Tomáš Tempo Jaroš Blog

DEMOCRACY AND RACISM

A truly democratic society is not boring but rather colorful as a blooming meadow full of various flowers. Democracy by its very nature is not just about the tolerance of other opinions, it is primarily about the tolerance of differences in society.

So where does racism and intolerance between people come from? At its core it is fear more precisely fear of something unknown and different from us. We are afraid of what we don't know. It is natural to go through the process of learning about something new with a feeling of fear. But the important thing is that this fear must not control and blind us from the very beginning. Getting to know new things will always enrich us and we will gain valuable life experience. These life experiences can be naturally good or bad, such is life. We should not immediately after several bad experiences or even on the recommendation of our friends, completely omit this cognition process from our lives. This process is important and must not disappear. Without this process we would get into a safe bubble but we would also lose a lot. Beacause this conformal bubble is filled with prejudices and fears, which in the extreme case, can turn into hatred against all differences in our surroundings and this can easily result in violence and war. The whole process of meeting new people is not about just fully trusting someone else, but rather about not being afraid of initial acquaintance and dialogue. Dialogue means two-way empathic communication without prejudices in order to gain one's own experience. So let's judge other people, especially on the basis of our own experience and give it a chance at all.

Another cause of intolerance among people can be envy. One would like to have what the other has envy a richer or more handsome person. In the desire to own, envy often escalates into the theft of foreign property. The difference in appearance then escalates into bullying someone. We simply have to come to terms with the fact that we are born visually different born into different property conditions and that we are all original and unique persons. We all look the way we do, we each live our own unique life and not all of us just the same one life that is presented to us as an ideal in medias such as TV or instagram.

An important value in a democracy is equality independent of wealth and property. Everyone should be given the same opportunity to take part in society and it should be independent of differences such as wealth gender, skin color, age, nationality sexual orientation, religion and many other differences. We should not accept this inequality and ask for equal opportunity and equality before the law for all because it is the basis of a true democratic society.

As another reason I should mention the prevailing principle of competition in society. Principle of competition as opposed principle of cooperation means to have competitors, rivals and opponents. It means in the extreme to hate and showing this hatred against competition through intolerance and racism. On the other hand cooperation cannot be based on hatred and all the negative manifestations of competition and manifestations of evil in it. So I am in favor of cooperation as the prevailing principle in human society.

Destructive protests destroying private and public property are the result of long-standing dissatisfaction with inequality and racism in society. Disrespect for other people's work and private property is undoubtedly reprehensible. Although property is being destroyed the aim of the protesters is to point out the problem of disrespect for human life by disrespecting of this foreign property. Disrespect based for example on different treatment of people of different skin. Thus property is destroyed and the value of man and his life is placed at the forefront of interest instead of worthless property and materialism. The fight against racism is the real fight of humanism.

I see as a big problem that democracies around the world are constantly weakened by racism and this can be exploited by totalitarian regimes that offer an equal society in their ideology where everyone is equal. However this equality is a mere illusion which in its essence does not respect the different but on the contrary fights the differences in society and strives for conformity. Exaggerated nationalism and national superiority are also a global problem which can then manifest itself as national racism, which can threaten not only humanism but also the integrity and future of unions and communities of states such as the European Union or USA.

Let's search for what unites us all, for example, that we are all earthlings, people living on planet Earth.

Tomas "TEMPO" Jaros