Exceptions to the Rule

Among the most pervasive of human characteristics is the tendency to define oneself by whom one is NOT. To the extent such self-proclaimed distinctiveness rests on measurable differences in accomplishment or ability, it is as natural as it is, perhaps, desirable. In a race as competitive as ours, the urge to run faster, jump higher, sing or write or rule "better" than anyone else may be as much a spur to activity as the more elemental needs for food and shelter. But when people extend their (more or less) innate differences in deed to perceived differences in kind, when they equate "difference" with "otherness" and thereby set themselves apart from those deemed irretrievably outside their circle, trouble results.

History is replete with examples of the barbarities to which sentiments of "otherness" may give rise. From the denial of citizenship to Native Americans and African-Americans and Asian-Americans in the United States to the near-extermination of European Jewry (whom the Nazis explicitly regarded as just so many vermin) to contemporary terrorist attacks against "the infidel," the human race has repeatedly demonstrated its own moral unfitness for survival. Infinitely more prosaic, yet in its way equally indicative of humankind's intellectual primitivism and psychological immaturity, is the widespread tendency among people of one nationality or country to boost their own sense of superiority by denigrating those born elsewhere. Such a tendency has been sadly evident in most of the countries I've visited over the past fourteen years. The Slovaks hate the Hungarians; the Hungarians belittle the Jews and the Gypsies; the Latvians despise the Russians; the Russians look down upon virtually all non-Russians; the Chinese disparage the Russians -- and everyone else; the Azeris loathe the Armenians to literally genocidal extremes. While I myself experienced little of this "other"-directed hostility --as an American, as a Jew, or even as the generic foreigner -- such bigotry in and of itself belied any and all claims to superiority over any creature except a severely brain-damaged cockroach.

That the penchant for derogating others who are not "like us" is no more intrinsic to the human species than, say, love of music or addiction to cocaine was brought home to me by my sojourn in Mongolia. Though imbued with a perhaps excessive pride in Genghis Khan and a historically understandable distrust of the Chinese, the Mongolians do not appear to define themselves at the expense of other cultures, other peoples, other countries. On the contrary, the Mongolians -- at least the ones I met -- were quite open to (if, to be sure, often not very interested in) ideas and practices, beliefs and traditions alien to their own background and experience. This openness, far from reflecting any lack of respect for their own heritage and achievements, demonstrated a cultural and ethnic self-confidence that did not depend on denigration of "the other" for its survival. Such non-chauvinistic partiality was all the more welcome after my stay in three countries -- China, Russia, Azerbaijan -- where prejudice toward "the other" is almost a prerequisite for acceptance into the national community.

Like Mongolia, Korea displays a level of cultural and ethnic tolerance seemingly at odds with its longstanding reputation in the West as the Hermit Kingdom. While yielding to none in the intensity of their identity as a separate nation, the Koreans -- again, to judge from my admittedly limited experience -- refrain from making "anti-otherness" a necessary component of that identity. Even the occasionally mooted proposal to make English the country's second official language, though widely resisted, is not accompanied (as it would be in China or Russia) by hyperbolic (and hypocritical) denunciations of "linguistic imperialism"; Korean represents a vibrant and indispensable part of the country's uniqueness, not a sign of its superiority over everyone else.

None of which is meant to suggest that xenophobia is entirely unknown in Mongolia or Korea -- or, conversely, that every Chinese, every Russian, every Azeri views their own kind as the ne plus ultra of human civilization. Nor am I blind to the intolerance and discrimination that continue to greet many groups worldwide, wherever their members reside. Ongoing disrespect for and maltreatment of women, homosexuals, the poor represent a global scourge absent the removal of which any claim to be "civilized" is a half-truth at best. But when it comes to perceiving coexistence as something more than a geopolitical convenience, as an ideal capable of enriching all humanity without impoverishing anyone, some people (and peoples) are certainly far ahead of others. Whatever those "others" might insist to the contrary.