The Dangers of Othering

 The Dangers of Othering

You may have noticed from the tone of my blogs of late that I feel like humanity is in a very dangerous place right now. And though there’s probably only a half dozen or so of you out there reading these as I shout helplessly into the void, I still feel the need to do it or I’m probably going to burst with frustration and rage. So my apologies everyone but here we go again…

It’s always someone else’s fault. We all know that person, don’t we? Anything that goes wrong in their world, well, it wasn’t their fault, oh no, impossible, it was someone else who caused it, it wasn’t down to them. The dog ate my homework. He pushed me. She wasn’t looking where she was going. They didn’t explain it properly. It wasn’t made clear that wasn’t allowed. I wanted to be there and they were in the way. They didn’t do what I told them to do. They weren’t behaving properly. I wanted to do it, they got in the way. They came over here and took our jobs, it’s not down to me that I can’t get one. They didn’t deserve it, why shouldn’t I have it? Everything’s their fault - it just can’t be mine.

And then that person becomes a politician and that’s when the trouble starts. Because democracy, let’s be clear, whilst a wonderful idea, boils down to be being a popularity contest. Most people don’t sit down and read the details of a political manifesto, they listen to the rhetoric and decide who they like or agree with the most. To be popular, a politician needs to make sure that no mud sticks to them and nothing is their fault and to make voters feel like any problems aren’t their own fault too. They need to distract you from thinking things are down to them. And what’s the best and quickest way to do that? Blame someone else, of course.

It’s that other party’s fault. It’s the people who support them. It’s the people who don’t agree with us. It’s that other cultural group. It’s that neighbouring country, they are to blame. It’s those incomers, they aren’t contributing. They are the criminals, that’s why the crime rate is up. They are taking our resources, that’s why we haven’t enough money. They are trying to interfere with us, all our problems are being caused by them. Everything’s their fault - it just can’t be ours.

And slowly, though rhetoric, through media, through political desperation, suddenly whole groups of people, whole races, whole religions, whole nations, whole regions stop being human beings and start being Them. They are The Others. The ones who are to blame. The ones who, if we could get rid of them, all our problems would be magically solved. They are the problem, they are the evil ones, they are a homogenous mass of bad, they barely count as people anyway, so why shouldn’t we drive them out?

And history well documents what happens next. After all, the Romans did it to the Christians. The medieval Crusaders blamed Islam. The Protestants accused the Catholics and the Catholics pushed right back, in a variety of directions. Pretty much everyone over the years has had it in for the Jews, though Nazi Germany took it to a whole new level. 1950s American blamed the Communists – the Communists blamed the West right back and their Russian descendants still do. Islamic Extremists do it to everyone who isn’t one of them and innocent Islamic people suffer retribution. And now, in countries across the world, everyone blames the Immigrants.

Nationality seems to be irrelevant (race possibly less so) – it’s simply those nameless incomers who are to blame. They don’t conform, they don’t contribute (yes still somehow manage to take people’s jobs), they are criminals, they bring down the area, they are different, they are wrong, we don’t want them in our back yard. They aren’t like us.

The other big one at the moment is – it’s our national neighbour’s fault. They aren’t behaving like us. They aren’t doing what we want them to do. They aren’t towing our line and seeing our superiority. They are wrong, they are the enemy, they are out to undermine so we have to take them down and put them back in their place. They aren’t like us.

And then we are back to - they are the problem, they are the evil ones, they are a homogenous mass of bad, they barely count as people anyway, so why shouldn’t we drive them out?

They are The Others.

No, they are not. They are and always will be people. They are human beings with lives and feelings and problems, just like you. And to dehumanise and other them, usually for the sake of some politician who wants to shift the blame and some media outlet who wants to fuel clicks, is never, ever right. True, there are bad apples amongst them. But there are just as many bad apples everywhere else, because is what humanity is – there’s always some. Blaming the mass for the faults of the few is wrong. Whenever you feel the urge to Other someone, just try to imagine for a moment yourself in their shoes. How would you want to be treated? You’d want to be treated like a human being. History is replete with lessons about what happens when a group or race or nation is so othered that their right to be a human being is taken away. It doesn’t end well for anyone, especially the human race as a whole.

And that is a lesson we could all do with remembering right now.

NOTE: Shortly after writing this blog, I found in a book I was reading a quote that beautifully sums up what I have tried to say here. The book is The Betrayal of Anne Frank by Rosemary Sullivan and the quote, on page 291, comes late in life from Miep Gies, one of the brave helpers who sheltered and supported the Frank family and others during their concealment from the Nazis in their annex in Amsterdam during World War II:

"The message to take from Anne's story is to stop prejudice and discrimination right at its beginning. Prejudice starts when we speak about THE Jews, THE Arabs, THE Asians, THE Mexicans, THE Blacks, THE Whites. This leads to the feeling that all members of each such group think and act the same."

And this is from a woman who lived it.