In the human DNA, or at least in part of humanity, there is a taste for preying on some scapegoat. White supremacists in the southern United States used to lynch innocent Black people. They found it so cool that they even bought mail-order postcards with images of those collective assaults in post offices and sent them to their relatives. Those attacks were sometimes accompanied by torture, such as burning them, cutting off their fingers and testicles, while thousands of white spectators cheered the torturers as if they were heroes. A large part of those atrocities was committed by the Ku Klux Klan, which came to have 5 million members.Sometimes the only reason was envy of successful Black neighbors.Even Black soldiers returning from World War II were lynched simply for being Black.
The Nazis brutalized Jews, and quite a few Jews took part in the social lynching of Jesus Christ, shouting “Crucify him!” even though he was innocent, because he was accused of something that did not harm others in any way.
The Romans did it to Christians, taking pleasure in watching lions devour them; Christians did it to those who thought differently (heretics), and many enjoyed gathering in the public square to watch them being burned. In many places there are popular festivities in which people have fun being cruel to animals, and so on throughout history. Even at school it is evident that there are children who take part as perpetrators, accomplices, or bystanders of bullying, enjoying seeing those who are different or weak suffer, or remaining indifferent.
The key to this phenomenon, typical of Homo sapiens, is to look for an innocent person on whom to unload the aggression, malice, and venom we carry within, no matter how much we conceal it with our angelic smiles and by presenting ourselves as friendly and affectionate toward others. Or to look for someone who has committed a fault that in no way justifies the overreaction that takes place against them.
Since our nature has not changed, this still happens today, even if it is usually on a smaller scale or even in a veiled way. It occurs especially in two sectors of society that are both opposed and similar: the far right and the far left. In the first case, it is usually linked to racism, ethnicism, xenophobia, and ultra-nationalism, as well as ultra-traditionalism and toxic religiosity. They enjoy hating those who are different and those who fall outside their parameters.
Read “LIVING WITHOUT HARM: Let us reform the harmful side of the authoritarian far right”
Read “HOW TO LIVE WITHOUT HARM? Let us not be racist, ethnicist, or xenophobic”
Read “THE ART OF LIVING WITHOUT HARM: Let us reform the harmful side of religions”
In the case of the far left, those who are lynched are sometimes people who are envied because of their success. Other times they are certain groups for various reasons. The Soviets targeted, among others, small agricultural landowners; the Maoists targeted civil servants; the Khmer Rouge targeted people from the cities; many of today’s far-left extremists target Jews. Sometimes they need variety, adding to their repertoire ofscapegoats banks, entrepreneurs, tourist apartments, tourists, etc.
In all cases, there is always that need to seek enemies to hate and, at times, to trample on. It is usually linked to toxic groupthink and dogmatism.
Read “THE REVOLUTION OF LIVING WITHOUT HARM: Let us be open-minded and avoid harmful groupthink”
Read “LET US LIVE WITHOUT HARM! Let us be rational; let us avoid dogmatism”
Let us avoid and oppose any kind of lynching against any innocent person, or against someone who has committed a minor abuse. Because when the latter happens, what is fair is to demand that it be remedied and that apologies be made, but not a disproportionate and arbitrary beating, while remaining silent in the face of real wrongdoing. Let us not use double standards; let us be upright and impartial.
Read “LIVING WITHOUT HARM: Let us be proportionate in the face of abuse”
Read “HOW TO LIVE WITHOUT HARM? Let us be impartial and not apply double standards”
Thank you for sharing,
Xavier Paya
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