Why are
all those Racists so Terrified?
By Robert
J. Burrowes
August 22,
2017 "Information
Clearing House"
- Racism is not a new phenomenon and while it is
an ongoing daily reality for vast numbers of
people, it also often bursts from the shadows to
remind us that just because we can keep ignoring
the endless sequence of ‘minor’ racist
incidents, racism has not gone away despite
supposedly significant efforts to eliminate it.
I say ‘supposedly’ because these past efforts,
whatever personnel, resources and strategies
have been devoted to them, have done nothing to
address the underlying cause of racism and so
their impact must be superficial and temporary.
As the record demonstrates.
I say this
not to denounce the effort made and, in limited
contexts, the progress achieved, but if we want
to eliminate racism, rather than confine it to
the shadows for it to burst out periodically,
then we must have the courage to understand what
drives racism and design responses that address
this cause.
Otherwise,
all of the best ideas in the world can do no
more than repeat past efforts at dialogue,
education, nonviolent action and the
implementation of legislation designed to
protect civil rights or even outlaw violence,
which doesn’t work, of course, as the pervasive
violence in our society demonstrates and was
again graphically illustrated by the recent
outbreak of ‘white nationalist’ violence in
Charlottesville in the United States.
Racism
directed against indigenous peoples and people
of color has been a significant factor driving
key aspects of domestic politics and foreign
policy in many countries for centuries. This
outcome is inevitable given the psychological
imperatives that drive racist violence.
Racism –
fear of, and hatred for, those of another race
coupled with the beliefs that the other race is
inferior and should be dominated (by your race)
– is now highly visible among European
populations impacted by refugee flows from the
Middle East and North Africa. In addition,
racism is ongoing and highly evident among
sectors of the US population but also in
countries like South Africa as well as Australia
and throughout Central and South America where
indigenous populations are particularly
impacted. But racism is a problem in many other
countries too.
So why is
fear and hatred of those of a different race so
prominent? Let me start at the beginning.
Human
socialization is essentially a process of
terrorizing children into ‘thinking’ and doing
what the adults around them want (irrespective
of the functionality of this thought and
behavior in evolutionary terms). Hence, the
attitudes, beliefs, values and behaviors that
most humans exhibit are driven by fear and the
self-hatred that accompanies this fear. For a
comprehensive explanation of this point, see
‘Why
Violence?’
and
‘Fearless
Psychology and Fearful Psychology: Principles
and Practice’.
However,
because this fear and self-hatred are so
unpleasant to feel consciously, most people
suppress these feelings below conscious
awareness and then (unconsciously) project them
onto ‘legitimized’ victims (that is, those
people ‘approved’ for victimization by their
parents and/or society generally). In short: the
fear and self-hatred are projected as fear of,
and hatred for, particular social groups
(whether people of another gender, nation, race,
religion or class).
This all
happens because virtually all adults are
(unconsciously) terrified and self-hating, so
they unconsciously terrorize children into
accepting the attitudes, beliefs, values and
behaviors that make the adults feel safe. A
child who thinks and acts differently is
frightening and is not allowed to flourish.
Once the
child has been so terrorized however, they will
respond to their fear and self-hatred with
diminishing adult stimulus. What is important,
emotionally speaking, is that the fear and
self-hatred have an outlet so that they can be
released and acted upon. And because parents do
not allow their child to feel and express their
fear and hatred in relation to the parents
themselves (who, fundamentally, just want
obedience without comprehending that obedience
is rooted in fear and generates enormous
self-hatred because it denies the individual's
Self-will), the child is left with no
alternative but to project their fear and hatred
in socially approved directions.
Hence, as
an adult, their own fear and self-hatred are
unconscious to the individual precisely because
they were never allowed to feel and express them
safely as a child. What they do feel,
consciously, is their hatred for ‘legitimized’
victims.
Historically, different social groups in
different cultural contexts have been the victim
of this projected but ‘socially approved’ fear
and hatred. Women, indigenous peoples,
Catholics, Afro-Americans, Jews, communists,
Palestinians…. The list goes on. The predominant
group in this category, of course, is children
(whose ‘uncontrollability’ frightens virtually
all parents until they have been successfully
terrorized and tamed).
