I've heard talk lately & often of the evils of socialism/collectivism/Marxism and equally of Neo-conservatism/corporatism/ toxic capitalism. Many of my friends - whether they be conservative friends or liberal - have in turn, publicly warned against the increasing threat of totalitarianism. I myself have also waxed prophetic.
But...
I am reading a book written by Laureen Nussbaum - Shedding Our Stars. Laureen's family (Klein) were close friends with Anne Frank's family. When Germany occupied Holland, the Frank family went into hiding while the Klein family secured falsified legal documents concealing their Jewish bloodline. She writes of what life was like hiding in plain sight during the five years of Nazi occupation.
When the Canadians tanks of liberation rolled into Holland, Laureen's father wrote this:
"I ceremoniously burned the yellow star with the words Jood (Jew) on it. The burning was meant as a symbolic act. May the world learn at long last that anti-semitism originates with the enemy of mankind, who uses anti-semitism to hide his dark, fiendish and reactionary machinations."
For purposes of this critique, I want to address anti-semitism as "othering"or if that is too progressive a term, "scapegoating".
The real & true enemy you and I as Albertans/Canadians face is not the other Neo-conservative or the other Marxist-socialist. Your true enemy is your own reactionary impulse to place a group of people in the category of "other". This is what the horrors of WW2 (or any war for that matter) can teach humanity.
Your/my/our greatest enemy is not without - it is within. It is rooted in fear. It is marinated in a (false) certainty that the "other" political party, religion, class, race or institution is the enemy and therefore, the source of all you fear and (quite frankly) all you should hate. The more certain you are about this notion the more darkened and distorted you can become.
Scapegoats...
Do you have any? I do. Mostly I complain about them roaming around in my backyard - trampling my rhododendrons. Sometimes I fling accusations and personal insults at them on social media. I most definitely think they are a complete pack of idiots at the very least - but sometimes I wonder if they might be...sorta-kinda...most decidedly... evil deep at their core.
(An important) But...
If I can learn anything from this book & history, it is how uncertain times tend to proceed unthinkable acts. In times of peak-stress, we as a species, tend to blame someone else for the fear and uncertainty we feel. Some would say we are hardwired towards violence (though I am not convinced) - especially if we perceive something as a threat to our welfare. Germany was decimated by WW1 and Hitler believed there was someone to blame for it. "It had to be the Marxist sympathizer. It had to be the "Jood" - the immigrant, the other". In his mind, there could be no other explanation - certainly not one fit for discussion.
Hitler introduced this fiendish sentiment somewhat benignly at first. Most Europeans didn't take the rhetoric seriously - I mean really, they were a rational freethinking nation after all. And yet, with each article, broadcast, and rally the scapegoats roaming in German pastures were looking more and more threatening- taking jobs, cheating the system, consuming & hoarding resources, contaminating (Christian) ideals. Once freethinking-turned weary & wary, many wished those goats would "go back to the pastures they came from."
Germans were (understandably) a people hungry to secure freedom and a future for their children; a people out of work- hungry for economic recovery/stability; a people hungry for the national pride lost in the previous war. However, this hunger led to the systematic butcher, tenderizing and roasting of over 6,000,000 scapegoats. As unthinkable as it seemed, more and more people began cutting off a piece of the prime-scapegoat-rib Hitler was serving (it was almost palatable when smothered in the gravy of indifference, apathy, & denial). It is a revolting symbolic image and yet the reality was far worse.
Somehow the unthinkable happened. It's happening in China and Myanmar. It happened in Rwanda, Darfur and Cambodia. It happened in India, Australia, South America, Vietnam and the Polynesian Islands. It happened in Israel. It happened in Russia, Italy and Rome. It happened in England, Scotland and Ireland - where hasn't it happened? It happened in the United States of America. And it happened in Canada.
The enemy is within. It is within me and it is within you. The sooner we own up to this clear, provable and unthinkable possibility - the sooner we can free ourselves from the true enemy that threatens all humanity.
We can destroy all enemy-within tactics when we weigh opposing ideology/platform/creed/belief on the principles we know to be sound.
One principle in particular remains unmovable: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
The practicing of this principle is freedom won and freedom kept. It is just that simple. It is just that hard. And freedom can only reign if everyone sits at the table - not in competition but in the conviction, "All I feel I deserve; you too must have equitably and unbiasedly. Any restraint I feel you must exercise; I too must exercise in kind."
One thing we can do is point out any rhetoric that divides and polarizes. Once, I was following a particular passionate Facebook thread regarding systemic racism, someone in the conversation crossed a line and the host responded in 3 words, "Don't do that." followed by, "You have better ideas than that." I sat in awe at how sharply and swiftly those words ended the ignorance. So, I wrote those words on a post-it-note and stuck it to my computer- ready ammunition for any unpleasant Facebook conversations I might find myself in.
But...
I realize those words are more a rebuttable & reminder to myself. One idea can trigger "dark, fiendish and reactionary machinations"- the unthinkable. There are always better - more thinkable- ideas than the ones forged in fear and/or indignation. Always. Lest I (most of all) forget.