We live in a world ridden with so much confusion. Confusion of as to why there is so much hate? Why there is so much fear, division and fighting all around us?
As you browse through your daily newsfeeds, your social media timelines, forwarded messages on your WhatsApp, one theme is ubiquitous: hate.
Where does hate come from and why it’s glaringly obvious these days?
Irrespective of school of thoughts you subscribe to or might be familiar with, hatred is surprisingly – unnatural. Hatred typically derives from ignorance – voluntary or involuntary.
Ignorance originates from lack of education leading to misinformed judgments creating unnecessary fear and this, (make no mistake) has real severe consequences – political, social, economic, and cultural – to our society at large.
Statesmen throughout the ages – from the time of the valiant Greeks to today’s Trump – have understood one thing perfectly well: fear works.
A reputable American political strategist once spelled out the golden rule of thumb on how politicians can best capture votes: you either instil hope or fear in the hearts and minds of the people.
Fear and hope are two of the greatest if not, the greatest human emotions that can ultimately spur tangible changes. While humans are inherently anxious and cautious of their surroundings, thanks to the evolutionary trait that we have inherited from our predecessors, excessive and unhinged fear may contribute to a state of paranoia – deriving from perceived thoughts of threat, persecution or conspiracy – founded or unfounded.
Fear inevitably creates the perceived yet impactful notion of constant threats to security inevitably creating division – of us versus them. Fear spells doom and galvanises people to take action to do something about it – to protect what is sacred, what is valuable – to safeguard our identity – what makes us, us.
Using immigrants, religious minorities and foreign countries who were American traditional trade partners as scapegoats to the decline of American ‘greatness’, Trump’s act of political muscle flexing becomes greatly admired by the majority, many of whom have never even previously sworn allegiance to any particular political party. A strongman is someone that many culturally, socially and economically alienated Americans need. A “David” against the “Goliath” of establishments.
Unpacking the politics of hate, Farhah Aziz
On the other hand, hope may act as panacea to paranoia while having the same moving effect on people. Hope allows people to dream, to imagine a better future, to go on living and believing. Hope is a central theme of many religious and spiritual traditions, putting an emphasis on the need to believe on a higher power bigger than ourselves in order to achieve greatness and salvation.
Fear and hope are a perfect descriptive dichotomy of the way we view the world. Of good versus evil, truth versus falsehood, heaven versus hell and – us versus them.
Failed Policies
Fear is the most powerful and effective tool to distract the masses in a democracy from failed policies and bad governance of those elected to power. Fear taps into our most primal human instinct and trumps every other glaring pertinent policy issues urgently need to be addressed.
Desperate and self-serving politicians understand extremely well that in order to mask and brush socio economic issues under the carpet stemming from their own incompetency at fulfilling their pompous election manifestos, fear is the most potent mantra – propping up fear and destroying hope of unity and harmony between individuals and communities.
Historically, fear has given a free pass for the powerful to pick on others, to find the bogeyman. Hitler’s Nazi Germany and fascist European powers picked on the Jews and Semites, culminating in the Holocaust, the worst humanitarian catastrophe of recent time. Today, news headlines feature anti-Islam or Islamophobic sentiments heavily, offering sleazy politicians a chance to hijack the political discourse by turning on the ‘enemy’, the Muslims. Muslims are perceived as a collective invasive force bend on eradicating the West from their values and their livelihoods. Islam is labelled a political ideology to be fought and ‘liberated’ instead of respected like other religious traditions.
‘Othering’ trope
This ‘othering’ trope is not new. It has worked wonderfully well by European colonising empires, legitimising their imperial ventures and routine ethnic cleansing exercises. Think of the unforgettable genocide of millions of Native Americans at the hands of European settlers and terrorists via the spreading of fatal foreign diseases, exploitation of internal tribal conflicts and all-out wars prior to the birth of modern United States of America. Or the Srebrenica massacre and the Rwandan genocide in the ‘90s.
Pro-independence and nationalist movements in the late 19th century and throughout 20th century have also utilised and benefitted from the othering trope. By creating a superfluous perception of differences as being a stumbling block to colonial emancipation, nationalist movements have managed to galvanise people under the banner of patriotism and usher in a new era of independence and self-government.
By viewing others as negatively different than us, we have allowed for the cultivation of tribalism, dehumanising others, viewing them as less than equal from us, free to be discriminated and vilified.
Fear sells
Fear emboldens the rhetoric of demagogues and populist leaders giving birth to vicious cycles of ignorance, fear, division that are unsustainably dangerous and ominous in the long run.
The liberal left laugh at jokes and funny content that can be derived from a political clown such as Donald Trump. But, his rise to power and unyielding popularity among some of his religiously staunch supporters are worth closely examined.
By weaponising the rhetoric of fear and threat of decline, claiming the United States to be “a third world country”, taking an anti-establishment stance by maiming previous administrations’ failure to address structural changes, his populist promises resonated with the largely white working class Americans.
Using immigrants, religious minorities and foreign countries who were American traditional trade partners as scapegoats to the decline of American ‘greatness’, Trump’s act of political muscle flexing becomes greatly admired by the majority, many of whom have never even previously sworn allegiance to any particular political party. A strongman is someone that many culturally, socially and economically alienated Americans need. A “David” against the “Goliath” of establishments.
Demagogues such as Trump have deliberately made themselves oblivious to facts and figures from top scientists and academic experts. In a post-truth world, anything goes. The truth is due to an unprecedented rise of technological advancement, many traditional jobs such as manufacturing in Michigan or coal mining in West Virginia are losing to cheaper labours from countries with competitive advantage in labour surplus such as China and India. Sure, one can argue that imposing punitive policies such as slapping higher tariffs on imported products can help salvage the ailing American economy but economists have conceded that such tariffs do not have any tangible impacts on Chinese consumers but in fact only end up hurting American consumers.
The last American presidential election has shown that there is one thing Americans of all party allegiance can agree on: wealth inequality is on the rise. That narrative has certainly catapulted the rise of Bernie Sanders from the far-left and Trump from the far-right of the political spectrum.
The widening wealth inequality which is fuelled by rapid expansion of technology reveals the failure of policymakers to reform the education and the economic system which have left many blue collar American workers at a disadvantage economically. The same trend can be observed in many other economies around the world – transitioning from manufacturing to an increasingly service-based economy.
However, Trump’s election victory emboldens the narrative of intolerance, hate and division promoted by alt-right, neo Nazis, white supremacist groups not just in the land of the free but many other ticking bomb spots throughout the Western world. These groups which were formerly considered fringe due to their parochial views today take centre stage by participating actively in national elections increasingly capturing moderate votes sold on the idea of hate and the need to safeguard sacred democratic Western “white” values from foreign invaders.
Armed with conspiracy theorists and social media troll soldiers to dismiss facts laid out by mainstream media companies, these neo-fascists groups have allowed for the cultivation of toxic nationalism branding any honest criticism of their movements as an existential threat that requires complete dismissal of logic and common sense. The popularity of online conspiracy theory movement such as QAnon proves this point.
What’s next?
Today, the battleground is no longer about the forces of conservatism against those of liberalism. The vicious cycle of fear, ignorance, hate and division has to be broken through active collective concerted effort to foster trust, education, hope and unity. Hate is not sustainable. Neither it is for the wellbeing of the planet nor is it for human lives.
Every single one of us is responsible for the dilapidated state of our politics today. Use your voice to speak truth against falsehood, promote trust against fear, encourage education instead of ignorance, generate hope against hate and bring people together instead of pushing them away.
FARHAH AZIZ 