I keep experiencing strange things. In some people, I discover totally unexpected character traits. It used to hurt. By now, I know that this is perfectly normal and I try to deal with it in a constructive manner.
It is an experience I also had with people I find really nice: cherished friends, good colleagues, reliable partners, esteemed teachers and honoured bosses. We are talking people I knew for a long time and appreciated. People who were prudent and friendly in everyday life, people who talked sense and integrated behaviour. People who were obliging and helpful.
And then, all of a sudden, everything is gone. All it takes are a few words like foreigner, Islam, terrorism, alienation, plebiscite or gypsy.
Sensitive topics like these can change the mood in the blink of an eye. Before you realize what hit you, the discussion goes down the drain. People who, a moment ago, were quite open-minded suddenly are no longer capable of listening to rational arguments. And unless I hurry to retreat cautiously, I can easily be in the middle of a bitter dispute.
Those are the times when I experience how a demonstration of tolerance can turn into active intolerance. I can actually sense the willingness to accept conspiracy theories and nurture irrational worries. Common dangers are inflated, alien cultures and religions are felt as threats. Xenophobia prevails (Xenophobie).
The positive concept of the world you just agreed on suddenly turns negative, the person sitting opposite draws back both from you and humanity on the whole and withdraws the trustfulness he just assured you of minutes ago.
Instead of trust, there is suddenly mistrust, the craving for freedom is sacrificed for the demand for authority to please, make matters right! The cry for better rewards and, above all, harsher punishment is heard.
Enlightened views are beaten by (populistisch) theses. Widely feared positions are spontaneously and emotionally copied. Social empathy makes room for asocial hatred, the humane attitude just lived a moment ago turns into enmity.
And the place where you just felt a moment ago you could unfold in the positive sense is now a threatening anti-place of suppression. The next thing you hear is the cry for Law&Order, along with the death penalty …
That gives me pause. And I discover that fear and enmity are probably part of being human. And again, I feel how very much we must strive on a daily basis to answer to fear with courage, to enmity with humane sympathy and to hatred with love. And that we have to use all our strength for fighting cowardice and showing civil courage.
After all, don’t we all want a little more delight and less frustration, both in our private and social lives? That is something we should simply admit to, instead of trying to run from it.
RMD
(Translated by EG)
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