Rotting Idylls: Festering Hate in Bright Places
Discomfort drives unkindness. People react poorly to situations where motivations elude them, and this is doubly true of concepts which stretch the credulity of those involved. The “best” horror media, be it films like American Psycho, or games like Silent Hill 2 or Omori, the closest and visceral fears lie beneath the surface of pleasantries or just beyond the realm of the possible. Perhaps it comes from happiness mixing with a strange sort of protectionism, the deepening of bonds between a perceived “us” and the nebulous and clearly morally decrepit “them”. Many are the guises under which hate and intolerance fester, but the old cardinal sins, seven in number, collectively lead well to a working definition of what grows extremism:
Lust, perhaps the least immediately obvious, the driving force for most xenophobes, exemplified in countries with strong aversions to religious interconversions due to weddings
Gluttony, for promulgating narrow-minded ideas of what might be best for the community
Greed, for more than what could be sustained over multiple people: “Too bad these other people are here, we could have so much more without them”
Sloth, exemplified by the craven “good people” who know wrong from right but lack the ability or mobility to take action
Wrath, the predominant impulse driving the special “chosen few” who opt to act out on their basest urges for the “greater good”
Envy, a close cousin to Gluttony and Greed in this context, with no neighbors, there would be no references to compare against for “a better society”
Pride, the precursor to most, and hardest to tame, the willing belief in the perfection or “best efforts” of oneself and people of the community
Yet it is none of these, but those flaws of character which are always forgiven but never forgotten, ignorance and fear, which are the harbingers of extremism. To say there is “no shame” or that it is “perfectly understandable” to be either ignorant or fearful is at best irresponsible and enabling, or at worst (as many politicians and administrators are) being culpable for knowingly whipping up the masses.
Let us not mince words, for the people without legal voice, for people denied rights in spite of living and working and respecting the laws of their community, for them, silence is as bad as a condemnation. The world is always bathed in blood and conflict, the outrage expressed is merely a matter of how close to one’s “own kind” is. Cynical though this sounds, it is important to recollect that there are no monsters beyond men. Every deportation, every judgment, every crime, no matter the strictures of impartiality boil down to a single person’s choice, or to the machinations of a few.
Responsibility for these actions is a fickle thing. It’s all too easy to shrug off accountability, liability and other legalese protect, defend and work to ensure the prolonged existence of structures of power, heedless of the many crushed within its cogs. Empathy is never enough if one's “hands are tied”. We must all, every one of us, take responsibility for communal hate and stem its growth. The flip side is of course, with the influx of information and misinformation online, with gated communities spewing hate, and “public” entities like Twitter (actively being demolished by its new CEO, the exploitative Elon Musk, who even reinstated a fellow scammer Donald Trump) enable people to exult in their every misinformed, misogynistic, xenophobic urge. The desire to feel good about oneself, without recourse to actually being good, is a powerful motivator. Indeed, when thoughts are too extreme for the more public channels, alternatives spring up, Koo in India, Truth Social, and Parade in the United States of America. To be allowed to hate, to be allowed to be misinformed, these are public safety concerns. So too is the ability to be satiated with a sense of superiority and one’s own magnanimity. The cracking veneer of any society’s sheen of acceptance and tolerance is easy enough to judge. Take note and cringe at the bait traps set for immigration hopefuls at our own Directorate of Immigration, watch the lengthening “processing times” divide families in spite of “better working conditions” for the lucky few not forced to go through the process. With the humiliation and constant distress of being even a foreign expert in a foreign land, little wonder then, that immigrants often double down on their perceived notions of their home country and their “community” though this too is ultimately more damaging than anything else.
I am old enough now to look around at the world, to remember the outrage for atrocities in the global South, in the African subcontinent, everywhere, to see with a sickening tiredness, the way normalization smoothes out these atrocities. Only to see the final degradation, the denigration which transforms refugees into “problems” and criminals play out over and over again.
To watch those more privileged, by birth or status or even circumstance shrug uncomfortably and look the other way, or worse - compare unequally their petty problems to those being tested in ways beyond most people’s comprehension is sickening.
To see how those left behind take a sharp right towards hypersensitive tropes of patriotic selves and nationalistic identities in the face of a horrific adversary, while actions which would not normally be condoned are simply covered by a veil. There are no easy answers.
Where freedom, kindness and education thrive, there we may hope for a better world, but until then, we must remain vigilant and speak out loudly and often at every slight to the concept of human decency. We must opt to be ruthless about ensuring that one’s rights end when they begin to encroach on those of others. We may strive for an idyll, but we must forever watch the shadows to keep hate from festering - hate which thrives in silence and dark places, in unexpressed thoughts and repressed actions.
We must struggle eternally to mitigate these urges, within ourselves and our neighbors.