I can’t not post something about what’s been happening in Sydney these last few days. (The Sydney Morning Herald has reports.) I am in full agreement with Deborah Kate, I think this is just another manifestation of the usual “pissing wars” that go on between groups of young, angry men and that there’s always one group that’s seen as The Evil Other, and this time it’s so-called Lebbos.
I finished rereading Factoring Humanity by Robert J Sawyer last night. I’d probably give the book three out of five stars for the writing but it gets five out of five for the ideas and sheer hopefulness - basically the story is about messages received from the Alpha Centauri system which are finally deciphered by a psychologist, Heather. She realises that the messages provide instructions to allow the construction of a hypercube that allows people to come into contact with the Overmind, the collective consciousness of human beings, and eventually, the Overmind of the aliens in Alpha Centauri. To cut a long story short, being able to look into another’s consciousness, to see the full complexity, good and bad, of a person, allows complete understanding and empathy. Towards the end of the book, where people all over the world are spontaneously being nice to each other, Heather says to her husband:
“We were incapable of true, sustained empathy. But now that we’re in contact with another overmind, we understand what it means to acknowledge and accept the other. What man could rape a woman if he really put herself in her place? The fundamental of war has always been dehumanizing the enemy, seeing him as a soulless animal. But who could go to war knowing the other guy is a parent, a spouse, a child? Knowing that he or she is simply trying to get through life, just like you are? Empathy!”
This is something I’ve always thought - that fear and hatred of The Other is sustained when all you can focus on is how different you think they are1. And you continue to play on the perceived differences until they are so Not Like You, they are almost inhuman, just a dumb leb, or a fucking slope2, or a filthy boong. Not One of Us.
1Are human beings ever going to be able to get along? Or is it going to take aliens landing on this piece of rock?
2 This refers to the “slanty” eyed look created by the epicanthic eyefold. I used to hear it a lot when I was in high school. Back then, even while I was feeling very threatened and hated, I used to wonder at the strangeness of the focus - a tiny tiny feature that so defined me in some people’s eyes, that they couldn’t treat me like a human being at all - and the association it created in my head, with skiing. I laugh now!
Categories: racism, Cronulla, Australia, review, sciencefiction
Good post, CW. Indeed, people tend to focus on (oftentimes superficial) differences when they should focus on sameness. Is it because we’re ignorant or lazy or both? It’s disappointing and pathetic.
Both, I think, Cherry. It always makes me sad when people only see the stuff on the surface and make all their judgements based on that.
I like the t-shirts the celebs were wearing on Bondi - if some people would only stop and think, a lot of problems would be solved.