It is the crucial question - Who you really hate? Is it the state (mainly foreign) policy or its citizens?
In order for better multicultural and intercultural understanding it is very important to make difference between official foreign state policy and between opinion of ordinary people. Yes, I can agree that we all hate US foreign policy, but it is not true that we all hate American people. Or maybe, in my case, I hate official Greek policy, but I can't say that i hate ordinary Greeks. We are all the same...
But, this is one big BUT, unfortunately I can say that I belong to a minority of citizens who share the same opinion about this issue. And I shall try to explain why it is like that.
Human mind works on the following principle: people see the world around them in pictures. Human mind tries to make these pictures as simple as they can be. This is due the mind's effort to make the perception of man's surrounding easier. This whole process results in more coherent picture of the world and in less conflicting situation inside human mind. And that is all about - avoiding conflicting situations inside ourselves. In this process of avoiding these kind of situations prejudices and unfair generalisations are born. Prejudice is nothing else than the product of the mental process described above. So, because ordinary people are often preoccupied with existential problems, because the don't want to be bother and because they want to maintain their inner peace, they adopt these simple pictures. And it is very important to say that these pictures aren't created just by the individuals by themselves. They are created, maintained and powered by the family, the society and especially nowadays the mass media. And these pictures (messages) are - all Americans are bad, all Greeks are bad etc.
All of this wouldn't be such a serious issue, if politicians (different political groups, nationalistic groups etc.) don't abuse this situation which is happening in the head of the ordinary people. They use it and abuse it in order to gain some political points, to gain more power, to gain more popular support for their plans. Plans which often are very insane, irrational and disastrous for human kind, don't forget the: Spanish Inquisition, slavery, Nazi Germany, Atomic bomb, Vietnam war, Iraq war, Bosnian war, racial segregation and many more. All of the examples mentioned above, had (at least in the beginning) great popular support. This popular support in some cases was from unseen proportion.
And that is really sad. What a irony! We (human kind) consider ourselves to be the most rational living beings on this planet. Yeah right!
My message is : Don't be bother to think with your own heads. Don't run away from the first obstacle you meet. Don't easily accept the black&white picture of life and world, which is served by the governments,mass media and society. Yes, I know that sometimes it can be really hard to do this, but anyway it is more easier than doing the body count at the end. Don't be afraid to speak up, your opinion sometimes can be very crucial.
So again - Who you really hate?
In order for better multicultural and intercultural understanding it is very important to make difference between official foreign state policy and between opinion of ordinary people. Yes, I can agree that we all hate US foreign policy, but it is not true that we all hate American people. Or maybe, in my case, I hate official Greek policy, but I can't say that i hate ordinary Greeks. We are all the same...
But, this is one big BUT, unfortunately I can say that I belong to a minority of citizens who share the same opinion about this issue. And I shall try to explain why it is like that.
Human mind works on the following principle: people see the world around them in pictures. Human mind tries to make these pictures as simple as they can be. This is due the mind's effort to make the perception of man's surrounding easier. This whole process results in more coherent picture of the world and in less conflicting situation inside human mind. And that is all about - avoiding conflicting situations inside ourselves. In this process of avoiding these kind of situations prejudices and unfair generalisations are born. Prejudice is nothing else than the product of the mental process described above. So, because ordinary people are often preoccupied with existential problems, because the don't want to be bother and because they want to maintain their inner peace, they adopt these simple pictures. And it is very important to say that these pictures aren't created just by the individuals by themselves. They are created, maintained and powered by the family, the society and especially nowadays the mass media. And these pictures (messages) are - all Americans are bad, all Greeks are bad etc.
All of this wouldn't be such a serious issue, if politicians (different political groups, nationalistic groups etc.) don't abuse this situation which is happening in the head of the ordinary people. They use it and abuse it in order to gain some political points, to gain more power, to gain more popular support for their plans. Plans which often are very insane, irrational and disastrous for human kind, don't forget the: Spanish Inquisition, slavery, Nazi Germany, Atomic bomb, Vietnam war, Iraq war, Bosnian war, racial segregation and many more. All of the examples mentioned above, had (at least in the beginning) great popular support. This popular support in some cases was from unseen proportion.
And that is really sad. What a irony! We (human kind) consider ourselves to be the most rational living beings on this planet. Yeah right!
My message is : Don't be bother to think with your own heads. Don't run away from the first obstacle you meet. Don't easily accept the black&white picture of life and world, which is served by the governments,mass media and society. Yes, I know that sometimes it can be really hard to do this, but anyway it is more easier than doing the body count at the end. Don't be afraid to speak up, your opinion sometimes can be very crucial.
So again - Who you really hate?
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