The World
Always tries to push us stereotypes. Stereotypes to tell us who is smart,
stereotype to tell us who is cool. Of course you can have a general idea of
what kind of people you think is cool, but stereotypes are external
appearances, superficial judgements.
Even our political views are
dominated by stereotypes inherited from last century, when there was a war
against the communists and the capitalists. A lot of people divide humanity in
two kinds: the revolutionary, who believes “the people” can take all the
political power and rule it with iron hands in favour of the poor, and the hard
working meritocrat, who believe that the increasing of production will
automatically solve everything.
But in the new times we are living,
this black and white division in two sides is kept alive just because we got
used to it, not because it makes a lot of sense. A good example to think about
is China. Is it communist or capitalist? It’s capitalist to make money and
communist to control people.
China shouldn’t be supported by our
“left wing” people, because it exploits the workers as much as it can driven by
profit alone. And shouldn’t be supported by our “right wing” people, because it
suppresses a lot of individual freedoms that right wing people use to say they
defend. Even individual meritocracy. Or don’t you think the owners of the most
profitable factories are friends with the top guys of the Communist Party? Yes,
China is still ruled by the Communist Party.
So you see, we look around and judge
our neighbours based on a two-side stereotype and don’t stop to think if it
even applies to the World. We don’t stop to think about the strange alliances,
the strange things that happen in the Globe.
Russia
makes a lot of business with capitalists in the world, and it’s ruled by an
ex-KGB agent – KGB was the Soviet Secret Service, communist – that have good
friendship with far-right leaders. The Arab States are far from communist, they
are profit-driven tyrannies.
And
Russia, a lot of Arab States, together with China and North Korea, are in a
kind of Alliance against the Western Countries, dividing the World, yes, but
with a criterium that is dictatorships versus democracies, and not simply state
versus production.
Something
is indeed happening in the World. The Iranian authorities – Iran has a Supreme
Leader, is perhaps the most prominent of the Arab theocracies – are making no
secret that they don’t like the West. They openly consider not only Israel, but
also America, as mortal enemies.
Of
course is not simply about America. It’s a set of values that they want to
fight against. Democracy, individual freedoms. Freedom of speech, woman rights,
the value of the Constitution of a Country, that can’t simply be ignored by the
leaders.
I
think people in the West should take a stand against this plan of Iran. The
leftist people definitely can’t support the end of all rights that people
conquered. They must answer: when they support Arab dictators, are they saying
that the fate of gays in this countries is to be killed, and woman to be killed
if they don’t “walk the line”? Is it Forever, or do they think these extremist
will have a victory against the western capitalist oppressors, and then one day
be substituted by a lighter version? If so, tell it to them.
And
right wing people, people who believe in work and production, can’t support
these guys either. Can’t support people who want the death of America. Or
Israel.
After
the Jews gave us the idea that all true morals come from the same Singular
Source of All Goodness, laying the foundations for our best moral principles –
and after devoted, idealistic moderate, spiritualized individualists gave us
the foundations for all the Science that support our industries – are we going
to play Vikings to our friends, turn a blind eye to dictatorships, and support
Israel only to the extend that it doesn’t get it the way of that business trip
to Dubai?
Of
course I know that the world of production has a lot of challenges and I am not
saying that it should commit any idealistic suicide, but think. Just as it is
not in the best interest of the Industry of a free country, in the long term,
to have business with people who use slave or semi-slave labour, it’s also not
in it’s best interest to ignore when foreign billionaires fund revolutionary
organizations, colleges and politicians in the West.
We
must give signs that there are values that the Western World will always
defend. One of the most basic is the self-determination of our Democratic
States. Our States must be respected.
Right
after the current War between Israel and Hamas started – it started with a
diabolic attack from Hamas – the Chinese version of Google Maps erased Israel.
For a while, it showed the cities but no indication of a Country called Israel.
I don’t know how it is now. If they can “erase” a Country, they are definitely
saying they won’t respect any of our institutions.
It
seems that in the Chinese Communist Party there has been long “philosophic”
discussions about “institutions” and “constitution”, coming to the “conclusion”
that both can definitely be overlooked if it is in the interest of “the
people”. So instead of respecting laws that we inherited from past struggles,
we simply choose what kind of people represent “the People”, and then they can
do anything.
Of
course institutions – and constitutions can evolve – but they are
crystallizations of agreements. To give a basic example: we don’t have to
discuss, at every generation, if it is acceptable to kill someone just because
you don’t like him. Past generations spared us of that, they agreed on the
subject and passed it to us in form of law. Law can evolve – with new
agreements.
Otherwise
it’s just “I know what is best for everybody so I can do whatever I want”.
These laws and institutions keep our society minimally stable so we can work
and try to live in peace. When right wing people that refers to themselves as
“conservatives” attack basic institutions of Western Countries, I don’t think
the dictators of the World, who want our ruin, are lamenting.
It’s
thinking, discussing the we can, inside the institutions, like the institution
of a Democratic State, change things, have new ideas, try to make life better.
Maybe what these tyrants want is not something new, on the contrary. They are
trying to preserve the old domination of few over the rest, they want to
protect the old tyrannical ways from the winds of freedom.
There
are good and bad things going on in the Democratic Countries, but in a perfect
Dictatorship that is only one thing going on: the desire of the masters. Maybe
they fear that if Democracy succeeds, their people will want it. When America
got out of Afghanistan, and the Taleban was ready to take the power again, a
boy, who was born when the American were there, died tried to get inside an
airplane to escape, because he wanted to be a Soccer player and he knew his
dream was going to die, all his dreams of freedom would die, under the Taleban.
I think of that boy often.
But
what is the relation between institutions and freedom? Aren’t they opposite? I
don’t think so. Institutions should stablish respect, the ways a person can’t
interfere with another. Law should say what kind of interference is acceptable and
what is not. Like, “I’ll jump that fence if you are spanking someone in your house,
but I know your love life is not my business”.
It’s
not about the stereotypes of last century, left and right. It’s about Freedom,
that is the stand we should take. Do we want the people who live under
dictatorships to think we would like to share freedom with them or replace
their tyrants with some other kind of tyrants? What is the opposite of throwing
homosexuals from a roof? Just say “these people who practice these abominations
can be accepted if they become like us”? Or is it full respect, the same rights
for everybody? We should think about it.
Right
now, there are more than a hundred people who were kidnaped in that diabolic
attack – some are pacifists, some are students, young people with dreams,
fathers, normal people – even children - are still being held hostage by Hamas.
They
were kidnaped by a group that dominates Gaza and believes in violence as the
only way to achieve any goal, that believes democracy is a Western lie, that
people must bend to strict religious laws, and to their leaders, or die.
A
negotiation for the release of the hostages is going on right now. How aren’t
we all screaming that we need them home now?
