This world is vast and separated by so many cultures and countries. Being so far apart and essentially disconnected, I guess it's easy to see other nationalities as completely alien to ourselves and label them in cliché ways. It's easy, even, to imagine that they have nothing in common with us and could potentially be our enemies. Indeed, when we are at war, dehumanising the enemy is what allows us to indiscriminately kill them, or accept and even support their slaughter. Civilians, women and children become just collateral damage.
For a long time, I've accepted that as individuals, when we get to know one another, we actually have a lot in common. My grandmother was German and lived through the second world war. I can only imagine what sort of reception she must have gotten from people around her when she moved to England to marry my grandfather. She never talked to me about it. For a long time many British held a lot of resentment towards the Germans.
I can't claim to not have preconceptions about other cultures still. When the only things you know of a country and its people come from the media, you generally only get to know a small part about them. Until recently, I had this assumption that if someone isn't in a first world country, they won't know about a lot of the modern things and be able to come by modern technologies. I guess I also made an assumption that communication with them would have to be be much more simplified and they might not get jokes or banter; which is probably true for those not very fluent in English, but certainly isn't for those who have any proficiency in the language.
Steem has really been an eye opener. As I meet more people from all around the world I start to even question what is a second or third world country is and I'm certainly questioning whether we are really very different to each other. We value similar things, enjoy similar things, laugh at similar things and experience similar struggles. Yes, there are bad people in all cultures, but there are good people too and the majority of people are good, even if they do have disagreements on certain things.
Recently my daughter was expressing her exasperation about how many people she encountered seemed to have something against Americans and what they felt was "Americanism" taking over. Admittedly, there are often jokes and conceptions about how Americans act, but let's be honest, it's usually the extremes that are shared on social media; the Texan on The Simpsons or People of Wal-Mart. Yet I have never personally met an American I didn't like. Most people who travel outside of their country are pretty open minded, so it was sad to think that some people might be unwelcoming to someone visiting their country, purely based on their nationality.
When we go to war, do we the people choose to do this, or is it our governments/leaders? When Germany started invading its neighbours, how many German people do you think believed that this was a great idea? How many do you think wanted to be at war? When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, how many Japanese people do you think said to their government, “let's attack somewhere American”? How many do you belive thought it would be a great idea to slaughter men, women and children from other countries? I know the Japanese military did some awful things in China, but are the military representatives of the majority of the people? Should they all be blamed for the atrocities of a government and the military they send to do their dirty work?
I know that where I live the majority of people are peaceful and don't want to be funding or supporting war. So I would guess that there are similar feelings in many other countries.
What I've taken from my experiences in life is that each individual should be judged on their own merits. Not every Nigerian will scam you and many will even have the same values as you. Not all Americans think that their country is the centre of the world, in fact most are quite aware that there are a multitude of countries in existence. People in third and second world countries do have access to technology and the internet. Maybe not as much as first world countries, yet even Australia’s average internet speeds trail behind many countries we might think less advanced than us.
We all have much more in common than we might realise. Don't let others make your judgements for you, make your own judgements.