“Hatred” A sentiment appropriate to the occasion of another’s superiority. (Ambrose Bierce)
You may think that the present conduct of mankind is eternal and will continue on its merry way forever, but you would be wrong. For thirty years we have been told by people in a position to know that unless we change our wasteful ways our little spaceship, known to us as planet earth, will not sustain the damage we do to it. You would think that as the end threatens us all, humanity would first launch a campaign to band all of us together and take the actions that could save our lives in our little spaceship. Again, you would be wrong. In spite of the pending ending of human life as we know it, we still continue with our wanton ways. It is business as usual; indeed the fossil fuel producers have forecast an increase in production for the next ten years. Worst of all, we are not even pretending to start banding together to unify our response to our threatened extinction. Instead of unifying the human race for a joint salvation enterprise, we are still competing with others for more of the earth’s resources. To justify that greed we segregate different races, different ethnic groups and adherents of different religions with all the enthusiasm our absurd hatred of others can muster. So, what prevents us from joining together to combat the threats against our little space ship, planet earth?
It is not possible to describe the misery and poverty that our absurd hatred of others has caused. Our hatred of others has been with us forever. Some experts claim that our hatred of others is rooted in our own insecurities. But what remains a puzzle is why hatred of others has not ended, as being ridiculous, centuries ago. And if it did not end then, why hatred of others remains with us still. Leaving aside for now the fact that such hatred may spring from our own insecurities, a good case can be made that such hatred of others and the discrimination against those hated others that such hatred fosters, has left us more poor and incapable. Discrimination of others is a social disease with economic and environmental consequences and corrupts us all. But, more to the point, it creates an underclass by denying the hated others full participation in the economies where the hated others reside. We know that, if those who are discriminated against could participate fully in our economies, the GDP of those economies would go up. Each member of that economy would enjoy a higher standard of living, if only we would stop hating others and stop discriminating against them. The real question is why humans have not figured this out long ago and quit hating others and shunning them aside, long ago. The real victims of hatred of others is all of us. As long as we all continue to discriminate against others we cannot take the universal actions that are required to stave off climate change.
Perhaps a brief review of what hatred and discrimination actually cause will help us resolve to quit it. Why do we continue to exclude the hated others? No reasonable person admits to hating others solely because of their race. No reasonable person confesses to like denying others an equal opportunity to thrive and pursue their ambitions without hindrance solely because of their ethnic origins. No reasonable person proclaims others as not worthy because of their religious beliefs. And yet the hatred, denial and demeaning continues unabated. How is it that people do what they profess to despise? How can people who profess to despise what they do continue to do it? How can they rationalize their actions with what they profess? What twists of logic excuses the hatred and discrimination of others? We justify hatred and discrimination by blaming the victims of such hatred and discrimination. When blaming the victims we trot out the usual tropes. The race of others is inferior to ours. The ethnic others are blamed for some imagined treachery of their ancestors, the religious others are not worthy to our God and must be eliminated so as to not pollute the believers of the true religion. And on it goes.
In other words the hated others deserve their mistreatment. They do not deserve the same opportunities that we deserve. Not only are they not deserving of equal opportunities, but they are incapable of taking up those opportunities. We believe the falsehoods that the hated others are always poor, they do not look after themselves as we do, they live in squalor, they do not work as hard as we do, they are lazy, they abandon their children, they eschew education, they are incapable of learning, they are infidels and on and on it goes. We invent the falsehood that we are superior to them in every way. We accept such falsehoods about others to justify our hatred and discrimination. On top of that we apply such failings of a few to all members of the race, ethnic group or religious community. And finally we fail to see that any such failings, if true, are the natural consequences of our hatred, our discrimination and failure to accept the hated others. We fail to see that fully including those we hate and discriminate against into our communities and providing them with equal opportunities, would show the falsehoods we believe about them as ridiculous.
We deny members of other races, ethnic groups and other religious persuasions inclusion when we do not even know them. We may be acquainted with a few but most of our judgments about others are based on rumors and falsehoods. Moreover, we do not only apply the content of the rumors and falsehoods to members of other races, ethnic groups and religious persuasion that we know. We also believe the same rumors and falsehoods apply to all members of the race, ethnic groups and religious communities of which we may know one or two. The hatred and discrimination of and against others is not unique to any particular race, ethnic group or religious community. The hatred of others and discriminating against them is a vice of all humans. Sociologists tell us that humans are social beings, that is, they need the company of other humans. But from a quick glance at the history of the human race, it is just as obvious that humans band together for the purpose of hating others, discriminating against them and denying others religious freedom. There are only victims in this scenario. All humans are perpetrators. All slights, real or imagined, have to be revenged. The end of animosity between races, ethnic groups and religious communities is nowhere in sight. If we were not threatened with disaster we would and, likely could, carry on our insane conduct indefinitely.
We act as if there are differences between members of other races, ethnic groups and religious communities. We believe such falsehoods even when science tells us there are no differences. Geneticists tell us that for all practical purposes the genetic makeup of each and every human being is the same. The human genome is more than 99% the same for everyone. The slight genetic difference of less than one –percent causes only different appearances and has no effect on intellectual capacity, emotions or abilities. We make up differences to justify our exploitation of others. We conceive differences to defend our greed. The slight differences in appearance are, in any event, likely caused by the different environments that humans live in. In the real world what defines us is the human genome. In that real world there is no difference between what we call races, ethnic groups or religious communities. The human genome is the same for every human. The sequence of DNA of the human genome defines who are humans. A major different sequence of DNA defines a different being. The use of the words “race”, “ethnic” or “religious adherent” to describe groups of people is meaningless. Indeed the widespread use of such words to refer to other people, serves only to feed the illusion that there are differences.
Throughout history some humans have railed against the insanity and frenzied mania that results from the hatred of and discrimination against falsely invented other races, other ethnic groups and other religious communities. Their pleas to end all hatred of and discrimination against others have, so far, fallen on deaf ears. It is no wonder that many people think hatred and discrimination is a human condition we all just have to live with. But such resignation is no longer possible. We are all now living in an age when our wasteful ways are threatening all of us. Those wasteful ways have brought us a change in our climate which we cannot live with. We have dug up coal, pumped out oil and gas and cut down trees; everything that burns we have burned and continue to burn. All that fire has provided us with energy but has spewed gasses into the atmosphere and those gasses in the atmosphere have made our little spaceship hotter. If we keep it up, our spaceship will be too hot to live in. Experts call it climate change, which in the real world is a euphemism for broiling the surface of the earth.
But there are things we can do to avoid calamity. The pending disaster is a world wide problem. It needs everyone to join the battle to prevent it. It does no good to reduce gasses into the atmosphere in one place and not in another, or in some places but not in others. The first step to start the battle is to join forces with everyone and set aside our hatreds, our discrimination and our contempt of others. Once we have resolved to act together we can take the steps that experts tell us have to be taken to avoid catastrophe. The looming disaster makes it clear we can no longer afford to be “us” and “them”. There is only “us”. The sooner we all accept that “them” is “us” the sooner we can all plan and all join the battle against climate change. Everyone has to act and those actions need to be taken by everyone everywhere.