PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

Xenophobia is defined as the fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners.

Taking it further, it's also the fear and hatred of strange or foreign things such as ideas or beliefs.

Don't be a xenophobe, everyone, reach out!  Understand!

Don't stay in your comfort zone because it's safer and true.

That the way you're living is thought of or ordained as "the only one" whether it be through religion, morals, ethics, or general standards.

Don't be insular.

Insularity basically means you're narrow-minded especially when you only believe in what your group of people who think alike believe in and absolutely don't believe in what outsiders are thinking.

It's like living in an island with people you know

but aren't willing to open up to outsiders at all.

Insularity and xenophobia create divisions.

It divides people in this world who biologists today have found out that every human on this planet is 99.8 percent similar to everyone else in terms of genetics and DNA.

The missing .2 percent is what makes our skin colors different, our eye colors different, our heights, anything that makes us physically in appearance different.

Why are we going to stereotype, discriminate, be prejudice, and create divisions when we're all genetically similar?

I don't understand that.

But not only that, no matter how different you are in appearance everyone around the world also shares similar core human conditions.

Everybody experiences love, hate, sorrow, regret, jealousy, happiness, heartache, loneliness, frustration, stress, and this list goes on and on...

Everybody bleeds just like you when your finger is pricked.

It's just that different people embellish or adorn these basic core human conditions with their own unique cultures, beliefs, and practices.

Even if on the surface different people with differences express these emotions the same way you do.

Don't immediately judge a person because the culture of that person is strange to you from what you yourself grew up with.

Don't be an ethnocentrist.

Ethnocentrism is a sociological term meaning you interpret or judge another person's culture and beliefs with your own culture and beliefs as a model or code to judge and interpret other people and what they believe in.

To put it simply, you use your own beliefs as a model or code to judge and interpret other people and what they believe in.

Instead, be a cultural relativist.

Cultural relativism is the opposite of ethnocentrism.

It means you try to interpret and UNDERSTAND people from their point of view and not from your own point of view.

With cultural relativism, you don't judge people who are different from you with your own culture, morals, or beliefs with your eyes but see it in theirs.

You can understand a lot better if you look at it from their perspective.

If the world did all the above as best they could we could lessen or alleviate hate, suffering, wars, misunderstandings.

Although it's frankly impossible to completely wipe out all negativity in this world and promote long lasting peace, we can make a change for the better instead of what it's like now.

All of us living in this world can make a change for the better if we do it.

All of us can be moving toward a bright future rather than staying put and doing nothing because what was stated above is a fantasy.

To me, this isn't a fantasy or something ideal.

In my eyes, I regard this as a POSSIBILITY with the restriction that if everyone makes the choice to do something to create a better, more UNDERSTANDING world, it will come true.

You can bet on it.

We are stronger united than separated.

And it's great to have a social harmony than to be in social discordance.

It's sad how many out there still divide, still oppress, still misunderstand each other.

They create walls between people who aren't the same as them and themselves.

And there are some who put strain and pressure unto others to conform to what they themselves believe to be physically, spiritually, emotionally, or mentally "correct."

There are people out there who would go as far as to use violence and murder to enforce their ideals as "true."

And tragically, there are many out there who don't reach out, take a risk, understand people's differences, and embrace it.

Conformity can be such a horrible thing.

So think for yourself everybody.

Don't follow the system because everybody does it.

Or that it ensures "safety" of ourselves from unwanted, sometimes "evil" things.

That thinking outside the box is dangerous to you.

That it's unacceptable.

That anything foreign must not be trusted because the "system" is the ONLY way to live by.

That it's the only thing "right."

That you won't be guaranteed safety, freedom, or love if you ventured to the "other side" that's looked upon as wrong.

Because if everything and everybody become homogenous,

if everything became completely uniform in every single aspect of our lives you basically annihilate CHOICE.

You become a mindless zombie incapable of deciding and thinking for yourself.

The world we live in, although is a struggle of differing perspectives and realities on which is right and wrong, all of us could reach a consensus and compromise on some things if we try.

We can create bridges to cross over and help understand each other's differences.

"You Can If You Think You Can," says Walter D. Wintles in his poem and I agree.

It's not at all impossible.

If there's one prominent thing I've learned so far within my twenty years living here on this Earth, it's this...



(and take it into consideration even if you don't like my own opinion)



The most significant thing I've learned growing up is that there are two emotions we have that make the world as it is today:



LOVE and FEAR.



When we LOVE someone we have to respect ourselves before we can learn to love and even respect others.

