There is a small statue in Berlin with a sweet, childlike cast of animal characters and these biting words, in translation here: "It's easy to be moral when your belly is full." The quote is from Brecht- perhaps the Three Penny Opera.
I'm very cognizant of that when I am writing this... Not only that it is easy to preach when you're not hungry, but also to throw out moral theories when you are perfectly safe and not under siege. Still, being perfectly safe also affords a certain perspective on developments that I think is indeed valuable...
Did I write a while back that I'm grateful for the sense that stereotyping is not the norm in the places I find myself? And did I lament that PC- for all the bad rap it got back in the 90s - has not laid root in most of the world?
Well, my circle of sanity has gotten a lot smaller.
Over the last days I've seen people characterized as animals, comments about how they should be wiped out, how they are fifth columns. I'm waiting for someone to describe them as a cancer- biomorphizing hate was a favorite Nazi embellishment.
That's hate speech I've pointed to all my life as dehumanizing. It's one of the values I associate with my Judaism, and for which I'm deeply grateful .
What is dehumanizing about hate speech? It assigns motives without bothering to check, it creates a narrative without regard to the voices or intentions of those it characterizes.
In this way, it steals individuality- a person's volition and ability to tell his/her own story and to influence the way his/her actions are understood.
Dehumanizing is attributing motivations (and the worst possible) rather than really looking for them. Creating echo chambers rather than reaching out and asking.
I say this knowing it's easier to speak about individuals in safety and security. But descending to this is nonetheless deeply troubling.
So what am I grateful for? My own sanity. Yes, my own safety. My own sense of sanctity?
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