There’s no need to worry! This entry is not going to be a maths lesson but a meditation on the value of life and how we tend to talk about human beings in terms of numbers and quantities. We are getting this kind of news every time we follow the latest bulletin. Whether it’s about the many people are still being killed in Afghanistan, Libya or Syria; whether it’s the projected numbers of refugees seeking shelter in Europe; or the numbers of people who are not keeping up with the austerity measures following the economic crisis - people are represented as if they were quantities and, increasingly as an economic burden and liability.
Undeniably numbers are a useful tool to help us understand the situation. But, numbers are only just that - a way of quantifying reality. The danger is when we think of human beings more as if they numbers and ignore the reality that these “numbers” can tell usabout the whole story. Indeed, when we talk about people as if they were numbers we run the real risk of dehumanizing them. Forgetting that behind each number there is a human story, a person with hopes and dreams, an individual with his/her own fears and nightmares. A person, who like us, seeks to be happy and free from suffering.
I don’t want to sound too idealistic here. Yet, I cannot help to shiver when I hear people being referred to as “problems” or, most recently, as “economic burdens”. We claim that the value of human life is more important than money and commodities. Yet, oftentimes the way politicians, journalists and how the public talks about these “problem people” suggests that when our lifestyles are threatened, we unleash all the hate and prejudice that is in our mind and heart.
Economic interests usually play an important role in this process by which people are dehumanized. Perhaps the best example of this is the rise of the Third Reich in Germany of the late 1930s. A large number of the German population, facing a failing economy and a defeat in the WWI were persuaded in believing that this problem was caused by the contamination of the German race. In a matter of months, Hitler’s Germany would annihilate millions of Jews, gypsies, Communists, gay people, disabled people and all those they deemed to be inferior. Those who survived deportation to the death camps would be assigned a number, not a name. Sadly, this is happening again in the heart of Europe with far right extremism increasing in popularity.
I asked myself what makes people become so numb to the suffering of others? Why do people treat other people as if they were objects or trash? The answer is not simple. But I can forward some ideas. It may be that we seek to be safe, perceiving the “other” as a threat. We may fear that we lose our personal, cultural and social identity. We may even think that we will change. But, as we declare our respect for others of our own kind, we become limited in what we deem our “kind”. We may also have a legitimate fear that our quality of life will be compromised if we accept those we perceive as foreigners or as outsiders. In the process, with all the valid justification, we betray our human values and deceive ourselves into believing that we are better and far superior to these "others". Thus, we undermine our claim to humanity by accepting to violate the dignity and unique worth of others who may appear to be different than we think we are.]
In maths, one plus one always equal two. But one human being and another human being can give rise to two or more human beings up to virtually an infinite number of people. The most obvious example is how a man and a woman can help to give life to one and many other children. But, on top of that, we can also contribute to the spread of ideas and concepts that can either build a better world or else to destroy it. Numbers of people only tell us about the quantity, they do not express the unique qualities that all of us possess. Numbers, like money and language, are only a representation of reality but they are not reality itself.
No comments:
Post a Comment