The Other

When writing an opinion I often fret that either I do not have any idea about which to write or that I will do so in a way that is not true and subject myself

to many authoritative critiques. When I hear something that is so true and not explained by me then I decide to publish the crafty thought and give credit where credit is due.

Yesterday, Alex Wagner, political commentator on MSNBC, interviewed Trevor Noah, political commentator and host of the Trevor Noah Show on Comedy Central.  

The conversation in which the two were engaged centered around the dramatic split many see within the US polity and many wonder why the political milieu has been so toxic.  In other words, why is so much hate and invective spewed by a nation which prides itself on its concept of equality and justice? Why so much of it centers on the "Other."  The

"Other" in the present case is anyone who is a minority and has suffered violence or verbal attack for many years.  Invective by the majority is couched in a variety of rationales so that one can see it clearly and ultimately understand and accept the rationales for it whether it is true or not.

Trevor Noah explained it as such: "When people are struggling and in poverty (or not) they are told that the reason for their social distemper is certainly in the

person of the "Other."  The "Other," of course, can be defined as black people, brown people, immigrants, gays, Jews and anyone else who does not fit into the descriptive narration of the majority, and who does not look like you, does not pray like you, does not culturally blend in like you but is rather in a minority. 

Even when blame for social malevolence is assessed not to be because of the "Other," Noah stated, the "Other" is still a convenient scapegoat especially when it has

been blanketed in virulent appellations of hatred for thousands of years.

Someone once said to me "when books are burned It is logical then that men will be burned too.  The right wing extremists have pronounced the Jews, the longest hatred, of course, have collectively suffered the mortal consequences of being called a killer of God by the majority.  If one is a killer of God then what does that mean?  It means overthrowing all that is considered good and righteous and thus requires the ultimate penalty of death.

One's mind travels to the Holocaust where Germans rounded up all the Jews they could and annihilated them in the amount of 6 million, an unfathomable number.  The Germans wanted to kill all the Jews of Europe and nearly did and most of the majority acquiesced, it is said, yelling "Goodbye Jews."

What are we to do with the perpetrators of the Holocaust?  Is it enough to lash back in anger? Is it enough to punish them?  Is it enough to win a war?  The only answer I fear is to say Never Again.  That is the best, I think, rational men can do. But you say it already is happening in Ukraine by the Russians that innocents are being slaughtered. It is already happening here as so many are vilified because of the color of their skin and totalitarian inherently unjust Fascism is knocking at our door.  If we shirk our duty then we can be assured that the ugliness will happen again and that it very well could happen to you!