Healthy xenophobia?
The media show us the victims and we are shocked, moved, ashamed. At the same time most of us practice xenophobia in some form on a daily basis
Two weeks ago it was in Naples
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3940192.ece
last week in Rome, fifteen years ago in Solingen, Germany: a violent mob killing and burning “foreigners”. Politicians did not forcefully discourage, on the contrary, they subliminally encouraged the atrocities. In Germany, France, Italy and probably elsewhere as well.
They might instinctively feel how deep rooted xenophobia is in our instincts: it is one of the “normal” ways of perceiving other social groups than the one you belong to. It lies at the basis of broad and popular entrepreneurial movements, like e.g. the Olympic Games, international championships, pogroms, wars or just plain and simple mobbing at the workplace or at school.
One of the strongest bonds of group identity is hating together another group or individuals and other groups.
Admitting that other groups might be different without stereotyping , despising or fearing them would be the practice of tolerance. The examples in history are rare. Epicurean and Buddhist, monastic orders come to mind. At least from the distance of thousands of years and kilometres some of them do seem to have been tolerant.
Everyone calls barbarity what he is not accustomed to – stated Michel Montaigne.
“Diversity” education started some 500 years later. Some teachers here in Germany really try to influence the children’s attitudes toward more tolerance, others just pay lip service and treat the subject as superficially as possible, while their daily behaviour and occasionally dropped remarks show what they really think about “the Turks”, or “the Russians”.
What are the chances of the tolerance-educators against the concentrated and synergetic power of the politicians, the media, cultivated ignorance and general moral cowardice?
Can any individual resist the massive group/community/media pressure on their own, standing alone? Or only as a member of a group/community living their values, including tolerance?
Or should he accept that xenophobia is probably a genetically deeply rooted feature and acknowledge it as such? (Which then again would be “politically incorrect” in most of our societies based on double standards and hypocrisy.)
And what to do if you have a rare and incurable disease: your stomach cannot digest xenophobia?
soccer as ersatz-war: the normal madness
Spiegel online reported on the European Championship 2008
Europe is a continent shaped by migration. Nowhere can that be seen more clearly than on the football pitch. So far in this year’s tournament, almost 30 percent of the goals have been netted by foreign-born players. For the German team, the total is much higher.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,559493,00.html
It is all the more absurd to see the identification of millions of Germans with professional mercenary gladiators. Or perhaps not absurd at all.
If we accept the assumptions that
- national football competitions psychologically speaking replace wars between nations carried out on a symbolic level
- humans‘ normal social environment is the group (extended family, clan, small community: 7-10 people) and tribe (larger community, 25-50 people)
- for the last 200 years the notion of “nation” has been implanted in the minds as a substitute for “tribe”
- international sports are ersatz-wars (reporters consequently using the war-language: “beat” “won”, “lost” and “Italians”, Germans”. Polish paper Super Express printed a photo montage of Polish coach Leo Beenhakker holding the severed heads of German captain Michael Ballack and coach Joachim Löw under the headline “Leo, Bring us Their Heads!” see full report: http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,557842,00.html
then this is not absurd at all: it’s just the normal madness.
if you want to get happy: practice it!
“Melete to pan” “μελέτη τὸ πᾶν” — “Pains and industry effect every thing” spoken 2600 years ago, by Periander one of the seven wise men of Greece meaning: Persevering industry can achieve all things that are not utterly impossible.
If you want to get good at football: you have to practice.
If you want to get good at stress-FREEDOM: you have to practice.
If you want to get good at happiness: you have to practice.
Epicurus knew this 2300 years ago:
Practice these teachings daily and nightly. Study them on your own or in the company of a like-minded friend, and you shall not be disturbed while awake or asleep. You shall live like a god among men, because one whose life is fortified by immortal blessings in no way resembles a mortal being. (From ‘Letter to Menoeceus’ by Epicurus)
His followers kept on practicing stress-FREEDOM in their circles of friends for 800 years!
Modern science has proved they were right:
“To live wisely requires the ability to perceive, guide and foresee our emotions. Feelings of happiness aren’t a coincidence but the consequence of right thoughts and actions–a concept which modern neuroscience, ancient philosophy, and Buddhism…all agree.
We in the West typically emphasize the value of the correct decision: if only we were to make the right choice at this or that fork in the road, everything would improve. But according to the traditions of Buddhism and the philosophies of ancient Greece and Rome, it is more important to anchor ourselves in good habits, because these form the mind. We should want to change ourselves rather than our circumstances. The rest will come, because with a mind that is prepared for happiness, we will automatically seek out those situations that make us happy.
The importance each of us gives to the conscious choice is in the end a matter of faith. But two things are certain. First, our sense of happiness depends much more on the ways in which the brain perceives than on external circumstances; and second, occasional efforts aren’t sufficient to change our ways of perceiving. If the brain is to be rewired, repetition and habit are indispensible. And they, in turn, depend on a willingness to make an effort.
People are willing to go to great lengths when it concerns status, career, or their children’s development. But when it concerns happiness in everyday life, they can be oddly stingy with their energy. And yet, the way to happiness is quite straight forward: ‘The actual secrets of the path to happiness are determination, effort, and time,’ explains the Dalai Lama.
To this science can only assent.”
(From ‘The Science of Happiness’ by Stefan Klein)
intoxicated by liberation philosophy
“The best of life is but intoxication.” (Byron)
In my younger days it was vodka, whiskey, wine, sex, romantic love, theater, movies, literature, philosophy I got intoxicated with. Nowadays it’s mostly just literature and philosophy. Luckily I take up ideas slowly and forget them fast (some of my friends suggest that this could possibly be a retarded effect of all the alcohol I got intoxicated with in my younger days), so I can re-read pages again and again on human bondage and liberation by Epicurus, Michel Montaigne, Voltaire, Esther Vilar, Bertrand Russell, Kurt Vonnegut, Manfred Max-Neef and about a dozen of other authors experiencing every time almost the same thrill I felt when I first read them. Is this an anticipation of the beatitudes promised by Alzheimer ‘s?
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