Voices

I’ve done my fair share of ranting on this blog, on a wide array of topics, but there is a lot that I haven’t talked about yet. I could have endeavored to talk about the kind of crises that everyone says no one is talking about, like the Yemeni civil war or the ongoing political violence in Afghanistan, or the kind that no one actually is talking about, like government repression in Nicaragua and Sudan. In fact, I probably should do that, rather than spend goddess knows how long despairing about Trump and Brexit. This is actually the reaction you get on social media every time something tragic happens in a Western country: half the posts express some form of solidarity while the other half laments the fact that this is getting more attention than *insert the required city/country name* without, however, noting the irony of talking about something that is allegedly never talked about.

The thing is, it’s a human reaction. First of all, if we were to truly take stock of each and every atrocity committed on earth in real time we might as well just lock ourselves up right away. Unfortunately for us, we are a species capable of frightening amounts of cruelty and it would probably be counterproductive to be aware of it constantly. We would be incapable of doing anything other than crying. So we’re selective in what we really notice. And the chances are, we will notice the things that we can understand. You can talk to me about civil war and it will make sense, but deep down I do not know what it means, because I am immensely fortunate and have never actually experienced it. The kind of violence that happens in Kaboul right now is not something that I can fathom, so even if I know about it I don’t know what it truly means.

Talk to me, however, about personal levels of violence and abuse, political stupidity, homophobia, misogyny, anti-democratic behaviour, and all the other wonderful things that make the Trumpian world, and I know. Personally, deeply, I know. Ultimately, we care about what we comprehend.

That’s not an excuse, though. Because once we have noticed what our emotional response is and what we instinctively tend to do, we know what we must be attentive to. I know and care about a certain kind of issues, so I will continue to (let’s be charitable) write about them. The others I do not know how to write about, but that doesn’t give me a pass to ignore them; it simply means I need to give a platform to the voices of those who do. And I think that might be the larger solution here: we need a diversity of voices. On our Facebook, in our news reports, wherever we get information, we need to at least make sure we listen widely enough to avoid getting stuck in a skewed vision of the world.

And also, maybe, once we know, spread the word – around and to those who make decisions. Behind a lot of this violence is the sale of arms by those who pretend to hold the moral high ground (I’m looking at you, France selling arms to Saudia Arabia). Solutions might be closer than they appear.