It seems that the establishment of any ‘new’ country or ‘state’ requires the killing or subjugating of millions of the indigenous population.
This is because as a planet we only have a limited amount of land, and nearly all of it is already populated.
History is littered with humanity doing this to humanity. It seems to be what we do.
In my own heritage, the Romans invaded England forcing Christianity on the population on pain of death.
Just a few more recent examples include the invasion of Australia and the subjugating of the Aborigine, New Zealand and the subjugating of the Māori, the invading of what later became the United States of America and fighting with the Native Americans, the invading of Palestine and establishment of Israel by displacing and killing or enslaving the indigenous Arab population, and then forcing them to live in the baron bits of the land not required by the colonists. This treatment of Palestinians is a copy of the treatment of Native Americans, and probably borrows from the original experience. Which in turn borrows from previous versions in other places. The British and Spanish empires, the Roman empire, etc., etc., etc. All of them invade and take what they want, killing the indigenous populations or forcing them into slavery.
Right now we are seeing the establishment of the Islamic State. Again, this is using the same process, the same procedure of the mass killing and torture of those who are already living there. Those that aren’t killed are given impossible to meet ultimatums or herded into controlled baron areas, just as they have been in Gaza and the Occupied Territories.
The stories and pictures of the massacre and brutalising of Yazidis and Christians from Northern Iraq and Southern Syria which are being lost from their original populations in favour of supporters of the Islamic State.
There are fundamentally no differences between the establishment of the Islamic State and the establishment of Israel. In both cases the ‘invaders’ are highly financed and have access to considerable weaponry and a people happy to be cruel to human beings that don’t look like them.
To cope with the enormity of this reality, this reality that this truly is who we – the human race – are, I can only hope that it is a process we will eventually grow out of, and is a process that in some way – in the bigger picture – makes us as a species stronger. It might be a part of our limited term natural selection, but it is pretty grisly and never seems to stop. As a species we almost enjoy killing ourselves.
I accept that this process of being so disgusting to other members of our species will not stop in my lifetime. I will die long before it does stop. But, I am full of optimism that it will stop. Eventually.
England's England 