You have to do it before you express that you LOVE someone else.  

LOVE is the most common and shared emotion absolutely everyone feels presently and throughout human history.

LOVE can make the world go round if we let it.

Yet love can be used for the wrong reasons.

Sometimes it can be seen as factually deceitful and unsound.

People who follow the status quo often imply that

"If you follow us, you'll be accepted.  Don't and you won't."

"If you be like us, we'll love you and truly do.  Don't and we'll abandon you."

"If you follow what we do, you'll be 'correct' because our system says so."  

"So don't worry, be just like us and we'll care for you and understand."  

"We won't stigmatize you for being different just as long as you conform to our ways."

"Your ways are wrong but the system is right."

"Therefore, follow the 'right' institutions."

"Follow the mainstream."

"If ever you decide not to, too bad, you had the chance of our love and acceptance but now you'll be left behind."

Now things brings me to the emotion of FEAR.

There's common knowledge out there that the root of all evil is money.

Some say it's ignorance.

Others (if you're religious or especially a monotheist) blame a source of evil, commonly Satan, the devil, for  bringing evil into this world.

I believe from a practical and rational view that the root of all evil is FEAR.

FEAR is what divides us.

Let's face it.

FEAR creates DEEP BOUNDARIES.

Boundaries beget HATE, IGNORANCE, AND UNREASONABLE SELF-CENTEREDNESS.

FEAR is what blinds us to help one another.

FEAR is what prevents us from reaching out and bridging common understanding.

FEAR disrupts LOVE, HOPE, and HARMONY.

FEAR is what hinders us to understand people's differences.

And lastly, FEAR is what renders us HATEFUL, IGNORANT, AND SELF-CENTERED.

FEAR stops people from LOVING EACH OTHER.

Don't let fear of people who are different from you, people who don't conform, people who you may believe is wrong because the majority says so prevent you from being able to think on your own and understand people who are different.

Don't let the mainstream keep you chained to it and separated away from others outside the system.

Because following the mainstream and ignoring or hating outsiders divides us as individuals.

And the mainstream tries to suppress and oppress outsiders.

It's a common THEME throughout history.

Take, for example, the suffragists who fought for the women's vote.

Mainstream male dominant voters from before detested that likelihood and found ways to stop it simply because voting was a political, male thing.

A male institution and not female.

Voting was a public sphere, not a private sphere.

Men can only vote and that's the status quo.

Men created divisions by labeling themselves as rational thinkers while women were emotional thinkers.

But think in terms of today.

Couldn't women also be rational thinkers?

Couldn't they be both rational AND emotional?

Not just one and that's it?

And what about men too?

Couldn't men feel?

Couldn't they feel emotion?

I'm a guy and I cry sometimes when I have to.

That's natural.

I can't always be a rational thinker 100 percent of the time.

So what's wrong?

You see how this division creates tension and misunderstanding?

Creating labels separate us as human beings.

Back to FEAR, I know some say FEAR is a good thing (but at times, it can still be seen as negative).

Take for example raising an infant.

Sometimes we use fear as a tool to make sure that a child is safe from doing any wrong such as scaring a child, stating that that lysol spray is "bad magic" manipulating the child's safety in order to prevent that child from playing with it which I don't see anything negative about that.

However, you have to draw a line when using FEAR for what the system feels as 'the better good.'

Using FEAR as a tool to keep you inside the system.

Inside the status quo.

What the system labels as 'incorrect' places a sense of fear on that very thing.

It's a dialogue of "we're right, the outsiders are wrong and you should be afraid of them for their erring selves."

In my opinion, that's repulsive.

I'd rather think for myself and embrace people who are different from me.

I prefer to accept others outside for who they are than to follow everyone else thinking that "our way is correct."

"It's the only path correct."

Even if I become labeled as an outsider too because I've learned to love and accept people who are not like me, or even if I'm accused as a traitor to the system, I'll understand...

It's okay.

I'm not mad but before, honestly, I used to.

You see, I don't blame, criticize, or hate "conformists" who believe that they're right, I blame the system for giving the mentality of "we're right, you're wrong" and using fear and a false sense of love and security and acceptance to endorse it.

And disallowing real love, respect, and understanding to take place with foreign ideas, people, customs, beliefs, religions, morals, and standards is going too far.



These are my opinions.  

I'm not trying to sell nor impose my opinions to the world like a T.V. or radio ad but I'm expounding an idea, a CHOICE, an ALTERNATIVE REALITY we could make so that the world will be whole lot better for everyone to truly get along.