Thoughts on US versus THEM

Some thoughts from my perspective after the horror in New Zealand (March 2019).

People feel comfortable with people like them. White middle class folks like to associate with white middle class folks. Rich folks with rich folks. Black folks with black folks. Muslims with Muslims. Conservatives with conservatives. And so on and so on. This is why clubs form.

This has been the way ever since man formed tribes while living in caves. People who were different were driven out. Tribes fought with tribes to gain land or just because they were there. Tribes turned to nations and still it continued.

Societies functioned because people "knew their place". This continued through the 50's but started to slip in the 60's when the free thinker's alternative ways began to be sanctioned by more liberal thinking court systems in the western world. The rights of people to be individuals diluted the social pressure to conform.

Many of the problems today stem from this ingrained need for people to associate with others like themselves. It is a tribal mentality that is hard to shake. It isn't just the white people against the immigrants or the people of colour. The immigrants typically prefer to associate with other people of their culture, as do home grown minorities.

And western society is becoming more homogeneous so that the groups are afraid of losing their identities. Fear has bred hatred. Hatred has, in some cases, bred violence. And others, who would not take up a weapon themselves, silently (or not so silently) cheer the violence. Others, who disagree, stay silent for fear of drawing the ire on themselves.

Hatred of THE OTHER drives many rationalizations to support their sentiments. The current beliefs about Muslims that drove the NZ shootings says that because radical Islamists commit terrorist acts and Muslim immigrants and refugees are moving west, they are ALL hostile invaders. Because some Hispanic immigrants (legal or not) have committed crimes, they are ALL criminals. A hundred years ago, Catholics and Irish were targets. The variations are endless.

US versus THEM is a collective concept that flies in the face of individual rights. A society that respects individual rights will, by definition, be very diverse. Many people who spout off about freedom want their society to be free to be just like them. Those who truly recognize individual rights will judge each person on their own merits and will avoid the bigotry of saying ALL (fill in the blank).

I resolve to judge each person based on their own actions and words. If they make generalized pronouncements on groups, minority or majority, I will challenge them. If they promote violence or harm against other identifiable groups, minority or majority, I will condemn them. If they actually join an organization that promotes physical violence or harm against others, I will judge them based on this.

There is no place for tribalism in a free society. My tribe is individual liberty. Anyone who disagrees with this is free to unfriend me if they feel the need, and avoid me if we cross paths. Or not. Because it is a free society and I respect your right to associate or not associate as you choose.