The attacks in Cologne on New Years Eve are still creating news. The left wing press reacts with a neo-nazi agenda. The right wing press with an anti-islamic agenda. There are reports that the German government tried to cover the crimes up. The government instructed the security forces to tone down the assaults and to stop using the word ‘rape’.
Cologne Attacks
When change happens to us without any discussion or control, we get stressed. We feel victimised. We feel fear. The pressure throws us back onto our primitive selves. Fight or flight. We lose sense and complexity which is replaced by rigid binary thinking. Like a switch. Off or on. We have to blame somebody. Extreme reactions all round. Polarisation of left and right wing views is the modern equivalent of fight or flight. Most of us have nobody to fight and nowhere to flight to.
Like all groups the majority elects a few to act out the group’s feelings. Assaulting women, and blaming immigrants is easy. Both of these groups are easy targets. The repeat of women being victims in times of stress and war is recorded throughout history. As is the attack on the stranger, the other, the new person in town.
Ideology plays its part. The mindset of freedom and openess of the European Union has ‘forced’ Angela Merkel to encourage immigrants to Germany. A clever ploy of integration of acceptance? Or an ideological decision? Whatever. But when politicians let stuff happen without scrutiny, thought or consultation voters start to worry. Ideology over sense, and sensibility.
Cologne Attacks
Copyright Adrian Scott North London Counsellor Blog 2016
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Disclaimer:This weblog is the view of the writer and for general information only.
This article is designed to provoke argument and critique