Bigotry Is Only a Symptom of the Actual Disease
Sometimes it seems like there’s an invisible force that swoops in and brings about hate and distrust in one group of people against another—some kind of philosophical influenza that spreads through a group and infects their point of view about another group, bringing about a deterioration in the sense of brotherhood between them. They are getting along, creating their lives and interacting with each other and then slowly a social infection starts to set in. Rather than discussion and a recognition of how similar they are, faults are pointed out and distrust is the new norm. Eventually the relationship can become so diseased and putrid these two groups may erupt into violence against each other. Or, in the case where one group is much larger, it will simply oppress the other group. In either case, the intent and result are and will be the same: conflict, hatred and an inability to achieve peace.
You can trace the path of this invisible force, this social disease, backwards to its source and it becomes more visible when one looks at it through the lens that all people are created equal and each have human rights. If you take a look at any large-scale conflict and apply the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to both sides, you will see plenty of violations. But prior to the violations there was something that changed the social health, the cooperation and sense of brotherhood between these two peoples.
You have to remove the rights of the other person before you can humiliate, degrade and then attack them. If you don’t, you will be seen as cruel and your actions unjustified.
Human rights are something you create for yourself. They are not bequeathed to you from a higher power (other than the creator, depending on your personal beliefs) and they are certainly NOT granted to you by a government or a TV show. These are only elements that can take them away.
Only when the people of the world are truly educated on human rights and have their own unshakable understanding of them will they be able to apply them when they need to be applied most: when events are unfolding—not days, weeks or years later.
But these violations are only a symptom of the disease and not the cause. You can treat the symptom forever and never actually stop the spread of the disease.
So what is this disease, this invisible force?
It is the actions taken by some individual or group—the fingers used to smudge and blur the line between right and wrong. They make it appear that one group is undeserving of their human rights. It is really a kind of Jedi mind trick: “these rights do not apply to them.”
Through the use of fake news, innuendo, outright lies, subversive “journalism” or, as it is known in media circles, black propaganda, the author will create an atmosphere of fear and distrust and then try to build on that fear, steering and driving it into actions of overt hatred.
But make no mistake: what the disease is attacking is the human rights of the group or individual it has targeted. You have to remove the rights of the other person before you can humiliate, degrade and then attack them. If you don’t, you will be seen as cruel and your actions unjustified.
But, more precisely, the invisible force is “a generality.” L. Ron Hubbard writes about how generalities affect people when they are thrown around. As an example, a generality can begin with the phrase “everyone knows” giving one the impression that the idea is widely agreed upon.
This is the germ that starts the infection—this is the first disruption of normal social interaction between two groups.
“It happens all the time” and “everyone has seen it” suggest there are a lot of other sources. “Confidential sources” or even better “confidential sources whose identity we must hide for their own protection” are particularly nasty ones, but even something as simple as “we” or “all the people I talk to” gives the listener the sense that he is up against a large group. This is worth a serious study. It can be quite a relief when you ask who “we” and “everyone” is and discover “they” boil down to just one person. This is the germ that starts the infection—this is the first disruption of normal social interaction between two groups.
Leah Remini uses generalities quite liberally when attacking my human rights. Since her show was a Disney creation and pure fantasy, I call her “Queen Hate-a-Lot” from the land of Bigotree.
If you, the reader, understand that I have a right, a basic human right—not a law, not a referendum, not “permission,” but a right, the same as you—to practice my religion without threat or harassment, I think you will see the actions of bigots like Remini as nothing more than what they truly are: an attempt to use generalities to give you the feeling that I do not deserve my human rights. Queen Hate-a-Lot is using the invisible force, attempting to proclaim: “No rights for these people.” She is saying: “It is understandable if you act violently against them because they do not have the same rights as you or me. Go, my children, hate openly and with purpose.”
Let’s not be like Europe of the 1930s when they wondered what was right or wrong about the actions of the German Nazi party. Let’s instead understand everyone’s inherent human rights. And let’s call out the invisible force and bring an end to the disease of social conflict that follows it.
Its only power lies in the fact that we have not made it visible.
