Most Wanted?
I heard the term ‘most wanted’ used to describe the list of Hamas terrorists that Israel most wanted dealt with. It’s a common idiom - “America’s Most Wanted”, the FBI’s Most Wanted, and so on - used when we talk about criminals, but it’s also a cruel one.
I’m not talking about an ideological terrorist like Osama Bin Laden or a grifter like Donald Trump, both brought up with wealth. I’m talking about people who have been pushed to criminality by growing up in families or systems of trauma, poverty, and any number of other conditions that are the precursors to a downward spiral. This does not excuse whatever they’ve done, but they are on a most wanted list now because not enough people wanted them to succeed in the first place.
When a person grows up in conditions that make it clear they are disenfranchised and their survival is threatened they are easy prey. There is always some group that will make them feel wanted and give them a sense of belonging. This is how people turn to extremism, criminality, or gangs.
It hurts my heart to see Palestinians cheer when Israelis are murdered. It hurts just as much to hear Israeli settlers want to see Palestinians ‘wiped out’. We see the same attitude in anti-immigrant rhetoric, in White Flight, and in the bullying that leads otherwise quiet kids to give up, or lash out and kill. It’s the opposite of brotherhood or sisterhood or effective society. And that’s the cruelty of the term ‘most wanted’: these are people that are wanted least by most of society.
It’s built into our biology to have some level of xenophobia and some level of in-group bias. These reactions kept us alive as a species for a long time but they trip us up in today’s populated world. They also make it difficult to back away from an entrenched viewpoint about “them”: I imagine it is near-impossible to convince an Israeli settler who has experienced rocket attacks (to say nothing of Hamas’ horrific attacks) that Palestinians aren’t part of the out-group. It’s not much different than the lady who called the cops on a Black bird-watcher. Ignorance and those biological responses quickly turn into fear and violence.
Society loses people because we are not being creative enough and active enough to keep them close, to support them, to give them a place, to want them. They are not strangers, they are us. Almost every cultural tradition, religion, and philosophy has some form of “helping others in need” as a fundamental tenet. From Christianity to Islam to Confucianism, from Universalism to Altruism, all teach us to love and help our neighbors. Yet we consistently fail. Not only do we fail we do the exact opposite and ostracize them, hate them, and dehumanize them.
I offer two solutions: creativity & hope.
Creativity. If humanity is one thing it is creative. In the same way that a masterfully written speech can change a whole nation’s outlook, we can be creative enough to solve these problems, it just takes the right people with the right support.
Hope. Hope that our global society’s inexorable progress towards a higher quality of living for everyone reduces war, famine, and ignorance and many of the other factors that push people towards crime and violence. Hope that we can teach our children to be more accepting of others. Hope that more people are exposed to different peoples and cultures in their lifetimes. Hope that as we attempt to thrive longer in life our personal ‘most wanted’ lists include the people around us.