First they came for...

Why are some people so unpleasant? What is it that makes them this way? What dark deep demons do they have in their subconscious that makes them want to lash out and cause other people emotional pain? People they don't even know. Is that just the world we live in now and nothing can be done about it? Is it something we have to just accept as being part of modern society in exchange for the benefits that the same society brings us? I'm guessing it is, it's a shame really.

Whether it is racists being permitted to spout evil on tv shows and not get satisfactorily challenged as they should be or whether it is vile attacks on a handicapped child who is being bullied because of his handicaps by other children and then some adults feel that its ok to join in. And the path these actions lead to can be seen clearly as national news headlines whether a celebrity who takes her own life or the insanity of a loner who kills his mother and then destroys countless more lives before ending his own simply because he feels there is a conspiracy but not one he wishes to hang around to validate and discuss.

And this disease in society is reflected in our governments with nationalism raising its ugly head wherever we look and in the UK we even invite individuals into the heart of government with views that the Nationalist Socialist Party of 1930s Germany would have been in agreement with, from sterilization of a perceived underclass through eugenics to euthanasia. Do we need such radical thinking in the heart of government as has been claimed? It is incumbent upon us all to call out such thoughts when we here or see them, although that in itself must be done with care and at the appropriate time and in the appropriate place. If we don't then we follow the apocryphal story of Martin Niemoller (I say apocryphal as there seems to be some debate as to whether the 'first they came for the socialists...' lines were actually his own words). Anyway, the words are powerful and should be considered when ignoring racism, bullying, sexism etc

I'd like to think that I am more optimistic than pessimist, I'd like to think, but maybe that would be for others to judge. And in my optimistic thoughts I believe that the rascists and xenophobes etc are minorities and that it is just they seem to be greater in number than they actually are because what they say shocks so many more people than those that nod their heads in agreement. That's what I would like to think but then with Brexit and the election of a right wing government with a large majority I have my concerns about my optimistic thinking.

I have a belief, based on pretty limited knowledge in teh area, some, but not a lot, but it's my blog so I'll permit myself to have my thoughts about my belief. That is, I think that fear of others is a perfectly natural thing that dates back to the days when human beings were mere hunter gatherers living in small family units very much like chimpanzees still do today. And therefore we collect into these small groups of family and close friends and identify with them, then everybody else is outside of this unit but at varying degrees of removal. So there would be the extended family unit, the neighbourhood, the town, the county, the country and also the other groups like groups of male friends and female friends and friends who all look similar and talk similar and have similar outlooks etc. And these groups have a natural wariness of other groups and each group will complain about another group and be quite unpleasant about them although mainly behind their back.

What makes separates us from our ancient hunter gatherer kin is that we have evolved a layer on top of these base feelings that tells us that we should constrain these thoughts as just thoughts and to suppress them. Such that you might think something unpleasant about some individual from another country but the filters we have evolved keep you from actually saying something unpleasant to them or, less strictly, about them. But there are, and might always be, individuals that either don't have these filters or ignore them and we see clips of them posted online when they start an unwarranted rant at somebody on public transport or in a restaurant. And when we see those clips most of us shake our heads and feel some sympathy or empathy for the victim and some dislike or disdain towards the perpetrator.

I'd like to think it is the majority that feel this way at least. My wobbly optimism gets ever more chaky because of the events I have noted. What if the majority are actually thinking the same way as the attacker rather than the victim it's just that they don't have the filters I postulate we have but they just keep their thoughts to themselves. But when they see a role model who stands up and points at some group and says all your problems are their fault they agree and then we have things like Brexit and Conservative governments and outspoken racists working in the heart of government to enact the thoughts they seem unwilling to speak themselves.

I cannot help but look back to the 1930s and think where such enigmatic leadership led whole countries. I know that we have moved on a long way from those days, but at the same time, have we really moved that far as the average individual is concerned. 

Another example I have seen that supports my crazy notion about filters in the mind is when I witness what age seems to do to people. When I have visited care homes for the elderly I have heard some pretty unexpected and not exactly pleasant things coming from the inmates. Mostly it is said in those gentle sweet terms that we all forgive of the elderly, like the reference to 'their' where 'their' tends to be a nationality or even a whole race or colour or even sex!

Sometimes I have the dark thought that perhaps it is because people have forgotten where these thoughts can lead. Somebody said to me it had been over 70 years since there was armed conflict in Europe. Not sure where they got their facts from but I think the people of the Balkans would disagree and to a lesser extent, but not for those directly impacted, there have been plenty of domestic terrorist groups that have killed and maimed in the past 70 years in Europe.

Then of course we have social media where people hide anonymously in the shadows to fire their brand of vitriol towards others seeking other like minded people to join them in their hate filled pursuit. I suspect social media is the de-filter that takes away the pretence of a filtered mind and exposes the true thoughts of some individuals but mainly, I think, these individuals only say such things anonymously and dare not speak them aloud in their personal groups unless of course they have found that they are amongst like minded thinkers, if I can use the word! After all, what they are probably not doing a great deal of, is thinking!

And some of the more eloquent are not doing and saying these things because they necessarily believe them. some of them are using the weakness of others to propel their own agenda by tapping into this inbuilt hunter gatherer predisposition. I can't be bothered to name names, we all know who they are anyway.

What gives me hope is that every time there is a hateful attack, either physical or verbal, then there is an outpouring of counter protest saying, basically, not in our name. I want to think that the majority of human beings are good accommodating helpful human beings that don't care what colour, race, religion, sex you are they just treat everyone as they find them. And that it is simply that because the incidents of hatred are so rare that the news media pick them up because they know the majority will be shocked. That's what I'd like to think anyway. Maybe it is I that am Martin Niemoller!