Hate strikes again! In New Zealand/Aotearoa of all places. The whole country has less than ten gun-related murders a year; only 35 murders in the whole of 2018.
Then in a single afternoon, 50 people dead. Another 40 or so injured, some requiring amputations to save their lives. And hundreds who will suffer post-traumatic stress for months.
Just because they were Muslims, worshipping at two mosques in the city of Christchurch.
As I write these sentences, one suspect has been arrested – 26-year-old Brenton Tarrant.
Assuming he’s found guilty, he joins an exclusive club.
Tarrant wrote the name of Alexandre Bissonette, the Canadian who killed eight Muslims in a mosque in Quebec City two years ago, on one of his rapid-fire rifles.
The club would include 46-year-old Robert Gregory Bowers, who stormed the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh four months ago killing 11 Jews.
And Baruch Goldstein, a member of the Israeli army reserves, who killed 29 Muslims praying in the Cave of the Patriarchs, a site sacred to both Judaism and Islam, in 1994.
And perhaps the worst massacre of all – short of the Nazi Holocaust – in 1974, when some 1,500 Moro Muslims were rounded up by the Philippine army and murdered in a mosque in the village of Malisbong.
Danger from the right
In a 74-page manifesto, Tarrant declared himself to be a right-wing white supremacist. I’m almost grateful to him for being honest. I’ve long argued that the primary threat to peace does not come from left-wing radicals, but from the far right. Even the FBI, long obsessed with Joe McCarthy’s anti-communist paranoia, now admits that fact.
But New Zealand police seem still to be obsessed with the wrong danger. Tarrant was not on their watch list, they admitted. Of course not. Because he’s a loner. There’s no shadowy organization pulling his strings.
Like all right-wing extremists, Tarrant believes in individual action.. The far right do not trust any government, or group, to fix things for them. It’s the “left” – commonly labelled communism or socialism – that believes in collective action.
No “them” any more
But in hate crimes, “left” and “right” are misleading labels. Because the common factor linking these killings has little to do with politics. It’s a mental attitude, a mindset, a conviction, almost a theological belief. It sees everything as an “us versus them” issue.
The fanatics see themselves standing against, well, against almost anything that they don’t like, don’t trust, and can’t identify with.
In such a context, if I am right, then “they” must be wrong.
It does not good to denounce the killers as “crazy hateful people” – the words of Rabbi Hertzman of Pittsburgh. Or to call them, as Donald Trump did, “a small group of people that have very, very serious problems, I guess.”
Because the underlying cause is a mindset – not a political system or a social organization – it can’t be controlled by greater surveillance. Or more police. Or political platitudes, no matter how sincerely uttered.
The only solution is a new and different mindset. Which needs to be promoted as vigorously as Christian evangelists used to go hunting for souls.
A new way of thinking
Almost a century ago, German philosopher Martin Buber defined this mindset in an essay called Ich und Du– I and Thou,in the English translation.
Too many people, Buber theorized, see other people as objects. They deal with the cashier in the grocery store, the black kid wandering down the middle of the street, the homeless body in the doorway, as an “it”. A thing of no consequence
Buber argued that we should treat other people as a “thou” – a person with whom I can have a relationship. (Since no one uses “thou” anymore, except in traditional prayers, it would be an “I-you” relationship today.) This approach affirms that you are just as much a person as I am, even if you hold different religious beliefs. Or different political loyalties. Or different coloured skin.
Personally, I’m no longer convinced that Buber’s thesis is enough. We have now seen this planet from deep space. On this “small blue marble” life is limited to a thin layer a few kilometres thick, called the biosphere.
It’s in danger. So are we, and everything that lives in that biosphere.
And so it is not enough, any longer, simply to apply the “thou” only to other humans. We need a one-to-one relationship with every living thing, from microbes to forests.
Buber’s “I-thou” principle would be a good start. But it needs to go on, to “I-we.”
There is no “them” anymore.
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Copyright © 2019 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups encouraged; links from other blogs welcomed; all other rights reserved.
