Rehumanize

It's never too late or too soon to humanize our foes

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I can listen to a podcast and ruminate about a happenstance and then a salient insight comes up and ties these disparate events together . I then run over to the computer to save and plant and create an essay to do justice to this insight---one that has been expressed but bears repeating.

We are in the wake of an unfortunate but inevitable election result. One of the many themes of the victor was dehumanization. The scapegoat must be dehumanized in order to galvanize the base and persuade moderate voters to be afraid. This worked. The migrants are vermin, poisoning the blood. The trans people are taking over your bathroom. The godless liberals are trying to brainwash your kids. Kamala is a Communist. And on and on.

But we libs can dehumanize too. This is a human trait that was cultivated by Trump though he didn't invent it.

So when searching out the ways in which a humanist dehumanizes, one must search openly. It's easy for a liberal to humanize those less fortunate, the marginalized. But it's hard to humanize those who violate our laws, our norms, those who act against their own interests. Nations who cause harm and escalate conflict.

And we should reject the actions of rogue nations and their leaders. We should judge those who voted against humanity. We should blame Netanyahu for ethnic cleansing. Those actions are abominable. But the core need, want, fear, desire---now that's a different subject.

Each human, each animal, each nation, each company are legitimate. Their needs are legitimate. They may act wrong, but the impulse to serve oneself is not wrong. We must find a way to see this distinction, to not muddy the waters between the act and the core needs of the actor. Between the crime and the urge to protect oneself, one's family, one's interests. Because that urge is valid. And that human or that entity is as well. He, she or it may be acting unethically in service of that valid impulse, that drive to survive. This drive unites us all.

In a sick world we must realize that many will misunderstand the urgings of that drive. They will kill, harm, maim, steal, mislead, manipulate for selfish ends. We must bring accountability to those who do wrong. But we must also honor that the urge to survive is innate. Every person has been wronged. So has every nation.

It's so easy to use the past to justify future wrongs. We must use restraint to not join in the folly of perpetual war, endless revenge and endless vilification of those who have done harm.

How do we break the cycle on the micro and macro scale? I don't have those answers. But I do have one insight to share today today. To re-humanize everyone and every nation and every entity. Not to look the other way on crimes. Not to absolve anyone. Just to come back to the basic knowledge that they deserve to exist. They deserve to fight for themselves. They have been wronged. Whoever wronged them was also wronged.

This not only rehumanizes them, but us as well. We are not human when we do not honor the humanity in every other person. And we must see nations and governments and businesses as collections of humans, even when they are inhumane in their dealings.

Those human groupings act in destructive ways so we must hold them accountable. But I must search deep within myself to ask why they do harm. The answer is always, because they think it will make them secure. They may be wrong. They may have lost access to their individual or collective humanity. They may have done unspeakable acts. And we must humanize them anyway.

Because if we don't then we become them: in little yet insidious ways. We can then rationalize hating a group or a nation or a friend who voted this way or that. Or for an abusive person or a criminal. Or someone who lives differently.

Criminals may be held in prison, but still get visitors and meals and clothes. Because they’re still human.

Humanizing everyone is an inside game. And yet we are bombarded with messages telling us to dehumanize whole swaths of our nation and our world. We dehumanize the other side for dehumanizing the marginalized. We must recognize this and decide to stop this at the only place we have power: within ourselves. We can and should be intolerant of intolerance, but still humanize those who will not return the favor.

Proclaim to yourself, your friends, your family, your church, your lover, your children and everyone else that you won't do this anymore. We can choose to humanize others because their essence is human and deserving.