Gitmocha Joe’s Freedom Café

“My first exposure to murder occurred when I was eleven. This was in 1944, in the communal riots that characterized the last years of the British Raj, which ended in 1947. I saw a profusely bleeding person suddenly stumbling through the gate to our garden, asking for help and a little water. I shouted for my parents, while fetching some water for him. My father rushed him to the hospital, but he died there of his injuries.” ~ Amartya Sen, Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny

Sen, Nobel Laureate in Economics, points out that the Hindu-Muslim riots occurred because one identity, for a time, suppressed all other identities. In this case, the only thing that mattered was one’s religious upbringing. In other similar episodes, like the genocide in Rwanda or the Balkans, ethnicity became the antithesis; if a human being was located on the wrong side of the line, he could be attacked and killed.

A possible antidote to this madness: cultivate friendships among the “enemy”. If you can picture a specific person you care about when the hatemongers start spewing their venom, you will be less likely to buy their lies and more likely to roughly usher them to the nearest watering trough.

joe