A Platform to Better Understand Human Beings Today - Research Paper Example

– – Section – Word Count – Differences – A platform to better understand human beings today History is the best example for understanding the present structure of the world. One of the main aspects in the world today that separate human beings is caste and creed; this element forms a very personal opinion in the minds of people and they believe only what they have been brought up being taught or what they learn from what they see. Very few people are able to accept people belonging to different religions, castes and creed and interact with them just as they would with any other person; people are not able to adjust with others because they have differences of opinions and this leads to conflicts as seen in many world scenarios. Looking back at world history, the Holocaust was one of the worst disasters the world has ever seen; under the orders of Hitler, millions of Jews were killed for no reason at all1, only because he believed that the world would be a better place without Jews living in it. This was a very conservative opinion which led to hatred and contempt among people and for a long time, these emotions persisted among the people. Even today, it is hard for many people to accept each other belonging to different nations, religions and castes; however such segregation and discrimination is condemned today by international laws of human rights. The Holocaust was carried out in various stages; concentration camps were set up where Jews were thrown in and treated worse than anything else on the planet, however it must be noted that Hitler wanted to display his hatred towards other groups of people like homosexuals, disabled people, political and religious opponents, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Prisoners of War from the Soviet, Polish and Soviet civilians etc. People belonging to all these categories, excluding Jews, were made to suffer in the concentration camps at Auschwitz where they were used as slaves or menial labourers following which most of them died of diseases and starvation. Those that survived such laborious work were ultimately thrown into gas chambers were they were finally killed. Women and children were also made to suffer along with men in these camps and many a times were even used to conduct medical experiments on2. Doctors and psychologists that took up such work were extremely cruel and heartless and tested out life threatening experiments on these people, using them as mere guinea pigs. This entire episode was extremely traumatising and shocking for people all over the world that heard about the news; the mention of Hitler’s name would send a chill down people’s spines. It was further decided, with the Nuremberg Laws that there needed to be a certain code of conduct for people to follow and that those who violated the rules of human rights would have to pay for the consequences. At that time, there were very few men brave enough to stand up against the Reichs and tell the Nazi soldiers regarding the injustice that they were practising because of the fear that had been put in their minds against Adolf Hitler. Thus, people faced a harsh challenge of not being able to survive with cultural differences and practice civic responsibility. The punishment today for treating another human being in a cruel manner is extremely harsh and even imminent death. With the help of this shocking incident during Hitler’s reign, people today are able to understand that it is alright to have different kinds of people living in the world alongside each other. It is quite a normal and natural phenomenon to live in a community filled with people belonging to different religions, races and gender orientations. As opposed to the past, today, people have become increasingly efficient and do understand where their responsibilities lie with respect to treating other people in their vicinity. It is important to understand the philosophy of being able to deal with a community of different people in a fair and transparent manner. Governments all over the world hold elections in their democracies in order to ensure proper representation from all walks of life. For example, Belgium has representation from the French, German as well as the Welsh groups that form a majority in the country3. No conflict was caused on the basis of nationality as people understood the difference between being immature and being a responsible citizen with equal duties. Society is increasingly becoming more and more diverse as people are coming together in search of jobs and families. The main goal today is to foster the present in order to have a better tomorrow. Many governments across the world today take examples from the past in order to understand the present situation better and not repeat the mistakes that were conducted back then. For example in India, the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is a fan of looking at the Indian Freedom Movement and understanding the words of the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi preached non violence and also tried to bring the people together by talking about how discrimination on the basis of Hindu and Muslim religions was useless for ultimately people have to come together in order to satisfy their multifarious needs and desires. A true nation is that which is bound by every person disregarding their background; in the name of diversity it is only acceptable to take in more and more people belonging to various backgrounds because it helps to bring about an increase in ideas, thoughts and beliefs. This is what will ultimately help people to define their lives and move on to create something new in the world. Today, in the technological era that we live in, it is not possible to live without different people because both physical and mental work is outsourced and the creation of every product and service is attributed to the minds of not one but many people from all over the world. Industries and factories need to be set up here and there in order to be able to obtain resources and work in tandem with people who know certain amount of information as opposed to those that want to know the information. Today, even the biggest companies in the world like Apple and Microsoft have been able to gather so much goodwill and name because of their attitude towards different kinds of people; if they discriminated on the basis of gender, caste or creed, then they would not have been able to gain such wide consumer recognition. Moreover, they have offices all over the world which would not have been possible had they been opposed to certain types of people. Even after the 9/11 attacks and proclamations of condemning those practising the faith of Islam, people have come to the conclusion that no person belonging to any religion is a bad person; the incident was a mere coincidence that brought about a bad name for Muslims all over the world; however most people are friends with Muslims and find them to be perfectly congenial and good people. At the end of the day, the question to be answered thus is not who a person is but what he has done in his life in order to make an impact on society. In conclusion, after all, human beings are one and the same. No man is superior to the other and in today’s world, people strive to be humble and be accepted by others. The aspects of religion, race, caste, creed and gender come later; what comes first is the ability of an individual to be able to live within society and give back to the same in a fair and just manner. From historical events such as the Holocaust, people today have been able to learn about how to carry on life as proper and responsible civilians; people belong to different cultural backgrounds but that does not give them leverage to behave badly with anyone else; people today have begun to understand this and it may be seen all over the world. Every country has a high migration rate as people are accepted anywhere if they want to shift base and live in a different country. The only thing dividing them at the end of the day from other individuals is the ability to not be able to accept someone; today inter caste marriages have also become a regular phenomenon with laws and rules for doing so. Most people are open minded with respect to living together with differences because nobody wants to look at a repeat of the wars that took place in the yesteryears because of such differences. Conflicts today are created on the basis of economic and political life, notwithstanding aspects like religion and race, and this is how people have begun to adapt themselves to the increase in global diversity in the world today. Notes 1. Donald Niewyk. The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust, 45. Columbia University Press, 2000: “The Holocaust is commonly defined as the murder of more than 5,000,000 Jews by the Germans in World War II” 2. Benno Muller-Hill. Murderous science: elimination by scientific selection of Jews, Gypsies, and others in Germany, 22. Plainview, 1998. 3. "Belgium Swears in Government." BBC, Last modified December 6, 2011. Accessed February 26, 2012. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16042750. Bibliography Dear, Ian. The Oxford companion to World War II. Oxford: OUP, 2001. Heneghan, Tom. "Tunisia, Egypt Islamists signal bigger religion role." Reuters, Last modified February 23, 2012. Accessed February 26, 2012. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/23/us-islamists-politics-idUSTRE81M0G620120223. Niewyk, Donald. The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust, 45. Columbia University Press, 2000. Ruth, Linn. Escaping Auschwitz, 20. Cornell University Press, 2004. Read More