Excerpt from Current Project

What follows is an excerpt from a project I am currently writing.  This excerpt starts towards the end of the first section.

…After careful consideration of the arguments presented, I felt comfortable discounting socialism as a viable option for a successful society.  I did, however, learn to respect the views and opinions of men like Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, as by extensively reading their works I understood they were men of good intentions, but who also lacked the capacity to consider the side effects of their visions.

Still, it amazed me to see people so steadfastly holding to their opinions as to wish death upon those who saw the same facts in a different light.  Soon, I came to conclude that they, in this nation, were no different than those who attacked us on September 11, 2001; that they were so filled with hatred for any others that they were, instead of intending to change morals and ethics through reasoning and logic, explanation and compassion, were ready to do so with the tip of a sword, or the barrel of a gun.

I came to view this intense hatred with the same caution I approached Middle East terrorism with.  Either way, such a powerful emotional drive would never sustain peace, and would never seek to delve into the deeper realities around us, instead focusing on the superficial and easily identified “problems” so often referenced.  Such stances clearly violate the most basic and intrinsic right placed upon humans: the right to life and liberty.

This hatred, however, appears most often to stem from fear.

I thought about people hating certain individuals, but realized that it came from a fear of being associated with that person, or of what that person might do, or has done, a fear of neglect, abuse, or of something deeper.  The fear turns to anger, the anger as a means by which to justify the fear, and the anger leads to hatred.

I thought of incidents of road rage, someone cutting someone else off, and the anger that ensues, and sure enough, that’s directly related to fear as well… a fear of a crash and the consequences of that crash.

I thought of profiling.  Why does racism exist?  Fear.  A fear of the other races taking control, or taking jobs, or intermingling or any number of other concerns.  Why are there so many people, for example, who hate Mexicans?  They fear they will lose their jobs, or will have to pay higher taxes, or will have drug cartels running their streets.  Why do people hate Muslims?  Because they fear all Muslims are terrorists.

Now, this fear and hatred of individuals does have its place within society.  We fear, are angered by, and hate rapists and murderers, for instance.  We fear being raped, murdered, or having our property stolen.  We grow angry with those who do those things, and hate those acts.  This is for our own survival.  To cast away those given individuals who violate our rights is a means by which we protect our rights.

The problem with fear, anger and hatred is not related to individuals violating our rights.  It is when we transcribe that fear, anger and hatred from one individual within a group to the entire group itself.  The moment we make such broad, sweeping judgments is the moment we, in order to “protect” and “defend” our freedoms create acts that go so far as to take away our freedoms and rights.

We created the Patriot Act out of fear, anger and hatred.  And it was allowed to be done because people feared another attack, were angry with those who attacked us, and hated the entire group that minority associated with.

This is why it is vital that anytime we create law it must be in such a way as to apply and be intended for all persons equally.  It must not target a specific segment of society.  We cannot create laws that allow ownership of certain individuals without creating a precedent that could expand to allowing ownership of any individual, as an example.  With this in mind, the creation of any law becomes difficult except when it protects and defends the rights of individuals from being violated by other individuals or by government.

In other words: we must take great care not to create precedents which might lead to unintended negative consequences down the road.

Thus, we see that the outlawing of killing others outside of self defense or defense of others is clearly a good thing to do, as the illegality of murder protects and defends the right to life of individuals from other individuals and from governments and government agents.

However, we can see that the creation of anti-terrorism laws targeted at specific groups (Muslims, for example) allow the government the ability to classify all Muslims as terrorists, and as such create a precedent where-by the government can now label entire groups of people as enemies of the government even if only one person within that group is.  Today Muslims, tomorrow may be your religion: Protestants, Catholic, atheists, agnostics, Jews, Hindus, etc., thus allowing the violating of individual rights.

This is why it is vital that our elected officials and our populace not succumb to fear of entire groups of people.  We must not become a nation of fear, less we become slaves to hatred.