“Otherness” as a Cause of War
It is a simple fact of life that every person is different from every other person, and sociable people will say “Vive la difference”, and explore the riches of our diversity. On the other hand, when politicians and influencers begin to talk about differences as fundamental and threatening, differences can be made to problematic.
Casting another social group as inferior, threatening, or unacceptable is the stock in trade of the populist politician, that is, one who uses emotional language to stir up popular feeling.
Populists use the universal psychological defence mechanism of “projection”, where unwanted qualities within the person are projected onto another group – their “scapegoats”.
Skin colour is an obvious cause of the misperception of otherness, but any other characteristic can be seized on and weaponised. Hitler’s Nazis did it to the Jews, and 6 million died (along with Communists, Romanies and political opponents) in his concentration camps. The Hutus did it to the Tutsis in the Rwandan genocide of 1994. The peoples of Yugoslavia turned on each other on ethnic lines in the 1990s. Ethnic differences are a major factor in 6 of the 21 wars burning in 2026. Religious differences are involved in 9 of the 21, and it is only three decades since Protestant and Catholic British citizens stopped killing each other over religious differences.
Therefore we should be very suspicious of politicians who focus on a particular group, such as migrants, as the root cause of all the problems in society.
Overcoming otherness
How can we overcome the problem of Otherness? Accurate education is vital – which means overcoming the misinformation which feeds the feelings and beliefs of the populists’ followers. Close to this is to encourage contact – share events, taking meals together – between different groups.
Finding shared goals, such as working together to remove litter and to renew the paintwork of the street can be helpful. The shared goal is a powerful unifying force – Chelsea and Arsenal supporters cheer at the same time when England scores against Germany, and Russian, Chinese and US armies would collaborate if Earth were to be attacked by aliens from the planet Zog.
Shared Goal Disallowed
Would that it were as simple as an attack by aliens. The fact is that our quality of life is under threat from climate change, and this should make us all cooperate in a shared goal of decarbonising our economies. Unfortunately this cooperation is at present frustrated by the fossil fuel corporations who are using their immense wealth to but politicians and influencers to shed doubt on the findings of climate science in a sizeable minority of the population.
A More Peaceful World 