Antisemitism is an “easy” expression of general xenophobia, apparently inherent in the human psyche.
It is easy because it focuses on an easy target – a small minority – with easily misrepresentable differences – who far prefer debates to violence – with a history of being systematically demonised by institutions like the Roman Catholic church (so all your source materials for hateful libels are just a click away) – who are used to being strangers in a strange land, and mostly trying to just blend into the background to quietly survive in peace.
It is general because given enough pressure/”reason”/ self-justification and lack of enough maintenance of general order, given a large enough human population, one group will gang up on others. History is almost entirely composed of examples of conflict between groups of humans where the price far outweighs the prize (other than self-defence and survival).
Humans are all distrustful of the unknown to some degree. It is simply a survival trait. There are also large doses of natural selfishness/self-interest, as well as general laziness to get more for less effort.
These are all natural and born from the need to survive yourself before you can help anyone else, including having to defend yourself/family/group/tribe/clan from other humans, and to accomplish more in one day hunting and gathering, and would have even helped lead to wide-spread agriculture and animal husbandry.
Humans gang up on others who are different – these days most often through bad leadership – because most are too lazy to lead – and most seem too lazy to build for themselves (for various reasons).
The general laziness makes it easy for most people to be led. Its just the path of least resistance, just as it is to blame others for your own situation and perceptions of powerlessness. i.e. “Ancient Aliens” the television program gets high enough ratings to chase actual history off the so-called “history channel”, yet the logical errors in the arguments are so glaringly obvious (there is no proof there were not aliens at the last supper) that you have to wonder about those ratings. It can only be amusing for so long. This is why “the mob” is dangerous, and one large inherent weakness in democracy, still the best governance structure we’ve come up with so far, but also still the model that killed Socrates – a very instructional story. It’s also the reason you need a Pearl Harbor type event to force enough people to see those who want to kill them just for being different – out of sight, out of mind.
A bad leader is one who blames others and/or the past for his or her own failures and lack of vision. They are easy to spot once you know this definition. A good leader is not necessarily a clever, wise, or successful leader – those are different definitions – but a good leader inspires and provides a vision for the group.
It is also easier to be a bad leader than a good leader; if your true goal is self-enrichment (self-interest) then the path doesn’t matter and its simply easier to raise hateful motivation rather than inspiration.
For every successful leader, there are many who failed, so even the successful bad leaders have some smarts, and use them to lead people with words that sound good but have little substance, i.e. Neville Chamberlain, Barak Obama, Robert Mugabe, David Koresh, TB Joshua (it’s a long list). Some of these leaders run out of ideas and resort to violence to maintain order, as just happened in South Africa 15 days ago, when it slid into dictatorship – by its own constitutional definition (the ruling party used police inside parliament to evict other parliamentarians). Many exploit cultural or religious norms, beliefs and fears, coupled with the elements of human nature, to create powerful self-promoting narratives.
The last independent Jewish state existed thousands of years ago under very different social circumstances – where the dominant empire subjugated everybody who was different – they got away with it until a stronger army killed, looted and destroyed them – or they slowly decayed through the general laziness that lack of competition brings, to the point where other armies were stronger than them. It was not xenophobia then – it was pragmatism. If everyone fears others for being different, you believing differently will not change the global reality. Indeed, at that time, if you did not have powerful reasons to maintain the integrity of your group (survival), it would simply disappear in time.
Humans only fixed permanent borders (nominally) with the League of Nations in the last 200 years, and even then with a large amount of expediency, which still haunts many locations around the world. The concepts of human rights and respect (BOTH WAYS) for each other are not exactly universally established, and never have been. Calling them “universal” is simply an expression of aspiration. Hundreds of indigenous groups do not govern themselves on land they inhabited for thousands of years – they are still dispossessed and treated as less than others – often the same others who are going doe-eyed over human rights concepts (in name only). That is reality – but we like to think “how could that happen in 2015?!!!”. Actually… why do you expect this year to be different from all those other tens of thousands of years?
Given the above on human nature and leadership, current regrettable events are not really surprising to those who pay attention to how things really are, as opposed to those who believe things happen everywhere as they wish they would.
Finally, to counter the all-too-familiar refrain of blaming Jews for antisemitism… would you also blame the raped for wearing a miniskirt? Is it the bullied’s fault for the bully’s actions? Is it Jews’ fault when idiots suffer from tall-poppy syndrome or fear-of-difference due to their own insecurity?
When I see poor South Africans attacking poor refugee Somalis simply because their own government keeps blaming others for their own incompetence (including border control, ironically), and then try to justify their behaviour (we burned him to death because he was taking our jobs), you see another example of exactly the same thing. One must always remember that any person claiming offensive violence as their only option is a pathetic incompetent who is dangerous to ignore.
I am certainly NOT arguing that we should accept xenophobia nor antisemitism. We MUST strive to better ourselves and raise our standards as a species. Standing still is the same as dying, after all.
What I am attempting to convey is that we should not be surprised by it – all this fear and hatred. Rather, we have no choice but to understand it in as much detail as possible, as that is the only way to even have a chance to properly deal with it.
David M.K. is a proud Jew and Zionist from South Africa. He is a systems analyst and designer, logician, and a part-time writer and composer, who was stirred into action by the vile 1930’s-style hatred which emerged during and since the last Gaza conflict. He believes that the truth shall set you free, and in the obligations to defend your people and be a light unto the world.
