Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)
Well, othering is a process humans go through so they can do things to one another or separate themselves from others or create a mind-state so one human can do something to another human in a way that normally that human would resist doing. Military use othering so that soldiers can attack and kill enemy combatants or, “Those other guys.”
Another kind of othering came to me when I read a post by someone on a social media space. It was about animals where an owner of an animal simply put that animal out by a road and fence, tied them to it and then left them in the heat of the day. Soon a good samaritan comes along, sees the heated animal, stops and then provides the animal water to drink. Then the comments became a tirade against the animals owner for being cruel but there may have be something else involved.
The animal owner made the assumption that some “Other Person” would come along and give the animal water. The goal might have been to push the costs of watering the animal on to “Others.” When the animal owner thought about it, I am assuming and guessing, he considered everyone else not his family or a part of his farm or ranch as, Those other people,” making it easy for him or her to simply put their livestock in positions where others would feed them and water them saving them money.
I see othering as a human survival thing nature gave us way back when we were hunters and gatherers trying to live and survive out on the plains of way back in time. If we as hunters and gatherers found a watering hole out on the plain we simply let the animals to the water and let nature take its course. When, “others,” arrived at the same watering hole both sides already considered the other - Othered. If the water hole was not readily known and available in other places then survival might have meant one or the other group insisting the other take their leave so the dominant group could water their livestock and therefore survive. Can you see how such ancient gene DNA level instincts may effect how we handle things in our modern times.
We might think the person leaving their animals out in the heat without water may actually not have enough water available to keep the humans and animals hydrated so he or she may have simply done the appropriate actions of their situation, times and beliefs to get the animals water while not losing the survival necessity of human need for water.
Isn’t a modern survival instinct and strategy to use what we have today for survival. Isn’t the act of thinking out side the box a strategy toward survival especially as it pertains to conflict and violence as well as our self-defense efforts?
Bibliography (Click the link)
p.s. there was a person who told me a story about a situation at a food distribution place where one of the volunteers would kind of take food from the baskets and take it home to the family. Another volunteer then wanted to confront the person but decided to wait. Much later at a gathering to celebrate the effort and its volunteers the same person left at the end before all the others so the person asked everyone, after she left, if they observed the person taking food. The leader then told the group the story of the person. Without divulging the story it involved a place not here in the United States where hardships were of such severity that you could then understand the motivation behind their taking food home to their family. The person asking about the situation understood and was so grateful they didn’t assume and confront because things are not always what they seem. There is a lesson in all of this I think.
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