Commentary: Behind Europe's trend of aggression, intolerance and stupidity
As this year’s elections to the European Parliament have confirmed, it is no accident that populism and right-wing extremism are gaining strength throughout Europe. This is part of a trend we have been able observe for the last five to 10 years.
People are turning away from humanist ideas, and campaigns targeting migrants and Romani people are gaining in strength, efforts that contravene human rights principles and are often of a violent nature. Agression, intolerance, and a preference for primitive formulas to "solve" complicated phenomena have been gradually gaining strength, and there is no doubt that coexistence with (and the integration of some) Romani people living in the Czech Republic are just such phenomena.
The must vulnerable as the culprits
The societal atmosphere is characterized by seeking "the culprits responsible for making things worse" among the most vulnerable and labeling them as such: Those who are different, who stand out, and who cannot effectively defend themselves against these charges due to their weakness. From being culprits they then become the "enemy within", who can be fought and defeated, thereby "finally solving" the problem.
As part of this way of thinking, everyday verbal assaults are perpetrated against Romani people, and frequent anti-Romani demonstrations are being held that are almost always linked to an attempted lynching or pogrom. Such demonstrations are always connected to the larger effort to terrorize Romani people and push them away "somewhere else".
Such relocation is now actually happening. Romani people are moving into the ghettos, the numbers of which are rapidly growing in the Czech Republic.
Extremists want power
If the racists in the Czech Republic didn’t have the Roma to blame, then today’s "enemy within" would probably become (to a much greater extent) Jewish people, migrants, the racists’ political opponents, sexual minorities, or anyone with a different world view. The extremists are not concerned about improving people’s lives or solving problems, but about getting into power.
How would they use that power? We have already seen how: They would use it the way the German Nazis behaved prior to and during WWII, or the way it was used at the end of the 1940s and throughout the 1950s during the Stalinist period of the former Czechoslovakia.
Cause #1: Globalization
As I have pointed out more than once, there is more than one cause behind this state of affairs. Times of change ("paradigm shifts") such as the one we have been living through always introduce uncertainty about the future, altering people’s values and views of the meaning and puprose of ethics and changing their interpersonal relationships as well.
All of this today is enhanced by manifestations of globalization, most of which are not accepted willingly, often for justifiable reasons. With the rise of globalization and an omnipresent postmodernist moral relativism, concerns are also growing about supra-national financial and political institutions that do not take into account the needs and opinions of ordinary people.
The operation of these institutions sometimes gives the impression that democracy is ending, or rather, that equality of opportunity is done for and oligarchy is beginning. This flight away from traditional European values and humanist ideas is also represented by the diffuse nature of EU decision-making, which features an evident lack of democracy and privileges technologies of power.
This, of course, is a reason for the EU to become even more integrated, not for it to unravel, as the road back to the "scene of the crime" will help no one. The EU’s decision-making mechanism consists primarily of political horsetrading behind the scenes between the governments of the Member States.
The European Parliament continues to play an inferior role. Bureaucrats have more powers than legislators in relation to the creation of EU directives, as it is officials who draft their wording and interpret the consequences of political debates and votes, and many people are now lending an ear to the Europhobic voices coming mainly from both the ultra-left and ultra-right as a result.
Weak national self-confidence
Part of globalization includes the dissemination of American customs, lifestyle, and pop culture (primarily a few prefabricated, stupid Hollywood action screenplays), which rub many people the wrong way – once again, completely understandably. Local customs and morals, starting with folk art and ending with specific holidays, are becoming old-fashioned.
Previously the Sovietologists forced Grandfather Frost (Дед Мороз) on us, and today globalization is forcing Santa Claus down our throats – very simplistically put, this summarizes the feelings of many people. This phenomenon, moreover, is connected with a much greater dosage of a consumerist view of the world, and with repudiating the dimensions of spiritual life and values.
The healthy national self-confidence that facilitates greater tolerance of others is therefore weakened. A lack of self-confidence leads to fear of the unknown.
Cause #2: Nationalism
These situations are leading to a renewed strengthening of support for "nation-states". Some politicians at the highest levels, supported by part of the population, are repeating the old errors based on the supposition that democracy can function only in nation-states and cannot function over larger territorial units (in the Czech Republic, this view is represented by ex-President Václav Klaus and Co.).
