So, drinking my morning coffee while the quarrelsome wonder-brothers of the 90's sang "I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now", I realized how well the song describes the current public discussions about sensitive issues.
Recently, I have encountered two different debates, which nevertheless have quite similar features. On the one hand there is the inflammatory argument about gun control in the US, and on the other hand there is the monochrome discussion about racism and immigrants in Finland.
Since as a European it is easy to laugh at Americans, I begin with the first debate (to have an example, watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWQPZ-taYBs ).
In 2012, tragic (school) shootings in the US made millions of people all over the world sad, angry and helpless. Obviously, something needs to be done in order to stop further atrocieties from happening. However, the suggestions to solve the issue seem to circle around banning and/or restricting the availability of firearms and giving more guns for civilians for self-protection. Furthermore (and beyond my understanding), most of the discussion seems to focus on statistics: how many deaths with firearms vs. other causes of deaths.
But seriously, doesn't the pro-gun side see the elephant in the room? Though "guns don't kill people, humans do", it is a lot easier to blow someone's head off with a rifle than with a fist.
Now, to come to the other debate; racism and immigrants. In Finland, "the safe-haven of the North", racism has been a particularly frantic topic the past weeks due to an article written by Umayya Abu-Hanna, a Palestinian-Finnish journalist and a former member of the Helsinki city council. In her article Abu-Hanna talks about the Finnish intolerance, which ultimately made her move out from Helsinki to the other side of the Baltic Sea – Amsterdam. Like the gun control law in the US, Abu-Hanna's article has divided the discussion into two sides. As, Jaakko Lyytinen aptly writes in Helsingin Sanomat (12.01.), the current debate (like many others in our societies) is based on superficial, spontanious emotions. It is easy to be an angry agressor or a pious good samaritarian than to look at both sides and realize that there is not one absolute truth. There are only arguments and claims that each side can try to reason as far as possible.
If we stick only to the feeling of nobody "feels the way I do about you now", we will end up in the same situation as Oasis did when they fell apart. Instead of focusing on what matters (music in their case), we will end up fighting over who is right.
Because, let's face it: depending on the environment, each of us can act wisely and foolishly, or be tolerant and intolerant.
Ei kommentteja:
Lähetä kommentti