Xenophobia and the Archetypal Warrior

In Dance of Language, I ask the question, "Will the legacy humankind leaves to future generations be one of esprit de corps--a spirit of loyalty that unites us and encourages us to help one another--or will it be one of betrayal, caused by greed and indifference to human suffering and need?" The answer, in part, may lie in how we view what social scientists call the other. Scholars who study human behavior attribute the conflict between kindness and hatred largely to the distress that comes from fear of the other--people who have ideas that differ from your own or even the conflicting ideas themselves--and the subsequent inability to tolerate those who are not like us. The term the media has been using with some frequency now is xenophobia.


Definition
Xenophobia:  an unreasonable fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers or of that which is strange or foreign or perceived as different


Pronunciation
(zen - uh - foh - bee - uh) or (zee - nuh - foh - bee - uh)


Origin
Latin: xenos + phobos (phobia) = stranger, guest + fear or flight
First appeared in English in 1903
Many ancient Greeks believed that foreigners were barbarians, that Greeks were superior and, therefore, many believed strangers were meant to be enslaved.


Part of Speech
Noun


Examples
1.  Historically most cultures engaged in some sort of enslavement, which developed from a heightened degree of xenophobia, until the philosophical belief in democracy slowly encouraged freedom for all citizens.


2.  Xenophobia exists even in the most civilized groups of people because of mankind's universal fear of the unknown and their tendency to create concomitant laws and behavior.


3.  Reason and compassion often serve as antidotes to xenophobia, and when they do, people once considered to be part of the other take their place among the ranks of nation builders--artists and scientists, writers and humanitarians, people of diversity who share their talents to strengthen a country.


The reasons for intolerance vary, but research shows that the more tolerance for ambiguity we have, the more we can accept and understand the mysteries of life, of which the other plays an important role.  Because certainty is not probable, we live in gray areas. Understanding that uncertainty is an immutable part of life, however, may be the best antidote to our anxieties about life's many conflicts, especially the ones based on fear of the unknown and unfamiliar.


Perhaps we can even conquer our own personal xenophobia.  Perhaps we can become archetypal warriors who commit to the higher values of courage, selflessness and tolerance for the people and things different from ourselves. Perhaps not only justice but also right would be done.