If you think the recent anti-immigrant violence across these islands and the declining health of the biosphere have nothing in common you would be wrong. They are both underpinned by dysfunctional ideas that have become as familiar as the wallpaper in our living room that we have ceased to notice them. That is until a calamity occurs such as the August riots, the blue-green algae on Lough Erne and Lough Neagh as well as last year’s climate-related flooding of Downpatrick and Newry. When such disturbing and preventable events occur we are initially taken by surprise and then realise that metaphorically we had fallen asleep at the wheel and were not paying attention to the social and environmental signals.
The anti-immigrant violence appears to have arisen out of mis- and disinformation spread by individuals with ill-intent and taken to be true by people who feel that it confirms their biases and who are disposed to express their affronted feelings through violence. The narrative they appear to have ingested is that they, the economically disadvantaged, are being further economically discriminated against in favour of recent arrivals who are identifiable by their skin colour, religion, name, accent or form of dress.
In regard to the declining health of the biosphere mis- and disinformation is propagated by the fossil fuel industries, transnational corporations and public influencers about the reasons for this as well as proffering insubstantial solutions. The cause is overwhelmingly attributed to individual choices rather that corporate strategies, and the solutions offered are mostly cosmetic, calibrated to resonate with the basic human bias against change, most especially our reluctance to undertake the life-style changes needed in order to avoid the expiration of civilisation along with many other species.
Another commonality between the anti-immigrant violence and our abuse of the Earth is a sense of disconnection and consequent lack of empathy. Judging from the dehumanising language used it seems the anti-immigrant violence is based on the view that the new arrivals are a category of human fundamentally different from them. This is not only categorically incorrect but wilful self-deception, which supported by incorrect information about the allocation of public resources, underpinned by simmering resentments, provided the basis for people, mostly males, to vent their aggression on those they labelled as different / alien / foreign.
As with the failure of some to connect and feel empathy for the new arrivals much of society is bereft of the ability to feel connected with the biosphere and feel compassion for the sorry plight of many of its persecuted species who, like us, have needs and interests. Feeling connected with the natural world is not a matter of taste but an imperative for without its diversity and renewing abilities we will cease to exist.
The case that our collective sense of disconnection from the natural world reduces our chances of survival in the both the immediate and long term is verified by the annual premature death of millions through living lives of extreme hardship due to loss of land, livelihood and home brought about by extreme weather conditions arising from our warming of the planet. A study published in the August edition of Nature Medicine illustrates this, calculating that 47,690 people in Europe died prematurely in 2023 due to hot weather, while the World Health Organisation estimates that by 2030, 250,000 people worldwide will die due to climate breakdown.
The inhospitable living conditions caused by climate breakdown are further exasperated by air pollution, the decrease in supplies of fresh water, fertile soil and people having to work in health destroying environments for the equivalent of a few pounds a day.
Arresting those who intimidate immigrants and putting them on trial, as should happen, is dealing with the symptoms rather than the cause of the problem which in large part can be attributed to the widespread lack of critical thinking involving the ability to disassemble and test the information we are exposed to whatever its source. The practice includes fact checking, contextualising, identifying bias, analysing cognitive dissonance and platitudes and asking what information and discourse is not in the public domain that should be. Changing our minds is one of the positive outcomes of critical thinking and contrary to what many believe it does not suggest feebleness but rather the opposite.
Critical thinking should be regarded as essential to wellbeing and active citizenship as knowing the Green Cross Code and putting litter in the bin. It is imperative that it is an integral part of the school curriculum beginning in Primary One and continuing into third level education.
There should be no sacred cows, as unfortunately there are in schools as well as the print and broadcasting media. Making an exception for even one body of belief or cultural tradition gives licence to all who adhere to ascribed beliefs to plead exemption on any number of grounds. These can be economic efficiency as embodied in the orthodoxy that there is no alternative to economic growth. Or beliefs thought to be sacred as contained in the Bible, the Quran and the Vedas, or a cultural myth of which there are many.
As we live in an interdependent world the teaching of critical thinking should be universal based perhaps on a UNESCO charter – one that references a nonviolent approach to resolving conflict and the necessity of living in a way that allows our nonhuman neighbours to live according to their nature free from persecution.
The anti-immigrant violence and the degradation of our living planet can at root be attributed to our failure to recognize that every living thing is of ourselves and that we are all immersed in the organic and human instigated churnings of life.
We are passengers on the same ship and we have to hone our critical faculties in order to avoid becoming ensnared in a web of false assumptions and deliberate untruths that undermine our ability to live fulfilling lives in a way that does not prevent others, including future generations, from doing likewise.