Look Beyond Appearances

Just like many, I am compelled to say something about the Orlando terrorist attack, which claimed so many lives in more ways than only physical.  But in this case, I choose not to go into the political or social realm in order to provide some kind of coherent and intelligent commentary.  Instead, let me speak about judgement and appearances.  It is my hope that the connections I make between the (unfortunately) current event nature of this tragedy and philosophical state of being will be clear.

Any time a terrorist attack occurs (regardless who or what faction committed it), immediate reaction is outrage (rightly so), judgement, and finally further hatred.  The reactions are fuelled by the need for justice.  Unfortunately, this need also annihilates any possibility of dialogue or solidarity against evil.  Different sides are fanning different fires. 

All of a sudden, we hear things like: Muslims are to blame, GOP is to blame, gays are to blame, and so on and so forth.  It's clear: this kind of thinking reduces any person to a title or social class or anything else, which lies on the surface of who we are.

Is there a remedy?  I think there is.  An encounter.

You heard it often enough: "I don't judge," or "I am not prejudiced."  But this is simply untrue.  We all judge, all the time.  We judge to assess the situation we are in, whether to protect ourselves or simply because we are standing face to face with an appearance of the person.  The task is the following: to not condemn.

We present ourselves to the world through our aesthetic form.  At times, these forms serve as a way of announcing our ethical stance.  The judgements we make are for the most part correct.  Some feminists, for instance, are proud to be asexual, or they hide their femininity, and so they go an extra mile to not wear make up or get a haircut.  Some people look like they are perpetually playing golf at a country club.  Some women love to show off their bodies.  Some youth likes to look poor and dishevelled, even though they are what you might call, "trust babies."  Some women are covered head to toe and they never leave their home without an accompaniment of a man.  Some simply like the classic look.  Appearances imply certain social strata and seemingly corresponding reactions: "you are wealthy, therefore you're evil," or "you are poor, therefore you're not trying hard enough," and so on. 

All of these appearances contain truth in them and reveal something about that person.  But the issue is not that these aesthetic choices exist.  The issue is that we do not move beyond them, and that we do not become curious about the interiority of the person.  Maybe they are not even aware of it themselves. 

Being and its relationality has many levels.  An appearance is just one level.  If we do not move beyond it and make an effort to encounter the person on a deeper level, we have essentially killed off the possibility of being.  In order to look into the depth of the personhood, we ought to ask this: 1) why are these aesthetic choices made, and 2) are they authentic? 

The point here is that we all have already carefully thought out notions about the other person.  Whether they are based on facts or fantasies is not as important as what we do about them. 

In the context of the Orlando massacre, we would certainly be better off if we did not blame all the Muslims, or take this as an opportunity to become Islamic theology scholars overnight in order to suggest that Islam needs to be annihilated.  We would be better off is we did not call the Republicans or Christians homophobes. 

Until we participate in a relation that is beyond anger and hatred, beyond reduction to the appearance, I do not see how our human relations can improve.