Would you support an initiative to bomb Agrabah?
Spending billions of dollars waging a military attack on Agrabah would mean billions of dollars in revenue for Washington insiders like Halliburton. Would you support it?
There’s just one problem.
Agrabah doesn’t exist. It’s the fictional city in the movie Aladdin.
Yet, a clever poll by Public Policy Polling revealed that many Americans support bombing Agrabah. In fact, 30% of Republicans and 41% of Trump-supporters support the bombing of Agrabah, a fictional city.
This is a sad statistic that reveals how quickly we disregard the value of human life. That in turn definitely helps explain why we allow 18,000 children to die of starvation each day. As I wrote in a previous post, titled Racism Engenders Violence, we cannot afford to have any less compassion or love for some humans simply because they are not in “our group”.
Surely, this isn’t a problem just for Trump-supporters but rather of human nature and our shared weakness in the face of fear and stereotypes. What percentage of people at a #BlackLivesMatter protest would be too quick to assume a specific police officer deserves death or to be the victim of a witch trial? I doubt it’s most of the protesters that are quite that especially unreasonable, but I doubt it’s zero. Similarly and in contrast, scientific studies using fictional images of targets in simulations show police of any race are more likely to shoot an innocent black person than an innocent white person.
Stereotypes saved the lives of our ancestors. “Is that vague image in the brush a lion?” It was better to just assume yes and run… or shoot the vague image to death. This is why a coat rack in a dark room almost always looks like a dangerous intruder or a vicious monster.
For our own good, we have to fight our primitive brain so that we can try to make more rational decisions. It feels better to be under the covers and not reasonably investigating that vague shape in the dark. It’s scary to not pigeonhole the world into a black-and-white story of stereotypes. In a childish and primitive way, it can feel better to be a cowardly terrorist killing innocent people rather than to have the real strength of the likes of the Martin Luther King.
What do you think? Please leave a comment so I know I’m not pouring my heart out to an empty room. Thank you! 🙂
View Martin Luther King’s Books
It saddens me how much ignorance there is in this country. We are suppose to be a first world country and people have not educated themselves enough to even google the place before having such a harsh answer. Ignorance scares me, it is terrifying because those who are ignorant do not think that they are. It is easy to be ignorant, it is easy to put on rose glasses and let someone else do the thinking for you. I don’t think that human beings naturally have no compassion for others but it takes emotional energy to be compassionate. It is easier to ignore how horribly people of other “groups” are treated and actually be part of the problem. Then to emotionally tie yourself to the issues and be part of the solution.
When I first read about the poll, I thought it was a joke. As outsiders to America we try hard not to categoize all Americans as ignorant and war-loving idiots, but polls like these, really make it hard.
The whole world really needs to learn how to respect others, it’s about simple human manners and dignity. Treating others how you would expect to be treated.
I wanted to respond sooner to let you know that you are not just pouring your heart out to an empty room, but I was having issues with my phone and it kept calling me “Banana” and that’s really not relevant right now, is it? Ha!
Anyway, I had never heard of this poll until right now, but I am rather glad to say that I would not have been in that percentage that would have supported bombing a fictional city. But the fact that it is fiction to begin with just shows how little a huge percentage of people educate themselves about the issues. I admittedly don’t educate myself about issues, but I also like to think that I don’t don’t jump to ridiculous conclusions based on things I know nothing about.