Nationalism is coming back into play, which in connection with other events is being transformed into chauvinism, racism, xenophobia, and a rising number of those who agree with extremist views of the world. All of these aspects have always been components of nationalism (but not of pure love of one’s homeland or patriotism).
Cause #3: Frustration/latent racism
In my experience as someone who has long covered the topic of Romani people and the lives of those in the ghettos, the cause of the rising hatred toward the Romani minority here is not Romani people’s behavior or way of life, but the latent racism that is surfacing from people’s rising frustrations. Testament to this is the fact that ordinary people have been joining the anti-Romani demonstrations in ever-increasing numbers because the racist slogans and violent nature of such marches no longer bother them.
Problems in interethnic coexistence have always been a feature of this society. Suddenly, over the last few years, they have started to bother people.
Cause #4: Prejudices, the socioeconomic situation, and stereotypes
People’s deteriorating socioeconomic situations are also part of the immediate causes here, as is the poor outlook for their future quality of life and standard of living (or at least people’s sense that the future looks bleak). People from the lower middle class generate probably the most frustration, as they sense their standard of living is coming close to that of the most impoverished (or that this might happen).
Entrenched behavior and thought patterns also contribute to this situation. These are the prejudices and stereotypes that are, with the aid of the internet, becoming more and more a part of public discourse and our mutual confirmation of "our truth", which then becomes part of the collective consciousness.
Cause #5: Behavior of media outlets and politicians
Many politicians are contributing to this long-term deterioration in the atmosphere of our society, and not just extremist or populist ones. The mainstream media (most of it) is also contributing, as are the new media (the internet).
Politicians score political points through hateful, populist slogans. The media are abandoning journalistic ethics, professionalism, and their societal role in the name of higher ratings and readership (for details, see the ROMEA association’s Report on the State of the Romani Minority in 2012).
The media and political establishment plays an integral role in manipulating information, distracting attention away from unsolved problems by presenting inconsequential information as important and therefore artificially creating substitute problems. Essential matters are reported on very superficially, if at all, and instead of facts, the media offers negative emotions to its consumers as the alternative.
In this way, the media and political spheres have worked their way up to actually developing intolerance of Romani people in society, which today is a formula that will always reliably guarantee both votes and higher ratings or readership. Because a growing number of politicians are interested just in power, not in trying to solve problems, they are making ample use of this intolerance – and there is no need to doubt that media publishers are just solely interested in their own profits
Cause #6: Unexamined causes
The media and politicians discuss the entire Romani minority as a problem, even though complaints about them (justified or not) concern just a small portion of the people living in socially excluded localities. The manifestations of the "culture of poverty" that dominates life in the ghettos and is a cause of both this unfortunate state of affairs and the quality of interethnic coexistence here are not being examined by anyone – instead, the media is full of information about the effects of this poverty: Petty crime, an inability to maintain good relations with neighbors, long-term unemployment, low levels of education (and the related loss of social habits).
The consequences
What are the consequences of all this for the most vulnerable? In addition to the anti-Romani demonstrations, there are specific cases of violence being perpetrated because of a victim’s (actual or perceived) ethnicity, a phenomenon that experts call hate violence (or hate crime).
Today there is also open, undisguised discrimination against people because of their (actual or perceived) ethnicity, primarily in access to employment, housing, and the schools. This all leads to frustration, a permanent sense of humiliation, and fear among the Romani people living ghettos, reducing their ability to address their difficult living situations, and the consequence is a kind of coexistence that bothers both the Roma and their "white" neighbors.
Czech Social Democrats (ČSSD) on the way to solving these problems
The first Czech government ever to make progress toward a comprehensive resolution of these problems is today’s cabinet, led by Prime Minister Bohumil Sobotka. In addition to the PM, it is mainly Minister Dienstbier and Minister Marksová-Tominová who are aware of the very dangerous situation we are in and who want to do something substantial about it that will have a chance of succeeding.
Let’s hope they succeed in pushing through their proposals with their coalition partners and that the Government will then have enough time to bring its ideas to life. Let’s also hope that the dormant civil society in the Czech Republic will finally lift up its head, and that the few politicans who are concerned about these matters and not just about their own careers will do everything in their power to assist them.
