Monument of the Intercession of the Mother of God, Korosten', Zhytomyr region, author - Igor Zarichny
On January 27, humanity commemorates the victims of the Holocaust, the genocide of the mainly Jewish people during World War II. We need to commemorate it in order not to forget, not to forget in order to prevent it happening again in the future.
Photo above was made about 10 years ago. When during a tour of the town of Korosten' (Zhytomyr region), I approached this monument with my classmate, who belongs to one of the national minorities of Ukraїna, I was positively impressed and mesmerized by the monument. When I looked at the face of my companion, I could "read" on it something like fear and unpleasant embarrassment.
The fact that different people have different perception of works of art and other things is not new. The reasons why different people have different perceptions of the same things are mostly not known. Although the most likely most obvious causes to a scientist-biologist will be differences in structure and functions of neural networks of the brain of different people. These differences are determined by genes, or heredity, and upbringing conditions, as well as other factors, some of which are probably still unknown.
The neural networks of my brain perceived this monument positively. My classmate's neural networks perceived it negatively. Moreover, I am sure that if he had to pass by this monument every day, he would start looking for a detour so as not to pass by it and not to feel unpleasant emotions.
Could he be blamed for that? Of course not. Because deregulation of his brain due to unpleasant emotions from the monument would interfere with his normal life, and possibly work.
The same applies not only to the person mentioned above, and this monument, but also to other people and things, and not only things.
And most scientists will agree that in order to change people's perceptions of things, it will be necessary to change their genes, not just upbringing conditions. Changing unknown factors is impossible as they are not known. But again, most scientists will say that changing genes to change perception is not worth doing. Because genetic diversity is needed for human survival as a species. In addition, a trait which does not allow someone to perceive something positively can help them in something else, and therefore can be a valuable trait. And if people become similar to each other, it will make humanity generally vulnerable and incapable of surviving in the future.
All of the above forces to ask certain questions.
For example:
- is it worth to force someone to be tolerant to something very unpleasant to that someone? or maybe it is worth preventing interaction of people and entities unpleasant to them meaning that they could be in different districts, cities, villages or countries?
- could it be that the diversity between campuses is better than the diversity on each campus?
- if someone is perceived as homophobic, shouldn't their antipodes be perceived as heterophobic or naturophobic?
- why those who promote diversity forget that, that lack of tolerance for something, is part of the diversity too?
- how strong is the brain deregulation of people who are forced to tolerate that what is unpleasant to them? would such deregulation interfere with the normal functioning of their brain and would it harm their health?
- shouldn't people be divided according to the level of sensitivity of the nervous system and perception of things and people?
The UN resolution on Holocaust said: "Holocaust, which resulted in the murder of one third of the Jewish people along with countless members of other minorities, will forever be a warning to all people of the dangers of hatred, bigotry, racism and prejudice " [1] (This resolution strangely disappeared a few days ago from the UN website [2]).
Since recently, it looks like that what led to the Holocaust, namely "hatred, bigotry, racism and prejudice", has been adopted by various minorities, both national and sexual, as well as others.
The way of resolving conflicts between people lies in the study of their causes including biological causes of compatibility and incompatibility between different people and things.
Used sources:
1. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1N6jIEw_K9Vr0MtnYiL9qmnLDwbVjenkn/view?usp=sharing
2. https://www.un.org/en/holocaustremembrance/docs/res607.shtml