Insecurity

On Twitter someone posted a recent YouGov poll showing that Brits feel uncomfortable hearing people speak in foreign languages. The tweeter concluded that Brits are nasty, small, minded xenophobes. But I have another way of looking at it.

Most of the time fearing the unknown has evolutionary advantages. We're more likely to survive if we reduce risks in our environment. Some risk-seeking individuals is fine. Too many and we die out.

We evolved to distrust strangers for very good reasons. We also evolved the capacity to develop trust when required (for trade for example).

The present rise in xenophobia is probably not a character flaw. It probably reflects the general insecurity of life under neoliberalism which treats labour as an overhead to be minimised.

Work is much less secure than when I first worked. Pay is lower. Housing is about 1000% more costly. Education is 10,000 % more costly. Everyone is in debt now (to the tune of 100% of GDP).

So, yes we're anxious about strangers. This is a positive adaptation to insecurity.

Let's not demonise people for responding rationally to insecurity. Let's aim the anger at the people who deliberately create the insecurity in order to maximise profits, e.g. the billionaires and the politicians who enable them. The billionaires treat us like cattle. And we've become so used to it that we prefer to vote for the devil we know rather than the leaders who will protect us from psychopaths.