Brexit supporters to Trump, exploitation of our fear of the 'other'
"Who do we think we are, and who do we want to be? Are we so different from others that we cannot play by shared rules? Are we one member in a family of nations, or a country that prefers to keep itself to itself and bolt the door?"
These lines appeared in The Guardian ahead of the United Kingdom's EU referendum, which is on June 23, when the UK goes to vote on whether to stay in or leave the European Union following an enormous amount of both political debate and research. The contest is too close to call, but the researchers agree almost unanimously that the mood is in favour of UK staying in the EU.
Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly however, given the general drift of politics globally, the fact that expert opinion is so heavily lopsided have not translated into poll numbers in Brexit. Thanks to a shockingly insensitive and relentless campaign carried out by Brexit forces headed by the UKIP (UK Independence Party), a substantial part of UK believes that foreigners in the country from the EU drag the "native" British down.
The campaign of divisiveness that the Guardian article says was cited by the Brexit crowd can easily be identified in America, where Donald Trump wants Hispanics and Muslims to be barred from entering because they are murderers, rapists and terrorists, or closer home, in Assam where "Bangladeshis" seem to be at the heart of an identity crisis. It was witnessed recently in Kerala, ahead of the arrest of a migrant labourer from Assam in the rape and murder case of a Dalit law student in April.
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Kerala has millions of migrant labourers, just as hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees pouring into Europe in order to escape certain destruction, or the Mexicans and Muslims in the US. Yet the majority, so called "native", communities are overwhelmingly convinced that the conspiracy of the "others" is behind problems ranging from "stealing our jobs" to "disrupting our youth and culture", all the way to terrorism, as suggested by Trump after the Orlando massacre.
In the wake of these arguments, policy measures are suggested, such as building a wall around Mexico or deporting illegal Bangladeshi immigrants of Islamic faith in particular, or UK leaving the EU, or European countries such as Hungary and Poland being xenophobic about refugees, and being prepared to close its borders in the interest of safeguarding "national" interest.
This begs the question: how can so many countries simultaneously have these "other" communities that cause the bulk of their problems and threaten their identity and culture?
After all, Kerala which now suspects migrant labourers working the jobs Keralaites won't (much like the Hispanics in US) itself sends millions of migrants to the Gulf and US. India, so sick and tired of Bangladeshi immigrants, sends hordes upon hordes of migrants abroad itself. How do these convictions of migrants being at the centre of all problems suddenly evaporate when one's own community is subjected to the same beliefs?
As the Guardian article cited, are we really so different so as to play by a whole different set of rules?
The truth is, every community in majority - regardless of place or race - has historically shown signs of blaming a disproportionate amount of their anxieties on the perceived "other". Thus, Keralaites are worried about migrants from Assam and the likes as Maharasthra's Shiv Sena (which recently celebrated 50 years) was worried of migrants from Bihar, and continues to be so. Globally, Trump displays the anxiety now about the Mexicans that Hitler did about the Jews in the 1930s.
However, in varying degrees, the arguments made are always the same: migrants take our jobs, cost us money, ruin our economy, threaten our identity and are fundamentally untrustworthy and inclined towards violence. Match every ideologue of the migrant crisis, and these arguments recur not only in their scope in various degrees, but also in their incorrectness.
For example, while Trump's vile tales of bigotry, and Narendra Modi's undercurrents of the same, are all the people today can talk about, Brexit supporters are not to be underestimated, even if they've been more understated. Its supporters are known for insensitive words like "I don't like negroes, while the UKIP president defended a colleague calling Chinese people "chinki" by saying "a lot of people" would call them that, even though he wouldn't personally.
However, experts consistently disagree that migrants bring down the economy or disproportionately "take jobs". In terms of the crime rates, it can be shown that migrants are less likely to commit a crime, yet disproportionately more likely to be convicted.
Experts have widely denounced the UKIP-led Brexit campaign, saying it would adversely impact UK's economic prosperity, but the average Brexit voter is being described as voting from his supremacist heart rather than his brain.
There is a disregard for expert opinion on the ground, be it the Brexit supporters or those of Trump or the "Modi bhakts". They rely solely on their perceptions of "alien" communities, like the perception of majority communities in Kerala and Assam that migrants are taking over their state.
With so many similarities in social and political discourse globally, a pattern begins to appear. And, unsurprisingly, it has a name: xenophobia: an inherent mistrust of people from "other" countries. It is a close cousin of racism: mistrust of "other" races.
Let us not forget it is a phobia, a fear and it brings with it all the irrationalities that fear produces.
There is an inherent self-preservationist reflex in us which tells us not to trust something that is different, and to tap into this mistrust in times of crises is so much easier than to look into one's own community, one's own beliefs and culture.
This is exactly where politics steps in, and a demagogue taps into this fear among a community that grows more disillusioned and angry everyday.
Therefore, whether it is Trump's campaign now in the US or the emergence of Nazi-like right-wing political parties in the UK, the demagogue merely uses the already existing anxiety and amplifies it through news anchors screaming their vocal chords out on screen.
One must remember that in India, the Shiv Sena's rise 50 years ago also came in the background of the disillusionment of the less educated, unemployed Maharashtrian youth, or that Nazism's rise came out of the economic and moral low point in German history following the back-breaking treaty Germany signed after losing the First World War.
A study by 'The Atlantic' revealed the four defining characteristics of Trump's supporters:
1. They didn't go to college.
2. They don't think they have a political voice.
3. They want to wage a war against outsiders.
4. They live in parts of the country with racial resentment.
How many of these factors can we see in the BJP's voter-base, or in that of the Brexit supporters in the UK? How can there be so much of similarity unless these patterns are being created deliberately, like the communal undercurrents the BJP manages to conjure, or the vitriolic rhetoric of Trump.
The method is simple for the demagogue among a voter base made up of the poor, uninformed and anxious. These leaders give anxiety a target. They convince a struggling local unskilled labourer that he is struggling because the migrant took his job, not because there are no jobs being created; that it is not a reflection on the labourer's self that he has little prospects but the treachery of "others".
As Arundhati Roy writes in 'Listening to Grasshoppers', it is easy to convince people who badly want to be better than they are, in fact, inherently better than "others", and that "other" now threatens to usurp them.
It is a surprisingly effective tactic because the seed of it is inherent in our minds. This propaganda is similar across campaigns undertaken by Trump, Modi or the UKIP, for the demagogue needs this fearmongering to convince his audience that a "ghost" exists.
It exists and it is one amongst us, impossible to tell them apart, so the only way to be safe is to get rid of all of them, or at least restrain them. Hence the urge to register them, to strip search them en masse, to ask their faith before you extend them the help that any and every religious belief mandates you give a fellow human.
The demagogue is running a poorly-written script everywhere. It is our fear, however, that is making the whole world a difficult place to be in.