The more I think about the racism issue the more I think that what’s at the heart of it is exclusivity. As long as we remain wedded to exclusivity as a mode we will always have systems which conspire to separate people. Racism is the darker part of separation. Exclusivity and separation go together. In our society we are exclusive at every quarter - in personal and professional relationships, in families and marriages, in work, in the legal system and contracts, in politics and religion. Everywhere there are barriers to connection. There are very few areas in our world where participation isn’t heavily censored.
This is so prevalent it is almost endemic. Helped along by individualistic, technology-driven culture it is leading to a state of atomism where increasingly people are bound up in their own cell-like existence less connected, less involved, less caring with respect to what goes on in other lives. It is the antithesis of an inclusive world where people are integrated. It is far from the open-door society where knowledge and information as well as goods are shared.
As an attempt to keep out rather than welcome in, exclusivity is the insidious root of the racism problem. Racism easily follows from it in the sense that it is another one of the many areas of life where people are willfully kept apart. Looked at this way, exclusivity is a kind of social apartheid. To exclude based on ethnic history has become a cause for reprimand. To do it as a matter of course in common exchange is a regular occurrence and happily regarded as the acceptable way of things.
And yet, it has to be said there are good reasons why we are keen to establish boundaries. The down side of humanity may be a fixed reality, something given that we have to work with. That would be all the bad acts, the stupidity, the greed, the corruption, the deviancy, the wickedness, the criminality, the almost unspeakable evil that at times has been visited upon humans by other humans. If these are a given then protection is required. People have to insure themselves from that down side, from the minor transgressions to the most heinous crimes. It’s not surprising they should be careful of congress and quick to create divisions.
In that case I think it comes back to this: that if individuals across the board could live to a standard of ethics and behavior that took into consideration the interests and the feelings of others then quality of life would improve immeasurably. People and their associated groups would feel less need to segregate. In a world like this compassion would be the primary value. The concerns of others would take precedence over personal selfishness. This is the simplicity in the Christian philosophy. It was also the essence of the Marxian message.
If we have to erect barriers and restrict participation let it only be sometimes; lets not have it become a modus vivendi. Instead of upholding exclusivity as a virtue thereby elevating its place in consciousness, better we should treat it a as a necessary requirement, not something particularly admired, just something we need to do, but only minimally, not at every turn till it becomes a corner-stone. Until we learn to connect better and not succumb to a world of infinite divisions we will forever stunt our potential at least; at worst the horrors of racism, ethnic cleansing and war will continue to haunt existence.
This is so prevalent it is almost endemic. Helped along by individualistic, technology-driven culture it is leading to a state of atomism where increasingly people are bound up in their own cell-like existence less connected, less involved, less caring with respect to what goes on in other lives. It is the antithesis of an inclusive world where people are integrated. It is far from the open-door society where knowledge and information as well as goods are shared.
As an attempt to keep out rather than welcome in, exclusivity is the insidious root of the racism problem. Racism easily follows from it in the sense that it is another one of the many areas of life where people are willfully kept apart. Looked at this way, exclusivity is a kind of social apartheid. To exclude based on ethnic history has become a cause for reprimand. To do it as a matter of course in common exchange is a regular occurrence and happily regarded as the acceptable way of things.
And yet, it has to be said there are good reasons why we are keen to establish boundaries. The down side of humanity may be a fixed reality, something given that we have to work with. That would be all the bad acts, the stupidity, the greed, the corruption, the deviancy, the wickedness, the criminality, the almost unspeakable evil that at times has been visited upon humans by other humans. If these are a given then protection is required. People have to insure themselves from that down side, from the minor transgressions to the most heinous crimes. It’s not surprising they should be careful of congress and quick to create divisions.
In that case I think it comes back to this: that if individuals across the board could live to a standard of ethics and behavior that took into consideration the interests and the feelings of others then quality of life would improve immeasurably. People and their associated groups would feel less need to segregate. In a world like this compassion would be the primary value. The concerns of others would take precedence over personal selfishness. This is the simplicity in the Christian philosophy. It was also the essence of the Marxian message.
If we have to erect barriers and restrict participation let it only be sometimes; lets not have it become a modus vivendi. Instead of upholding exclusivity as a virtue thereby elevating its place in consciousness, better we should treat it a as a necessary requirement, not something particularly admired, just something we need to do, but only minimally, not at every turn till it becomes a corner-stone. Until we learn to connect better and not succumb to a world of infinite divisions we will forever stunt our potential at least; at worst the horrors of racism, ethnic cleansing and war will continue to haunt existence.
