Donald Trump, the Huey Long of the Digital Age, has stirred up the bottom of American political waters. All sorts of strange creatures have made an appearance. Some of them have posted pretty strange, atavistic, and, especially, xenophobic stuff on social media, including my own FaceBook page. So, in anger, sorrow and some horror, I've tried to work up something about what I believe. As I did, I found that I was, fundamentally, much more liberal than I thought. Interesting. Perhaps it was because I was in Jakarta when I wrote this, the world's most populous Muslim majority country, a country that features - nutcases apart (and what country doesn't have those?) -- a gentle, tolerant Islam and a profoundly gentle, human culture that features a people who are amongst the most naturally polite on the planet. While in Jakarta this week and last, I saw women wearing the hijab skating with their children around a temporary ice rink to the sounds of 'Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer', saw mall after mall decorated with Christmas Trees, lights and the myriad other symbols of the season. I saw a wonderful choir singing carols like Silent Night, made up of Christian Indonesians and listened to respectfully by a crowd of Muslims.
This is what I believe.
A Human (capital 'H') is an imperfect member of a global
community that is made up of all sorts of people who speak differently, look
differently, believe different things and even relish different things to
eat. But Humans also share much, a lot
more than they don't. Among the things
they share are values like 'be honest', 'take care of your family', 'don't kill
another Human' and so on. If you asked
people in any of the countries I've lived in or traveled around to make a list,
they would be pretty similar. All of
them would have something about how important education is. Of course in some places there would be
important things on the list like 'women are equal and must be valued equally'
that weren't included on other lists but as education spreads the lists would
get closer to convergence. Eventually
the remaining differences on the list would be cultural markers only - those
markers ought to be cherished, they are some of what keeps the world from being
a homogenous, boring place; as those lists move closer, though, I don't believe
there'd be anything on any of them that didn't support the notion that Humans,
all of them, have the right to realize their potential and the right to a full,
happy life. Whether they achieve these
things is down to them, society provides the canvas and the paints, what you
create is up to you.
That's the way things ought to be. We've got some distance to go before we get
there.
Meantime, and - yes, this is connected - I'm pleased by
the outpouring of condemnation of Donald Trump's ignorant bigotry, especially
from his GOP opponents but I'm also appalled that our national dialogue
includes this level of clueless bloviating.
Sadly, this stuff doesn't just come from Trump who seems to suffer from
foul digestive eruptions that somehow exit via his mouth, but from way too many
Americans - they are abusing Christian text in a way that must border on
apostasy. I don't recall a single Sunday
School lesson that had to do with Jesus being blindly prejudiced against anyone
- seemed to me it was the opposite. In my view, If there is a hell, these
co-conspirators with the terrorist death cults that seeks an end to Humanity as
we know it, are condemning themselves to it.
This vile intolerance, mindless and hateful, is based on a frightening
ignorance about the world and a woeful misinterpretation of what America stands
for and the values that I believe thinking, reasonable, tolerant Humans of any
faith professed and lived by.
By their words and blind, ignorant hate, these people are
aiding and abetting a group of animal-like killers who want, more than
anything, an apocalyptic war between people who all are simply trying to live
decent, good lives, acting each day - as best they can (and if course they stumble
and make mistakes; they are, we ALL are, only Human) - in concert with values
that are universal: be honest, be fair,
respect others as you want to be respected, do your best, be a good neighbor,
take care of your family.
So, please, let's think this through. Let's be true to what it is to be American
and good neighbors.
I do agree with some of the reasoned criticism of some
(the Gulf states for instance) that they are not doing enough to rid the planet
of this terrible threat to all of us. We
need that conversation and we need leaders like the highly respected head of
Indonesia's largest Muslim organization who has unequivocally spoken out
against those poison-spewing maniacs who are killing tens of thousands of
peaceful people in Syria and Iraq and inspiring other soulless un-Humans to
kill more in so many other countries.
The horrors that Boko Haram has perpetrated are as disgusting as those
of the thuggish killers in Iraq and Syria.
And, lest we forget, recall, please, the horrific acts of
madmen done in the name of Jesus. Even
Buddhists spawn their own un-Human criminals - ask the thousands of widowed,
orphaned and homeless Rohinga.
After 9/11 I recall feeling a deep aversion to all
'emotion' based religion - Christianity, Islam and Judaism principally. I found it unthinkable that anyone aspiring to be considered Human could
do anything like drive an airplane full of innocent fellow Humans into a
building filled with even more innocent fellow Humans unless he/she had somehow
disconnected from the complex process of making Human decisions using the twin
tools of mature emotion and ratiocination.
I believe David Koresh was as un-Human as the un-Humans who carried out
the 9/11 attacks.
So, I retreated to Aristotle. Somehow, I felt, we Western Humans had
abandoned the roots of our own civilization, over two thousand years ago. Perhaps the same thing had occurred in other
parts of the Human global community and their roots too had been abandoned?
I distill Aristotle's views in how to be Human very
simply. The highest Human aspiration
must be justice from which comes real happiness. And what is real happiness? That's simple - it comes from making your
family safe, free from fear and want.
But to achieve that safety is a bit complex- you have to be Human to
understand and achieve it. If my family is free from want, that's only half of
the equation, the other critical element in their happiness is freedom from
fear. Now, if my family has enough but
my neighbor doesn't, then we will fear him because he may try to take from me
to give to his family. If he succeeds,
I'll try to take from him and so on and so on.
Ignorance feeds this cycle. I may
not know my neighbor or his condition and we instinctively fear what we don't
know. For my family to be safe and,
therefore happy, my neighbor and his family must be free from want and
fear. When both my neighbor and his
family and my family and I are all free from want and fear, we will have
achieved justice and that is, to me, what Aristotle thought defined
happiness.
From this simple Human equation I derive the notion that
education is the catalyst that makes the whole thing work. Educate yourself and fight for education for
all of Humanity.
So, know your neighbor, know about your neighbor, help
your neighbor, be generous. In a just
and happy society (or one that aspires to be that way and isn't that the case
for all Human societies?) these are actions that are ultimately in your own
self-interest. We imperfect Humans
strive for simple, common freedoms whether we are Christian, Muslim, Hindu,
Atheist, all of us: a just society where our families will be free from want
and fear. Stop trying to demonize our
fellow, imperfect Humans, Hindu, Muslim, Jew, Christian, Taoist, non-believer,
whatever. Fight those un-Human
terrorists who are the common enemy of all Humanity.
