I have been trying to understand the “cause & effect” of the decline of liberal values and spread of fundamentalism / extremism all over the world during my lifetime.
It has been alleged that the “Age of Enlightenment” and liberalism started in the 18th Century with people like John Locke & Voltaire. People familiar with John Locke would remember his ‘Social contract’ where he declared that the King (Ruler) does not receive his power from God, but rather from the general public. Implying that the people who give the King / Ruler his power can also take it away. But even after a couple centuries, are we really enlightened? Did enlightenment ever happen even in Europe?
For the sake of discussion, let us ignore Africa, allegedly the Dark Continent. Let us also ignore Asia, being relatively less educated and where the Renaissance never happened where some countries are still living or prefer to live in the middle Ages. But what is wrong with Europe?
How can the entire German nation, consisting of highly intelligent and educated individuals be seduced by the likes of ultimate bigots like Hitler? Why the Jews, themselves the victims of the Nazi cruelty, when they got the chance, treated the indigenous population of Palestine in a similar way. A Jewish Fascist party, the Likud, is in power in Israel with Yigal Amir, killer of Yitzhak Rabin, the Prime Minister, considered a hero by many Jews!
US abolished slavery in the 1863 but it took more than 100 years and Martin Luhter King to before Blacks could use the same toilets in US South. where Klu Klux Klan are still active. When I arrived in the UK in 1962, many adverts for “To let” clearly mentioned “No blacks & Asians” or “Whites only”. In modern day Kuwait, at least until 1980, there were areas where no non-Kuwaiti could live.
It was not enough that more than a million Hindus, Sikhs & Muslims died during the partition communal riots merely due to the accident of birth; LeJ & the TTP are happily killing Shias & the non-Mulisms. The racist/anti-Muslim RSS in the guise of BJP now controls the largest democracy in the world! Human rights for Muslims in Kashmir? Perish the thought.
Call me a cynic if you like, but I have come to the sad conclusion that civilization and the liberalism is only skin deep. Humans, be it blacks or whites, Muslims or Hindus, Pashtuns or Punjabis, Mohajirs or Sindhis, are mostly racists & bigots. This is so because Xenophobia & racism is ingrained in human genes. Only difference being that some are lesser bigots than others.
Because it is not polite to openly display racism or bigotry; many would hide it but when it comes to the crunch few people are truly liberal. For example I admit that I would be against my son or daughter marrying a non-Muslim, even more so if he or she happened to be black.
What happened in the US elections is the simple manifestation of the xenophobia? 9/11 has had deep effect on the psyche of the WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) population of the United States. The adverse views were reinforced by the Charlie Ebdo incident and the Da’esh proudly displaying the beheadings. Hence when Donal Trump said that he will ban the Muslims from US, it struck a chord; many in US already have the impression these foreigners enjoy our hospitality and then try to kill us.
Hispanic/Latinos have been streaming into the US in search of jobs for a very long time. There is genuine fear that non-whites might become the majority in not too distant a future. Thus when Donald Trump said he would build a wall on Mexican border, WASP audience wholeheartedly clapped. One must remember that Nazis also came to power in Germany thru popular vote.
Yes; EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE IN THE UNITED STATES and one shouldn’t not be surprised when Marine Le Pen of the National Front of France and / or the Neo-Nazi NPD party of Germany wins majority in the elections.
Old age has given me the fortitude to accept that being brown and from the subcontinent, I would have to deal with some degree of racism most of the time. While I don’t like Trump being President of the strongest country on earth, I would simply have to live with it.