The groups
that are socially approved to be feared and
hated are determined by elites. This is because
individual members of the elite are themselves
terrified and full of self-hatred and they use
the various powerful instruments at their
disposal – ranging from control of politicians
to the corporate media – to trigger the fear and
self-hatred of the population at large in order
to focus this fear and hatred on what frightens
the elite. This makes it easier for the elite to
then attack the group that they are projecting
frightens them, which is why Donald Trump and
various European leaders encourage racist
attacks. See, for example,
‘This expert on political
violence thinks Trump is making neo-Nazi attacks
more likely’.
It is also useful for providing a basis for
enhancing elite social control through such
measures as legislative restrictions on human
rights and expanded police powers.
Historically speaking, indigenous peoples and
people of color have been primary targets for
this projected fear and self-hatred, which
explains the psychological origins (which
underpin and complement the political and
economic origins) of practices such as the
Atlantic slave trade and European colonialism in
earlier centuries. Racism allows elites and
others to project their fear and self-hatred
onto indigenous people and people of color so
that elites can then seek to destroy this fear
and self-hatred.
Obviously,
this cannot work. You cannot destroy fear,
whether your own or that of anyone else.
However, you can cause phenomenal damage to
those onto whom your fear and self-hatred are
projected. Of course, there is nothing
intelligent about this process. If every
indigenous person and person of colour in the
world was killed, elites would simply then
project their fear and self-hatred onto other
groups and set out to destroy those groups too.
In fact,
of course, western elites are now
(unconsciously) projecting their fear and
self-hatred onto Muslims as well and this
manifests behaviourally in many ways, including
as war on countries in the Middle East. And when
the blowback from these wars manifests as
‘terrorist’ attacks on western countries
(assuming they aren’t ‘false flag’ events, which
is often the case), such as the recent attack in
Barcelona, it is simply used by elites,
employing their corporate media particularly, to
justify more intrusive social control under the
guise of ‘enhanced security’, as mentioned
above.
If you are
starting to wonder about the sanity of all this,
you can rest assured there is none. Elites are
insane. See
‘The Global Elite is Insane’.
Unfortunately, the individuals who are mobilized
in response to this projection are also insane,
as a cursory perusal of their written words and
even modest attention to their spoken words will
readily illustrate. See, for example,
‘Charlottesville: Race and
Terror’.
So is
there anything we can do? Fundamentally, we need
to stop terrorizing our children. As a back up,
we can provide safe spaces for children and
adults alike to feel their fear, self-hatred and
other suppressed feelings consciously (which
will allow them to be safely released). By doing
this, we can avoid creating more insane
individuals who will project their fear and
self-hatred in elite-approved directions. See
‘My Promise to Children’.
If you are
fearless enough to recognize that elites are
manipulating you into fearing those of other
races (or religions) whom we do not need to
fear, any time is a good time to speak up and to
demonstrate your solidarity. You might also like
to sign the online pledge of
‘The People’s Charter to Create a
Nonviolent World’.
You are
also welcome to consider using the strategic
framework explained in
Nonviolent Campaign Strategy
for your anti-racism campaign. And if you want
to organise a nonviolent action to combat racism
in a context where violence might erupt, you can
minimize the risk of this violence by following
the comprehehensive list of guidelines here:
‘Nonviolent Action: Minimizing
the Risk of Violent Repression’.
Suppressed
fear and self-hatred must be projected and they
are usually projected in socially approved ways
(although mental illnesses and some forms of
criminal activity are ways in which this
suppressed fear manifests that are not socially
approved).
In
essence, racism is a manifestation of the mental
illness of elites manipulating us into doing
their insane bidding. Unfortunately, many people
are easy victims of this manipulation because
they are full of suppressed terror and
self-hatred too.
Robert J.
Burrowes has a lifetime commitment to
understanding and ending human violence. He has
done extensive research since 1966 in an effort
to understand why human beings are violent and
has been a nonviolent activist since 1981. He is
the author of
‘Why Violence?’
His email address is
flametree@riseup.net
and his website is
here.
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