The politics of fear are blinding us to the humanity of others

[struggle4progress]

A culture of guilt and apathy threatens to undermine our values and turn us into a traumatised society

Joanna Bourke
Saturday October 1, 2005
The Guardian

The most important question for our times is: are some humans more human than others? In practice, both abroad and at home, the British response has been a resounding "yes". Our civilising mission in the empire resulted in the violent deaths of millions of people. At home, we turned a blind eye to torture and blatant miscarriages of justice. However, our "war on terror" now provides us with an opportunity to rediscover our commitment to the ideals of the Enlightenment, including the belief that all people are born equal in dignity and rights. <snip>

Fear is being used to silence political discussion. Labour party officials aggressively attempt to stifle party debate on Iraq. Reminders of abuses carried out by British and American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq have suddenly become less than patriotic. There have even been suggestions that the outrage directed at our armed forces in the light of allegations of sexual and other forms of abuse in British training camps is misplaced: our young men and women recruits need "toughening up". The fact of the matter is that we are becoming used to barbarian ways.

Of course, we manage to keep up appearances. The rhetorical flourishing of words like democracy, freedom, fundamentalism and terrorism create a false sense of certitude. However they also threaten to return us to the same stark and moralistic opposition that appears to guide the terrorists: this is a war of good versus evil. The us versus them approach creates a national identity of victimhood for "us" and turns "them" into less than human. Not only does this give far too much power to the terrorists, it also threatens to blind us to our own acts of violence.

There is another danger in our responses to terrorism: we risk defining ourselves as a trauma society. The status of victim serves to depoliticise our responses. Stoicism becomes apathy. Collective political responses are replaced by more individualistic ones, such as learning relaxation techniques and deliberately avoiding stress factors (such as reading this newspaper). These are seen as preferable alternatives to civic engagement. This psychologising tendency not only contributes to the concentration of political power, it also threatens democracy itself. <snip>

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,9115,1582590,00.html

[Benhurst]

1. Amen. Recommended. NT

[fooj]

2. Excellent read. Recommend!

:hide: Everyone should read this! Thanks for the post.

Peace.

[dretceterini]

3. I agree, but

things have always been this way. Those with money and power control the day to day lives of everyone else. The only thing that ever changes anything is a true revolution.

Our legal system is useless. It's just as corrupt as the rest of the government.

We need to start dragging people out of government institutions and tar and feather them..

[cassiepriam]

4. We have lost our humanity and our souls.

It is not trauma, that is just an excuse. It is our dark side, there there all along. We have lost our way as a people and a country.
No moral compass. Arrogant, ignorant, greed and racist.
That is who we have become. Bush reflects us well.