Useless Energy
Hatred is a loaded word. It is loaded with all our deepest fears and most rancid beliefs. It is a rottening of the mind, with its stench and filth emanating whenever odium is declared toward anyone. The reek coming today from certain groups is nauseating, and has already caused at least one death in Virginia.
Some of that reek is strong here in Spain, as well. Though the majority of Spaniards accept people from all over the world, there are some who consider immigrants the bane of society. These infelicitous souls think that immigrants are somehow favored by the authorities over the indigenous population. In Madrid an association has sprung up dedicated to giving out food and shelter to the homeless and other desperate people. But to qualify, those asking for help must be Spanish, not foreigners. This association, Hogar Social Madrid, initially occupied an abandoned building, and were thrown out by the police. They went on to occupy another building, where the judge still hasn't gotten around to ordering them out.
This is yet another attempt to create a radical right where hatred of the "other" becomes the driving force in society. HSM (Hogar Social Madrid) is really a thinly disguised neo-Nazi organization that wants to play upon nationalist feeling, and foment the old Francoist slogan, "una, grande y libre," (One, great and free.) They don't have a website per se, merely an online shop to buy t-shirts. But they have a Facebook page, with over 67,000 followers, where the comments stink of hatred and xenophobia. There is resentment against immigrants, especially since the crisis began. They are seen by some as leeches that receive government welfare simply for being immigrants, while those who were born here are left with nothing but an unemployment check. Without getting into sociological factors, that is simply not true, but when there seems to be no way out of your hole, you grab onto anything, even explanations that are meant to create and use that hatred.
Hatred of the immigrant, of the "other," of the person who is different, is growing. It is growing in Spain and all over Europe. And it is growing in the United States. Whereas in Europe the memory of the last time such hatred ran rampant is still very much in our consciousness, in the United States, hatred has never broken out in such fashion. While it may have been socially accepted in many areas in the past, it was never implemented as an overt state policy. The difference now is that the head of state seems to have given a nod to this hatred by omittance.
Whenever and wherever in western Europe (eastern Europe is a social and historical case apart) such violence has shown itself, all the authorities have condemned it. In Germany it is against the law to make the Nazi salute. An American was punched and then arrested for doing that last week. The knowledge of where that led is still too raw here. It has been made very clear to all the extreme nationalist movements that hatred has no room in our legislatures nor our streets. Though political nationalist parties have gained momentum, none have yet been voted into power. Again, from the Danube, west.
But the U.S. president, while not admitting to being a racist and bigot, has always supported a nationalist point of view that gives oxygen to those who publicly are. He has never gone out of his way to prevent or condemn the extremes his followers go to against those who are not at least tenth generation white Americans. His constant discourse against immigrants also gives wings to those nut jobs. Does he not realize that two of his three wives were immigrants? Or that he is descended from immigrant grandparents? Of course not. One of the touchstones of such hatred is ignorance of one's roots. It occurs in Spain, too. While the Spanish population is now pretty much homogeneous, it was formed over thousands of years by people from many different origins. In our veins runs Germanic, Italic, Greek, and African blood. How can a country deny present-day people from other places when it was precisely formed by people from other places? In the end, nationalisms deny our origins and foment the falacy of our uniqueness.
We are all neighbors and we are all along for the same ride. Let's leave hatred in the trash bin and see ourselves in our brother's eye.
Some of that reek is strong here in Spain, as well. Though the majority of Spaniards accept people from all over the world, there are some who consider immigrants the bane of society. These infelicitous souls think that immigrants are somehow favored by the authorities over the indigenous population. In Madrid an association has sprung up dedicated to giving out food and shelter to the homeless and other desperate people. But to qualify, those asking for help must be Spanish, not foreigners. This association, Hogar Social Madrid, initially occupied an abandoned building, and were thrown out by the police. They went on to occupy another building, where the judge still hasn't gotten around to ordering them out.
This is yet another attempt to create a radical right where hatred of the "other" becomes the driving force in society. HSM (Hogar Social Madrid) is really a thinly disguised neo-Nazi organization that wants to play upon nationalist feeling, and foment the old Francoist slogan, "una, grande y libre," (One, great and free.) They don't have a website per se, merely an online shop to buy t-shirts. But they have a Facebook page, with over 67,000 followers, where the comments stink of hatred and xenophobia. There is resentment against immigrants, especially since the crisis began. They are seen by some as leeches that receive government welfare simply for being immigrants, while those who were born here are left with nothing but an unemployment check. Without getting into sociological factors, that is simply not true, but when there seems to be no way out of your hole, you grab onto anything, even explanations that are meant to create and use that hatred.
Hatred of the immigrant, of the "other," of the person who is different, is growing. It is growing in Spain and all over Europe. And it is growing in the United States. Whereas in Europe the memory of the last time such hatred ran rampant is still very much in our consciousness, in the United States, hatred has never broken out in such fashion. While it may have been socially accepted in many areas in the past, it was never implemented as an overt state policy. The difference now is that the head of state seems to have given a nod to this hatred by omittance.
Whenever and wherever in western Europe (eastern Europe is a social and historical case apart) such violence has shown itself, all the authorities have condemned it. In Germany it is against the law to make the Nazi salute. An American was punched and then arrested for doing that last week. The knowledge of where that led is still too raw here. It has been made very clear to all the extreme nationalist movements that hatred has no room in our legislatures nor our streets. Though political nationalist parties have gained momentum, none have yet been voted into power. Again, from the Danube, west.
But the U.S. president, while not admitting to being a racist and bigot, has always supported a nationalist point of view that gives oxygen to those who publicly are. He has never gone out of his way to prevent or condemn the extremes his followers go to against those who are not at least tenth generation white Americans. His constant discourse against immigrants also gives wings to those nut jobs. Does he not realize that two of his three wives were immigrants? Or that he is descended from immigrant grandparents? Of course not. One of the touchstones of such hatred is ignorance of one's roots. It occurs in Spain, too. While the Spanish population is now pretty much homogeneous, it was formed over thousands of years by people from many different origins. In our veins runs Germanic, Italic, Greek, and African blood. How can a country deny present-day people from other places when it was precisely formed by people from other places? In the end, nationalisms deny our origins and foment the falacy of our uniqueness.
We are all neighbors and we are all along for the same ride. Let's leave hatred in the trash bin and see ourselves in our brother's eye.
Hate takes so much energy and is so destructive.
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