The "other" across three different eras

What explains the recurrence of genocide throughout history?

During the Inquisition (that lasted for centuries), the Church was at war (it seems) against evil spirits, animated by this notion that those afflicted with demons (often women who knew how to heal people with herbs) were somehow ruining the crops and preventing the ruling class from living their best life. They proceeded from the belief that if one could rid the world of these witches, everything would be better. They were willing to murder hundreds of thousands of their neighbors, friends, and family members in the attempt to accomplish this goal. Witch trials are of course insane, but this is what passed for logic in that society.

During the 1930s and 40s, Nazis were at war (it seems) against genetics, animated by this notion that those with “inferior” genetics (Jews, Gypsies, Roma, LGBT, communists etc.) were somehow preventing those with “superior” genetics (Aryans) from living forever. And they proceeded from the belief that if one could rid the world of these “inferior” genes, everything would be better for a thousand years. They were willing to kill millions of their fellow citizens in the attempt to accomplish this goal. Nazism is of course insane, but this is what passed for logic in that society.

Today, modern bougie Pharma Fascists across the developed world are at war (it seems) against all viruses and bacteria, animated by this notion that somehow viruses and bacteria are preventing people with a college education from living forever. This is certainly Richard Pan’s view and it is widely held throughout the public health establishment and the Democratic Party. They proceed from the belief that if one could somehow rid the world of the trillions upon trillions of viruses and bacteria, we could become immortal. In the process they have injected experimental genetically modified biologics into billions of people and already caused hundreds of thousands of fatalities as a result. Of course all of this is insane — eliminating all viruses and bacteria would wipe out all life on earth because viruses and bacteria play such an essential role in all life processes and injecting experimental biologics into billions of people after only minimal safety testing is the greatest act of hubris in history. But that’s what passes for logic within our society.

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As an aside, this paragraph from the article I linked to above is mind blowing:

Researchers recently identified an ancient virus that inserted its DNA into the genomes of four-limbed animals that were human ancestors. That snippet of genetic code, called ARC, is part of the nervous system of modern humans and plays a role in human consciousness — nerve communication, memory formation and higher-order thinking. Between 40 percent and 80 percent of the human genome may be linked to ancient viral invasions.

Thriving systems are characterized by communication and exchange amongst heterogeneous elements — whether that be different types of people, ideas, or cells.

It goes without saying that of course I support combating lethal viruses and bacteria (but no, we are not very good at it, and so much of what we do seems to make the overall situation worse).

We should be having a conversation about what leads to healthy systems as opposed to pathological systems.

But no one in public health these days seems capable of having a conversation about complex systems.

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I’m not sure what lessons we should draw from my quick dash through the worst aspects of human nature.

In every era, society seems to like blaming its problems on a mysterious “other”. Genocide is a recurring pattern throughout human history. We thought we had finally transcended it when we defeated the Nazis and exposed their crimes, but now it is rearing its ugly head again. Obviously genocide returned throughout the twentieth century even after World War II. But it’s still shocking to now see bougie people across the developed world genociding themselves.

Logic and reason (not to mention decades of formal education that are now standard across the developed world) should enable us to easily transcend this barbarism. And yet human beings are such fragile and flawed creatures. It seems that we are never more than a single fright away from descending into savage primitivism.

Honestly, I’m not even sure if we should blame this on primitivism. Even primitive people surely had a sense of ethics and interconnection. Perhaps this is a problem of modernism in every age, that somehow we become disconnected from some core truths and inflict devastation on a mass scale?

Previously we’ve blamed religion, nationalism, ideology, or politics. But now we’re seeing well-educated atheist globalists dutifully carrying out genocide in the name of Progress(TM), Science(TM), or Health(TM) under the blue banner of the World Health Organization. Hannah Arendt blamed bureaucracy. Ishay Landa blames Liberalism (but political liberalism is also the antidote to the terror of statism). All of these explanations now seem inadequate.

We’ve gotta figure this out and it seems like it should be relatively straightforward to understand. And yet here we are once again staring into the gaping maw of human atrocity and it does not make a lot of sense.

I’m interested to hear your thoughts in the comments. Why does this keep happening? And how can we finally transcend this awful feature of human history?

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Blessings to the warriors. 🙏

Prayers for the freedom fighters in every age. 🙌

In the comments, please share your thoughts on the questions above. (No denialists please — good theorists are able to wrestle with the complexities and paradoxes of all of the data.)

(As always please alert me to any typos!)

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