AN ALARMING RISE IN HATE SPEECH

Hate, an ugly byproduct of human intelligence.

As a writer, a student of philosophy, history and the humanities I am a recorder of human behavior and I am always intrigued by the way we interact and affect each other.  Our civilized behavior, even in the best of times, is only veneer thin and the majority of all major institutions have been designed to keep us on the straight and narrow because our habit of veering off in the wildest directions is all too common.  Quite often we resemble a kettle coming to a full boil and about to blow its lid.  In my novels—Behaving Badly, and Energy & Origin—I describe the impact of energy, growth, opportunity and momentum.  Rather than trying to figure out on how to best cope and live with the impact of these forces in the least harmful ways to ourselves and the planet, we instead are resisting and rebelling against something over which we have no control at all.  We are literally rolling from one conflict to the other and we’re only intensifying momentum with our incredible human numbers, demands and needs.

Hate speech acts like a catalyst to ignite the worst in us.

Energy and opportunity are crucial in defining growth.  Growth in all its dimensions—from birth to maturity and planting the seed for the next generation—is crucial for the continuation of any species.  Basically reducing life to its basic essence: growth, energy, opportunity.  Let’s leave out all the philosophical human equations because it only distracts.  A nation or tribe will not combust without reason.  If everything in our lives is moving along swimmingly and we’re happy and content, any voice trying to sow fear, anger and paranoia, will fight a losing battle.

Once the fuse is lit!  Lie, deny, distort and when it comes from the top it is near unstoppable.

When we’re faced with overcrowding, housing and food shortages, cuts in services and loss of income and all the other nasties that threaten our livelihoods like our safety and security, we are literally opening up a Pandora’s Box of grievances and the gloves come off in a hurry.  Hate speech starts to thrive in an environment of hyped fear and paranoia.  I purposely inserted “hyped”.  Unscrupulous political voices, voices ignored during times of peace and prosperity, seize this as their golden moment to capture the limelight and seize power if at all possible.  When the worst of the worst seize power they can’t believe their luck and they’re quick to put it down to a Messianic appeal. (Humble, humane, emphatic are not words that apply to these characters)  As if the tribe was waiting for them to come onto the scene.  When all along the tribe has been priming itself for just such a leader to emerge and to lead them on a rollercoaster ride of pent-up anger and frustration.

Bad leaders are symptomatic of what the tribe consciously and subconsciously has been veering towards.

When faced with adversity our species confrontational side rides to the fore.  They want a leader who will confront, who will be brash, aggressive and strong, and whatever nonsense spews forth from their lips is received as gospel because the tribe wants to believe, they want to be ignited.

Hate speech is merely the excuse to lash out and to start a fight, because that is the way that historically our species has reacted towards adversity.  And it doesn’t have to be all that bad.  We’re not talking catastrophic declines.  Even a slight deterioration in perceived status or income can bring out the worst.  Reasoned reflection and second sober thought is not our strongest suit.  Rebellion always simmers close to the surface, as is anger, fear and paranoia.  Our simmering resentment gives birth to the atrocious leadership that emerges when a nation or tribe feels that the bedrock of their foundation, their beliefs and their belief in the nation, starts to lose its solidity.

Selective belonging.

When hate speech flows down from the pinnacles of power it legitimizes the anger unleashed on ‘suspected’ culprits, because that is what we do best; blame someone or something, and preferably hapless groups or segments of a population that can’t defend themselves.  Visible minorities or anyone not fitting the stereotypes of how the majority identifies; selective belonging.  We actively participate in taking these groups down; attacking them, minimizing, demonizing and ridiculing.

We are starting to ignore humanitarian ideals and beliefs and the cornerstones of what stabilized the nation in the first place.  Equality, justice, due process, upholding and protecting the laws that provide security and safety for all.  Respect.  Dialogue.  Reason.  Instead what emerges is a mob mentality; bluster and brawn and never admit to any wrongdoing or injustice. 

We are doing this to ourselves.

Hate speech puts us firmly on the path of no return and once we’re all complicit, by actively participating or purposely staying silent, the fraudulent leadership that has emerged as a result, has brought the tribe to where we have willingly led them.  Where we wanted to be in the first place.  We vote for them.  We elect them.  We choose to follow!

We have only ourselves to blame.

We have purposely lit and embraced the powder keg of conflict.  Nobody else is to blame.    We have created an environment where anything goes and anything can and will happen.  A corrupt judiciary and security forces emerge as a result to enforce to most ludicrous orders.  Once the wrong people are firmly placed in charge anyone can be fired, rewarded, corrupted, cajoled and threatened.  The number of casualties becomes irrelevant, especially when the corpses belong to the minorities blamed for everything that ails the nation.  As Josef Stalin cynically remarked to Winston Churchill when questioned about his harsh measures and cruelty, “One casualty is a tragedy, millions a mere statistic.”

We’re surrounded by bad actors.

Our societies are littered with incompetent, spiteful, unscrupulous people feeling neglected and undervalued, dying to act out; to seek revenge and to intimidate others.  Give them a golden opportunity and they will turn into a willing army of enforcers.  Dress them up; a hat, a cap, a scarf, a shirt, a uniform, a mask.  An army of malcontents, chronic whiners, losers and basic thugs that love to strike out and misbehave and to give those who used to be in charge the finger.  And to top it all off: It all comes with the blessing from the top and therefore they are immune from retribution or punishment.  Bad leaders cater to base human instincts and emotions and the herd mentality is used to hide the atrocities committed.  There is safety in numbers and we only have to look at recent events to conclude that the guilty are rarely prosecuted and punished.

Hate is a cancer.

When hate speech becomes common place in the daily discourse of a nation it starts to spread like a cancer that rots the psychic of a nation.  Hate once unleashed has to run its course and it silences all form of protest and attempts to return a nation and tribe to the humane footing that used to characterize it.  Bad leaders only care about power and control and all of them lack introspection and a conscience.  They are willing to do things that no normal person would ever contemplate.  The worst thing we can do to ourselves when confronted with adversity is to allow the worst of the worst in our species to take control.  That superior intelligence of ours goes AWOL every time when it is needed the most.  Those of you who are familiar with my writing and novels will appreciate my ambivalence when it comes to human intelligence and where it is taking us.  I just wish that you could prove me wrong.  Not a few well-meaning souls.  What is needed is a wholesale change of heart in the minds of at least a solid majority.  I am well aware that there is a huge segment out there of humanity’s worst that will resist any attempt to conducive and proactive change.

Embrace your humanity.  Resist the inhumane and the contemptable.  If you find yourself still living in a democracy, use that vote of yours and vote wisely.

Feel free to comment or share.  The recently posted articles are from a new bundle: Reflections.  Twilight musings, Earthbound and the bundle Incoming are available for free as PDFs.

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