Thoughts on human nature
Sydney, Australia: "Thousands of young white men attacked people of Arabic and Mediterranean background on Cronulla Beach on Sunday.
The fighting injured more than 30 people, including police officers, and at least 16 people were arrested.
The clashes follow an assault on two lifeguards last week, reportedly by youths of Middle Eastern origin."
What the hell is going on in this world? How is it that Australians can return to the white-power, mob mentality we all hoped had been left behind? Can't humans, even being human, move beyond secular thinking? It's disgusting!!! The idea of it happening just next door, in a country many New Zealanders see as family, is almost incredible. That 5000 bloody people could turn that way!!! It's as bad as the KKK thinking of 1950's America; blatant, unashamed racism. The rioters cited a belief that land belongs to one particular group, one particular race, and should be free of the "invasions" of anybody else. It's absurd! HOW can they blanket the innumerable differences in human personality under the cultural identity or appearance of a person??? HOW???
Even the generalisation I'm making now, talking of 'the rioters' as a single group with identical motivation, is flawed. What is not flawed is the fact that this behaviour does nothing but hurt, divide and ostracise parts of society. It almost does not matter what the intentions of those who took part were, when the outcome is this terrible. People, innocent people, could have been killed. Worse, prejudice and violence have provoked more prejudice and violence in return. Can those men and women who cornered victims on the street, who set on strangers in gangs of a dozen or more, who beat a woman for merely speaking, not see that they are acting the same as the very worst of human rights abusers in the 'middle-eastern' world they claim to refuse??? The willingness to hurt other people, to cause other, innocent people harm for an idea which has no basis in fact is the most frightening part of the human character. It's al-Qaeda. It is shallow, close-minded thinking.
Being white, black, asian, mexican, cuban, whatever, does not make you superior. In any way. You have no prior claim to land simply because of the colour of your skin. I believe that it means nothing: simple appearance tells no truth of a person's soul.
Many Australians are ashamed to be identified with those who took part in the riots. I am ashamed to be human; or rather, to be one and the same as those who refuse to learn the lessons of history. People have the capacity to amaze, to create works and do good beyond comprehension. Why do we insist on retreating into the closed, claustrophobic realms of belief? Do we mistake their suffocation for security?
Why do we always, always need an enemy?
To break down another is to break down yourself, to deride your very humanity. It is a mistake. More than the solid facts about refugees, the need for escape, the idiosyncracies of employment and impossibility of some situations, we need to realise this. There is no 'Us vs. Them'.
We're all us.
Even the generalisation I'm making now, talking of 'the rioters' as a single group with identical motivation, is flawed. What is not flawed is the fact that this behaviour does nothing but hurt, divide and ostracise parts of society. It almost does not matter what the intentions of those who took part were, when the outcome is this terrible. People, innocent people, could have been killed. Worse, prejudice and violence have provoked more prejudice and violence in return. Can those men and women who cornered victims on the street, who set on strangers in gangs of a dozen or more, who beat a woman for merely speaking, not see that they are acting the same as the very worst of human rights abusers in the 'middle-eastern' world they claim to refuse??? The willingness to hurt other people, to cause other, innocent people harm for an idea which has no basis in fact is the most frightening part of the human character. It's al-Qaeda. It is shallow, close-minded thinking.
Being white, black, asian, mexican, cuban, whatever, does not make you superior. In any way. You have no prior claim to land simply because of the colour of your skin. I believe that it means nothing: simple appearance tells no truth of a person's soul.
Many Australians are ashamed to be identified with those who took part in the riots. I am ashamed to be human; or rather, to be one and the same as those who refuse to learn the lessons of history. People have the capacity to amaze, to create works and do good beyond comprehension. Why do we insist on retreating into the closed, claustrophobic realms of belief? Do we mistake their suffocation for security?
Why do we always, always need an enemy?
To break down another is to break down yourself, to deride your very humanity. It is a mistake. More than the solid facts about refugees, the need for escape, the idiosyncracies of employment and impossibility of some situations, we need to realise this. There is no 'Us vs. Them'.
We're all us.
posted by Anonymous @ 8:13 PM
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