Do you want to know what deeply saddens me?
I just finished reading “Blood of Elves”, one of the Witcher books. During the events of the book, there’s a rouge band of non-humans (primarily elves, but with others thrown in) who are performing repeated attacks against the (primarily human) kingdoms in the area.
There’s a whole bit where a bunch of soldiers and civilians are talking about the Scoia’tael (the rogue band) and what needs to be done to combat them, and turn to talking about civilian non-humans. It’s a perfect reflection of current islamophobia, to the extent that I’d almost call it too on the nose were it not for the fact that the book was written 20 years ago.
I keep on coming across stuff like this, and every time it crushes me. Are we really so stuck in cycles of hate and violence that stuff like this will always be relevant? It’s current year argument and we’ve advanced in so many ways, but stuff like this still remains topical because we never change. Why is it that after all these years Watson is still an Afghanistan veteran? Why are we still fighting the same wars and falling into the same old traps?
The only thing which tempers this is that kindness has also stayed the same after all these years, but that doesn’t stick out to me because it’s so much more general and pervasive. That’s the bright side of this, and the one that I hope carries on forever.