It seems that in Western countries, the people who follow the mainstream media and public school narrative have a pretty twisted outlook on how people in other countries live. They like to focus on the absolute worst things that happen in that society, and act like that defines the society. The perception is that people in non-NATO countries are primitive savages who are constantly attacking and hurting one other, but this type of behavior occurs to a certain degree in nearly every society.
The mainstream western narrative does not pay any attention to the actual daily lives of the people who live in foreign countries. Instead, only they only focus on the tragedies. Just like in the US and Europe, people in the middle east, Africa, and other areas of the world have thriving music scenes, talented artists, brilliant philosophers, exceptional athletes, and children that play games similar to those played by western children. In fact, National Geographic Traveler recently named Iran as the #1 tourist destination in the world.
People who live in other parts of the world have festivals and holidays and favorite foods, they also have sickness, traffic jams, and crime, just as we do.
Now, imagine for a minute if someone in a foreign country who has never been to America were to judge and define the country by the crime and corruption that took place there. What type of perspective would they have? They would see a corrupt and oppressive government with militarized police forces that kill thousands per year. They would also see cities ripped apart with gang violence, also killing thousands per year. They would see extreme poverty in America’s ghettos, where children grow up with little hope or opportunity for a better life. They would see a population that is heavily sedated with pharmaceutical drugs and entirely brainwashed by fascist politicians. It would not be fair for someone to judge America this way, but this seems to be the way that many Americans and Europeans judge everyone else.
In the past several months, this type of dehumanizing propaganda has taken over western media, as NATO plans to escalate its conquest of the middle east.
When the establishment wants to go to war, they will do everything they can to demonize the people that live in the place that they want to attack. They will describe these people as irrational, sub-human, and senselessly violent. They will insist that an aggressive war is in the name of defense, and they will have the media and the schools helping them do it. And it works.
One need only scroll through social media to see how people refer to Muslims as ‘it’ and completely detach themselves from the reality that this ‘it’ is someone’s son or daughter.
Hatred and Ignorance Blind People to the Truth
Regardless of the color of our skin, the language we speak or the cultural ideologies we subscribe to, we are all part of the same human family. In every country throughout the ages, we have been deceived by our oppressors. People of all nationalities struggle and suffer at the hands of authority figures who tell us that other oppressed people in some far away land are the reason for our unhappiness. In reality, the oppressed people of all nations have more in common with each other than they do with the people in charge of their governments. Unfortunately, we have all been lied to and conditioned to be suspicious of our brothers and sisters because of some flag that flies above their heads.
It is true that some places on this earth are more dangerous than others while some are safer or freer than others, but overall, each culture is filled with mostly peaceful people who just want to live their lives. In every corner of the earth there is happiness and hope just like every corner of the earth has corruption and despair. It is important to remember this and to avoid developing an ethnocentric point of view, because that begins a path toward dehumanizing innocent people.
The following video shows footage of Gaza City like you probably have never seen it before:
Article originally published at The Free Thought Project and reproduced here under a Creative Commons license.