It’s not just about historic injustices, but the inequalities and prejudices that persist, hard wired into every aspect of the system and so normalised we don’t even see it, much less recognise the ongoing impact. The thing is these inequalities have now become so extreme they increasingly polarise and marginalise underprivileged or ethnic groups.
We are conditioned into conforming to accepted codes of conduct, but this conditioning relies on a system of punishment and reward. If there is too little or no reward, no stake, nothing worth losing and no hope of something better, the mechanism of reinforcement is broken.
Anger and resentments of historic wrongs are open to manipulation and exploitation, radicalisation, and keep us trapped in cycles of conflict. This provides justification to restrict personal liberties, or for military action ‘to defend our freedoms’, and the narrative of injustice is perpetuated.
The recent fatal shooting of a serving police officer in a South London suburb is just the latest manifestation of a very broken system. It’s not easy to address this, but we do urgently need to do so.
sense seeker 