Three days on………..

HUMAN NATURE

In the last few days, in the stinging aftermath of the events that unfolded in France, the reaction of people has both bewildered and amazed me. Naivety on my part perhaps? Probably. I have always been fascinated by human behaviour, why we do the things we do, what drives us as individuals and unfortunately, all too often, what can unite a group or groups of people. I am as guilty as anyone I suppose, of standing on a soapbox and waxing lyrical, stating what may be blasphemous words to some, whilst being the voice of reason to others.

So what has set me on that soapbox again? Simple really. It is the French flag, the tricolore. Easily identifiable and famous throughout the world. As a show of solidarity for the butchered victims of Friday 13^th it became a token gesture of support to overlay your Facebook profile picture with that of the French flag. Anything wrong with this? Well, apparently yes. It was seen in some circles as a sign of disrespect to those who were murdered in Beirut only a matter of hours before. Even more were killed in the East African nation of Kenya in the Garissa University atrocity. Where was the show of support for these victims, where was the solidarity then? Well the answer is simple enough, if a little unpalatable for those who still believe that human life is valued the same the world over. Human life is not equally measured. Not all humans are equal and not all people care as much as you would like to believe.

Now some may wring their hands and suggest that I lack compassion, I lack insight or I lack the capacity to see someone else’s viewpoint. Absolute rubbish of course and I will explain why. Prior to the slaying of so many students in Garissa, if you had taken a poll of people from around the UK, how many would have, honestly, placed Garissa in Kenya, or even Africa? Herein is the problem and the analogy I will use to explain it is very simple but should shed some light on why human nature reacts the way it does in such events.

It is not that people don’t care. They do, but ultimately in most cases, more about their own wellbeing than your own. If you imagine an earthquake, the damage is centred close to the epicentre, the worst of it at least. Shockwaves will follow and there will be lessening damage as you move farther away from the epicentre. Not a difficult concept to grasp. In even simpler terms, when your own parents die, the grief you feel is far more than when a work colleague who you haven’t seen for years loses a great aunt. It is degrees of separation. The more attachment you feel to something, to an item, a place, a person, the more profound the effect when something goes awry. Obvious really. Paris is known throughout the world, the romantic city with its world famous landmarks, the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Arc De Triomphe….. the list could go on and on. Due to the fame the city holds, people could so much more easily relate to the events that were unfolding. It was personal, it was close to home, not geographically perhaps to those in Sydney or Vladivostok, but close to the heart. We all know of Paris. We don’t all know of Garissa. Unfair, yes, but simply true.

It does not devalue the loss of life, or remove the sadness that surrounds such an event but it is both necessary and sensible to evaluate behaviour based on the simplest of concepts. This is nothing new. Aberfan, which lays so close to my heart is not a place name that means anything at all to a fifteen year old Cambodian. Why would it. Yes, they would agree if they knew the history how awful the events were. They would offer the right sympathetic words, perhaps shed a tear, but the very next day it would mean what it had to them the day before, very little. You can say I’m wrong, you can say I am heartless and mean. I’m not, I am just stating a fact. It is not nice to think that way but the harshest of realities is that it is very much true.

I watched with great interest people from Cardiff being interviewed on the streets in tonight’s news roundup. Glenys from Merthyr was saying how she felt nervous coming to Cardiff today, that normally she wouldn’t be, but today she was. Why? Because even old Glenys, and Andrew, Sian and Phil when they were interviewed too, could relate a lot more to what happened in Paris than in Garissa. It mattered more and therefore had more of an effect because it was palpable, the streets in Paris are not a million miles removed from the streets of Cardiff. It touched on the very basest of human emotions, that age old philosophical go to, fight or flight. Twenty thousand generations ago, the distant roar of a predatory animal did not cause the same reaction as when that roar was a lot closer. Simple, fundamental human emotion being played out, not because of moralistic beliefs or fanciful delusions of id and psyche, but fear. The very base level of human emotion. It could have been us.

Beirut strikes a different note but at the same time the tune is all too familiar. We should at least acknowledge why the world hardly batted an eyelid to the Beirut killings. It happened in the Middle East and we have become hardened to this sort of thing. It is emotional saturation of the same thing that eventually nulls the sensation and the shock. Suicide bombings and beheadings, mass shootings and the most foul of crimes against humanity are not registering with the same level because we are simply used to them. Unless there is a very graphic image that strikes a common chord amongst us all it simply is just another bombing in a land where death, torture and murder are common place events. We are not shocked. Throw in a picture of a dead child washed up on a beach though and every parent in the world can feel the loss. Is that child’s passing any more sad than the thousands that have perished trying to escape a war torn land? Not really. After all, we are all equal aren’t we? Isn’t that what solidarity is all about? It is not hypocrisy, it is not lack of intelligence simply that unless that loss is something we can almost tangibly feel, then it really does matter less.

The drums of war are being banged loud and clear today. France has attacked in massive force the IS stronghold of Raqqa. They are now officially at war. A fantastic and expected soundbite but who are they actually at war with? What do they hope to achieve. Their justifiable bloodlust is not without reason, nor without a genuine attempt to nullify a terrorist threat whilst also showing their nation they will not fail to defend their citizens, but the damage was done on Friday.

Whilst their actions are understandable I have seen many people also champion other world leaders who have put their head above the parapet, beat their chest and say down with IS. Whilst the sentiment is undoubtedly worthy it is little more than emotional laden rhetoric and politicking. To see the Russian Emperor, for that is what he is, declare war on IS and be saluted by so many is yet another sad indictment of human nature. To hail this man as a hero figure, a leader behind which the world can unite is so myopic it is derisible, were it not actually happening. Yes, the news footage will show Russian fighter bombers dropping payloads over desert enclaves and we cheer loudly this man of action, this man who shows no compromise. Did we so readily forget the Crimea and the conflict in Ukraine? Yesterday’s news or a precursor of something more sinister in the offing? Yes, sadly a Russian jet was caught up as a terrorist target recently but who were the terrorists behind the bringing down of the Malaysian airliner over the Ukraine? Nearly two hundred Dutch killed, ten UK citizens, 27 Australians. Was there a call for these three nations to launch an air offensive against Moscow? Of course not. You see. We are all equal aren’t we? Every death matters the same doesn’t it? Doesn’t it?

You see, however we choose to sugar coat things, to make them more moralistically pleasing, my gag reflex works just fine and the sins of yesterday are all too readily overlooked for the feel good factor of today. There is far more being played out on the world stage right now than simply terrorism. It will pass. This IS threat will be removed, but the vacuum afterwards may lead us to something far worse than those bandwagon jumping hawks are currently wishing for with calls for instant retribution. There is a chess game taking place right now, and very few people are able to see the minutiae so caught up are they in the tubthumping and the race to have their voices carried from ivory towers or minarets.

The world is changing, borders that fell with the fall of communism have seen the global village become an absolute reality, but there is one thing that is very important when you live in such a community. You must be able to trust your neighbour and right now, there is very little of that commodity shared amongst world leaders. Today’s allies can soon become tomorrow’s enemies.