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YOUR TURN
Apparently my analysis of the political situation in Venezuela. “Your column today about Venezuela, I thought, was especially on the point,” Jean McCord wrote. “I now live in Ecuador and of course there are thousands of Venezolanos who have fled here. Plus, I’ve studied enough to know that U.S. policies protecting U.S. interests are why much of the world, including Central and South America, is in a mess.”
Steve Roney didn’t agree with Jean, or me. Part of his letter said, “You could argue that it was a mistake to overthrow Ghadafi. You could argue that foreign powers had something to do with it. But you could also argue that the real problem here was the lack of foreign intervention, that the foreigners never sent in troops to restore order, but left matters to sort out themselves.”
Steve challenged my line: “Among the U.N.’s 193 member states, 65 endorse Guaido; the remainder continue to recognize Maduro, or take no stand.”
“This is technically true,” Steve replied, “but seems to overstate Maduro’s international support. The proper comparison is states that recognize Guaido as president versus states that recognize Maduro -- Guaido 52, Maduro 22. Twelve more states officially recognize the National Assembly as the legitimate government, but without naming Guaido. Other states take a variety of stands, rather than no stand.”
Fran Ota tossed in some additional regime change recollections: “I read recently that the reports of Assad using poison gas were faked. And also in Syria, the US Government funds and supports one side, the CIA the other.
“Then there’s Iran and Mossadegh/Shah Reza Pahlavi/the mullahs. Iran was a Democratic Socialist country with a bright future....not to mention lots of oil, and a plan to nationalize their oil industry. Till it was destabilized in the ‘50s.
“Then there was Viet Nam. The Diem-Thieu farce. Thieu was not quite as repressive as Pinochet, but close. Remember Gulf of Tonkin? Word on the street in Saigon was that three oil companies were angling for drilling rights, looking for oil. Don’t think there was any there, though.
“All these events in which the US was involved were ‘false flag’.”
Bob Rollwagen tied the bullying colun, tw weeks ago, to the massacre in New Zealand: “Tribalism. My tribe first. It is the best. It is the biggest. It is the smartest. It was the first one here. It is the tallest. It goes on and on.
“I understood how one of your respondents suggested that some bullies might hide behind a pink shirt. This is similar to how some justify gun ownership to personal safety. As the USA builds its walls higher, the bullies move to easier targets like New Zealand. You can’t build the wall high enough to keep out hate that grows from within. Which tribe will speak out next because they feel their culture, wealth, language, tradition, religious priorities or even historical rights are more significant than those of another tribe?
“I was born here. Generally, I identify with those that have arrived by any means since then. I don’t question their life as long as they respect that the life of any other individual is equal to theirs. Love life, share knowledge, govern for the benefit of all.”
I’ll give Scott Parsons the last word: “Thanks for your historical musings on regime changes.”
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TECHNICAL STUFF
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PROMOTION STUFF…
To use the links in this section, you’ll have to insert the necessary symbols. (This is to circumvent filters that think too many links constitute spam.)
Ralph Milton’s latest project is a kind of Festival of Faith, a retelling of key biblical stories by skilled storytellers like Linnea Good and Donald Schmidt, designed to get people talking about their own faith experience. It’s a series of videos available on Youtube. I suggest you start with his introductory section: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u6qRclYAa8
Ralph’s “Sing Hallelujah” -- the world’s first video hymnal -- is still available. It consists of 100 popular hymns, both new and old, on five DVDs that can be played using a standard DVD player and TV screen, for use in congregations who lack skilled musicians to play piano or organ. More details at wwwDOTsinghallelujahDOTca
Wayne Irwin's “Churchweb Canada,” an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. <http://wwwDOTchurchwebcanadaDOTca>
I recommend Isabel Gibson’s thoughtful and well-written blog, wwwDOTtraditionaliconoclastDOTcom
Alva Wood’s satiric stories about incompetent bureaucrats and prejudiced attitudes in a small town -- not particularly religious, but fun; alvawoodATgmailDOTcom to get onto her mailing list.
Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” -- ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at tomwatsoATgmailDOTcom or twatsonATsentexDOTnet