If fear is the pivot word out of the three, it is also the key to unlocking the cycle. Fear causes hate and blame. When I use the word hate, I do not mean dislike. Although I do think Fear causes Blame somewhat, I believe hate actually causes blame. Blame is also an excuse to support the hatred, in the same way hatred is an excuse to support the fear. In essence we now have a bi directional whirlpool that is even more dangerous. One direction the emotions are being created, in the reverse direction the emotions are being supported as excuses. The perfect storm of emotion.
If you take fear out of the equation the triad falls apart, maybe not instantly, but with time. What makes fear so powerful? That would be simple, it's the unknown. In whatever context you put the triad of words, you will find that it all boils down to the unknown. Why is it human nature to fear the unknown? Obviously we like the comfort of familiar, but there has to be more to it than that. Could it be we had a bad experience in our youth discovering the unknown? Maybe it's genetic going far back into our DNA. Our distant ancestor were fearful of the night, and longed for the light of day. Perhaps it's the vulnerability of the unknown. The list could go on and on.
If the power in fear is the unknown, then understanding would eliminate the fear. This is a very simple idea, yet when caught in vortex of the triad it is so hard grasp the concept. The question then becomes how do we defuse the fear enough to allow understanding? How can you change the perspective of a person drowning in the triad? The frightening thing is some people actually thrive on hate. These people have lived with fear hatred, and blame so long it has become their perceived natural state.
I would also submit, that everybody has different degrees of fear, not so much in what causes the fear, but how deeply the fear is felt and reacted to. I believe fear is natural in human beings, it's the different degrees of fear among us that is interesting to me. Feasibly this could also be a byproduct of genetics, or maybe the experiences of our youth. This would be a fascinating topic for research for somebody more qualified than myself.
What spurred this train of thought was an news article on the CNN website written by Stephanie Chen called "Growing Hate Groups Blame Obama, Economy". As I read the article I began to see the relationship of Fear, Hate, and Blame, and just how out of control it is within the hate groups. Each of the groups of people have a fear of something. The fear is immense and therefore the hatred extreme with enough blame to support the out of control hatred.
The statics are very alarming.
"The center's report, "The Year in Hate," found the number of hate groups grew by 54 percent since 2000. The study identified 926 hate groups -- defined as groups with beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people -- active in 2008. That's a 4 percent jump, adding 38 more than the year before."
"On the day after Obama's historic election, more than 2,000 people joined his Web site, a remarkable increase from the approximately 80 new members a day he was getting, Black said. His Web site, which was started in 1995, is one of the oldest and largest hate group sites. The site received so many hits that it crashed after election results were announced. The site boasts 110,000 registered members today, Black said."
What is also interesting to me, aside from the race issue, is the struggling economy is also producing a surge in new members. The fear of losing everything produces a hatred by blaming a group of people for the struggling economy. In this case it is the Latino immigrants, legal and illegal, that are receiving the brunt of this hatred blaming. This is so sad, as nothing could be further from the truth.
"In the city of Detroit, Michigan, where the weak economy has taken a particularly devastating toll, Jeff Schoep serves as the commander for the National Socialist Movement, one of the largest neo-Nazi groups in the United States.
Schoep said he has seen membership grow by 40 percent in recent months, mostly because of the dire economic circumstances. It is the "most dramatic growth" he has seen since he joined the movement in the mid-1990s. The group does not reveal membership numbers to the media, he said.
"You have an American work force facing massive unemployment," Schoep said. "And you have presidents and politicians flinging open the borders telling them to take the few jobs left while our men are in soup kitchens."
This is from a man in Detroit, where the UAW refused to budge on their demands of the automakers. Do you really think those unemployed men in the soup kitchen would harvest lettuce in California for $7 an hour or less? Much less work in a kitchen restaurant washing dishes for the same? Preying on fear and causing hatred to grow, with enough blame for anybody interested.
I acknowledge that hate groups are an extreme sect, and not representative of the general population. I also understand we are dealing with radical examples of emotion, but I also think by examining these emotions, in this context, makes it much easier to see the relationship each emotion has to the other.
Do you see how quickly the triad turns into vortex, swallowing all logic and decency in it's path?
Should you be interested the article would be here
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/02/26/hate.groups.report/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
Hate groups are the minority. Definitely. But fear groups are the majority. You even said it, you remove fear from the equation and the triad falls apart. Valid.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of my favorite topics. Every child knows that you want to be near to what you love, and far from what you fear. Fear is the sustainer and source of the divide, that mechanism in even myself that creates us-versus-them... when, really, it's me-versus-notme.
Communication heals the divide. Silence, where the little voice is given room to play in the wounded minds of most people, makes the divide larger. Words spoken in anger, mainly to mask fear itself, make the divide more firm. That voice spoken in anger has one of two effects on a person, to win them over or force them more firmly into "the opposition". It is a voice that in game theory is called zero-sum, meaning "win or lose" (but never win-win or lose-lose).
Trying to persuade another person more often than not means they will defend against the persuasion and become more rigid in the very belief you would like to undo. Blame comes when the mind does not want to accept responsibility, which is similar to the law of entropy applied to psychology--laziness diffusing power.
It is not one fraction less than what was spoken of in the matrix, as the power has to go somewhere. No energy is ever lost, nor none ever gained. The energy people give up by turning to finger pointing and blame gives their power to the politicians, who use that power for some of the greatest atrocities this planet has ever known... and may yet know worse.
Note that this is a blanket statement, as both leftist and rightists support one another in their cycle of fear. Leftists make rightists, as do rightists make leftists, thru the voice of anger. Stepping back, you can see that both sides take turns taking rights away, but from different sections, and just how quickly fear will swing a vote.
Giving people back personal power, responsibility and the creative-spirit can only be done thru infection, not persuasion. Thru sharing, getting excited about your own dreams and thru your own strength of character. You can never win an argument. It is like saying there is a winner in a fight, when both sides are almost always wounded in mind, body and energy. What you can do is create possibility for others.
People see the long jump record beat, then suddenly others are doing it. People were given a copy of the holy scriptures, then everyone wanted to know the divine personally. People see you creating actual change in the world, and they see that it is possible as well.
With social networking and technology that spans the world, this infection has sped up. Knowledge is winning the battle, although disinformation has made huge leaps in the last decade. Disinformation is easy to tell though, no matter whether leftist or rightist. You can hear the same anger and insults coming out of Rush Limbaugh's mouth as you can the mouth of Michael Moore's. It is the same mouth, expressing from a place of fear.
No, it can be won. It is worth winning as well. It's not over until the last human falls.
Thanks Jaia, I appreciate the insights!
ReplyDeleteAnybody else?
peace all,
todd
Thought-provoking--thanks for sharing your ideas. They do all seem connected and tied together in inextricable ways. I guess, too, this leads to the question of how we inspire people to let go of fear, hate, and blame, and what the world will look like when we do. Imagine if the cowards, haters, and blamers chose to love and support Obama and immigrant groups? Likely, it would bring them happiness, and make them feel like they needed less money and resources and things.
ReplyDeleteYea Todd, you are very right. Its very unfortunate that fear of the unknown may lead to victimization of other groups in society. Remember what the Nazis in Germany did to the immigrant and prosperous Jews in the 1930's to 1940's? Indeed fear, if not tamed, can really breed jealousy and malice. And of course an economic downturn is a recipe for so many social vices.
ReplyDeleteI think fear is inbred in us and society feeds it to the point that no matter where we turn we should be fearful of something. But I also believe if people open their minds and close their mouths, fear of the unknown would drop considerably.
ReplyDelete