Because behaviors like racism, sexism or ageism are better understood in light of our strong biological tendency to divide the world between our group to which we belong and “the others”. Thus in all primates, humans included, brain activation associated with danger occurs in less than a tenth of a second at the sight of a stranger, even more so if he does not have the same color of face. skin than us. And with language, we can rationalize why another group is inferior and denigrate them with great versatility, ranging from verbal microaggression… to genocide. The opposite is also true. Get in trouble in a stadium wearing a jersey from either team, and it's that team's fans who will help you the most, as one of many studies on in-group favoritism shows.
During this holiday season, it reminds me of the famous Christmas truce declared by British and German soldiers during the First World War. Despite the officers who wanted them to remain in the trenches shooting at each other, the opposing soldiers spent the day singing, praying and celebrating together. And even to exchange gifts and play football! Their allegiance to their homeland and their superiors had given way to a more important “We” for these young people, that of celebrating as people their age do at this time of year. Knowing all this, it is undoubtedly less the promotion of virtuous morality that can make a difference than understanding the control mechanisms and rapid recategorizations that are within our reach.
The best and worst of our species can thus make us alternate between hope and despair. But if there is one thing that must be repeated, it is the idea that the so-called superiority of economic liberalism that the dominant maintain in the public space, and which constantly accentuates inequalities, is only 'a story, a set of linguistic justifications. And that means that other stories could very well be put forward in their place and promote other social realities. As David Graeber, an anthropologist who did not hide his anarchist affinities, said:
“The ultimate, hidden truth about the world is that it is something we create. And that we might as well create differently. »
For him, it is when we lose this capacity to imagine and experiment with new forms of collective existence that we find ourselves stuck and resigned, politically speaking, to believing that the liberal capitalist economy is the final outcome. of humanity.
In these gloomy times where the discourse of an uninhibited extreme right resonates more and more in official stories, I wish us a holiday season with Christmas stories, of course, but also the creation of other stories capable of bring back a little of our humanity. Stories that would make us feel “on the same team”, united against a common enemy if that helps, which could be everything that makes our little spaceship, Earth, inhospitable and potentially uninhabitable. I'll let you find examples, there's no shortage of choice to stick together.
