Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

The “filth of others” can be described in as many ways as a human might use to justify their elevation of one tribe over the degradation of another.

Look at it critically - whenever you encounter a totalitarian-authoritarian personality bloviating about “those people over there” (others), its usually based on the totalitarian mechanism of ‘avoiding affinity with attributes considered unsavoury’ (filth).

This concept has other applications. If you have two villages, separated perhaps by a near-insurmountable mountain or lake, or if one of those villages raises cows while the other raises goats - this is usually the basis of the formation of a new dialect, accent, or indeed entirely new language. However, when civilization occurs and those two villages merge into a broader community, that language changes to become a unity.

This is observable at an individual level, too. Any unacknowledged or under-recognized similarities/identities/differences between two or more entities will inevitably be used to justify segregation of those entities. The solution, as always, is to identify similarities/identities/differences in a cohesive manner - this is anathema to the totalitarian-authoritarian personality, who is usually pretty stubborn about enforcing, in totality, those under-acknowledged facets.





I don’t see how this addresses the issue of there being an underlying real reason?

Of course the reason then subsquently can be inflated, conflated, mixed together strangely, contorted, etc… I’m not doubting that.


The underlying reason is a lack of cultural fluidity, or in other words, an over-abundance of cultural rigidity, which manifests as a desire to be free of other cultures.

The most effective antidote to totalitarian-authoritarianism is a one-way ticket to somewhere distant.

German villages, as comfortable as they are, don’t really promote this antidote.


> The underlying reason is a lack of cultural fluidity, or in other words, an over-abundance of cultural rigidity

And how do you know this? What’s the actual argument for why that must the case?


The abundance of evidence that humans will fight to death to be the clean ones.

Did you intend to reply to a different comment?

This doesn’t seem relevant to making an argument for the claims in the quoted text.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: