and big birthday hugs to you brother!!!

      I have a lot to write (too much for a single post or even my blog) about these issues because they are so complex, are interconnected to other stories in unlikely ways and go much deeper in my life. I really want to explore it in a way that satisfies me. At the same time, I am all too aware of the extreme reluctance people have about these topics and the numerous trite pitfalls I could very easily fall into on subject matter alone. As you well know, you don’t grow up in a family of seven without a sense of all the ways you can and will be criticized and ridiculed 😂!

      But I am trying not to work for the numbers, but satisfying this beast of discontent that seems to take hold of us writers and forces us to work all the time, whether or not we get read!!!

      „blustering buffoonish bosses bloviating belligerently seem to hardly faze us now for long.“ 😂 What a gem of a comment!!!
      Thanks as always for your valuable insights!! You make want to be a better person too!! Not to mention happier!! I just voted last week and I won’t stop speaking out!!!

      Liked by 1 person

        • The Cheeto is such a drama queen! Accusing your allies is no way to bargain! He backs them into a wall, then expects them to do his bidding! This is authoritarianism not “deal making”. Accusing Merkel of being under Russian control is certainly the pot calling the kettle black😂! (And it also throws off the scent!)

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        • And now he’s attacking May. I love how every time he meets with someone he walks away saying “a deal is struck!” loudly for all the cameras. And then whoever he met with says “no, it hasn’t” nonchalantly and things go back to as they were. 🤣

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  2. Pingback: Civilization and Its Ironies — A Light Circle – Superman can't find a phone booth

  3. thank you for this amazing post. You brilliantly articulated how complicated the issue is. despite attempts by many to simplify it to black and white terms. You write so beautifully

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    • Thanks so much for your amazing feedback! It means so much to me! This post is not getting read as much as my other posts, probably because people are wary of this difficult subject. But I still feel the need to explore it some more!

      Liked by 3 people

  5. Your words, as usual, are honest and powerful. And spot-on. As a granddaughter of an immigrant who left his family at an early age, (11? 13? accounts differ) so he could have a better life in another country, I am so hurt when people attack those who come here for the same reason as he. I am especially hurt and angry when it’s people that I know well, who I’ve known well forever. I think we have forgotten how to have civil discourse. No, actually, I think we’ve forgotten how to feel. Or maybe we never knew. Your words are needed and valuable. Keep up the writing.

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    • It seems the more we each dig into our family’s past, or the more we find out about our own genes, we find that migration is not the exception but the rule and we are all made up of so many different nationalities, histories, tribes, wanderings. So many people are having these revelations now with genetic testing, it seems odd to have to revert back to “us” versus “them” mentality or the superficial reasons that other people over the border are supposedly less important. Thanks so much for your encouragement!

      Liked by 2 people

    • Thank you so much! I hope we can continue to progress, not only in our technological capabilities, but in our humanity and wisdom. That can’t happen if we don’t do it together as a species.

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    • Thank you so much! Your encouragement and empathy mean so much to me!

      When I was younger it really used to make me angry and hurt when someone said things like, “You don’t belong here! Go home!” but now, I am more worried about other people who aren’t as strong as I am, or have already gone through so much suffering to arrive in a safer land, just get jailed or traumatized by some horrible individuals/a horrible government. People often tell me that I can’t convince anyone, but my aim is not to convince (though that would be nice), but to protect and strengthen those who find themselves overwhelmed by or embroiled in these issues.

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      • Yes! Keep up the good fight. You’re amazing. I want to be able to do something but I feel so helpless. I can’t understand on a personal experience level but I just see so much unjustice done. So much hurt done. You won’t be able to convince some people, they’re stuck in their negative thinking pattern. But if everybody keeps fighting, is vocal about their disagreement with the government, & go out & vote teh hate out. Just amazing. ❤

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  8. You, your voice, your writing….all so vital! I cannot add to this or comment; you have done it all perfectly. You are an important voice of a generation M.P; one that needs to be read and heard and shared.

    Liked by 6 people

    • Agreed – you said it all here M.P. I have been feeling a great sense of apathy, futility and deja vois about the condition of human relations across the globe today. So much so I can’t even really put it to words that I haven’t already said so many times before. I’ve been blogging since MSN and Myspace about the same issues and still here we are! M.P. we are distress beacons on this earth crying out to anyone who will listen “out there.”

      Liked by 2 people

      • I’m so glad that you continue to blog and share your insights! And I hope we can both always continue to shine those beacons! It may seem futile, but doing so has already connected such empathetic and soulful people, like you, that I’ve had the great privilege to meet here!

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    • I can’t tell you how much your encouragement means to me Susan! THANK YOU!!!!

      To be honest, I am usually not very nice to myself and I am not used to listening to positive compliments, I tend to remember only the negative ones! It often takes me a while to respond to positive comments because the kindness, frankly, overwhelms me! I am truly thankful and honored to be read by you! (and to read you!)

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