The sunrise of hate and the sunset of reason

Statistics on political violence (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I am a vivid LinkedIn user, I post on LinkedIn and read posts. Is a great way to understand and know the world outside. but lately I have seen a rise of hate comments and speeches that I find disturbing.

Mostly are related to political issues (quite understandable USA election are rising the bar of intolerance and violence between the contenders) but also ethnic and religious ones are present. The most deplorable are the ones related to the never ending war between Israel and Palestine and the reaction to muslin radicalism.

I am not a religious guy, I am agnostic, and I find revolting people using religion to justify their action of hate and violence, both side. I find revolting when people claim a land for “god’s” will, i find revolting when people distort history to justify that “right”, I find revolting when people call for violence against the other, all in the name of god, country, truth or freedom.

No matter if come from ISIS, some “questionable” government, far rights xenophobic parties, Christian, Muslin or Jews fundamentalism, radical Zionism, or revolutionary communism … nothing good could come from not respecting the counterpart, and respect means to admit that the counterpart has its reason.

you will be hero or terrorist, depending if you will win or loose

Both contenders have their heroes, martyr that are seen as evil bringer of death from the other one. And this justify the chain of reactions. So you can kill because of a strip (charlie hebdo) and be considered an hero because of your god, or you can kill a kid on the sea and be considered a patriot because of another god.

Funny more the positions are radical more the contenders use to present “facts” in their distorted way, and I am almost sure most of them does not even realize that the truth is somewhere else, and they are just covering their need to be in the right spot, and the few ones that try to rise a bit of analysis or moderation are immediately attacked, more than the ones in the opposite side.

“…there are none so deaf as those who do not want to hear, there are none so blind as those who will not see…”

Alas in a world that keep considering the other an “enemy” and so ontologically evil it is hard to find hears and eyes open. at the end if your “truth” comes from god it is indisputable that the other one is wrong, and since the truth is there if they do not get it is because are evil.

So we keep seeing the right (or conservative) named fascist, the leftist communists as the Russian and Chinese (and for some USA people also the Europeans) , the muslin terrorist as most of the the middle eastern people, the Christian crusaders murderers of Muslims and so on. In a never-ending dualism where the other has no reason because the reason is all in one side. Above all there is the absolute ignorance of what most of those terms means: communism, democracy, fascism, free market (I am so sorry for Adam Smith) and so on, are all used in a distorted way, that not even resemble the original meaning.

History is distorted as well, with the most recent facts but also ancient and consolidated, omitting or denying, no more or less as the revisionists deny the mass murdering done by the Nazis during the second world war. But we are all Bonaparte’s sons: it is not the map in error, is the battlefield that is wrong ….

And this allow us to make the sweetest generalization because if you don’t agree with me you are against me, and so your objections are not real but vicious lies.

We are so deep into this kind of thinking that if you care about environmental problems or climate change you are a communist…the earth is not changing its climate because of mankind…. come on really? Does history teach anything to any of us? Again science is under suspicion? And believing in climate change makes you left or right? And if I believe in the theory of strings what am I?

On the other end, people happily believe in creationism, why they should even go further…they know the truth…

(and yes evolutionism is a theory, as everything else in science, as the dinosaurs extinction because of a meteor and the other 5 big extinctions on hearth … this is what science is about)

Yes we made also science (again) a matter of left and right, good or evil. Even science has been caught in this loop, like if physics of our universe does really care about our silly disputes. Seems that the age of enlightenment has passed away with no trace, and we are turned back to the darkest middle age: age of slaughtering and crusades although, we should remember, of technical innovations. would be funny if, in the meanwhile, people die.

There are voices that try to call to reason; funny enough, the head of the catholic church, pope Francis, who would be supposedly on one side, is continuously asking for a more open approach, even about relationships between religions, may be for this reason has been called “communists”, quite funny i have to say.

But in a world that cherish violence and hate speech against moderation and real talking what could we expect.

I will keep reading post on LinkedIn, sometimes makes comment. And I will keep listening to tv news and politics making fun of reality to present their vision of the world, and I will keep trying to teach my daughter that there is never one reason and one truth, and only keeping an open mind, listening and watching some sparks of the truth could be seen.

Prove me wrong, I will listen.

cheers

Antonio