Surviving the World A Photocomic Education by Dante Shepherd

Lesson #727 - Xenophobia

It's funny how we, as a species, always strive to teach such great ideals to our children, and then quickly flip it around on them as they grow older. It's like we try to tell them to overcome human nature, while immediately revealing to them, once they're old enough, that we were just hoping they would because we never did.

We could all offer each other examples of xenophobia that we've seen personally - I don't think we really need to rehash any of them - or any of the great examples we've seen in literature, TV, movies or other sources. But really, it's just one giant rotating firing squad - every now and then we're grouped in with the people who have the guns, and every now and then we find ourselves against the brick wall. You might be in the group that's always up against the wall or in the group that always seems to be firing haphazardly in all directions, but nonetheless, that's what we do. Because xenophobia is wired in. And it's easier to give in than to fight it.

I long ago gave up on the hope that I would eventually end up with mutant powers. Honestly, it's pretty unrealistic. At this point, though, I've come to believe that superpowers really aren't any new abilities that we'll be able to gain, but instead what we'll be able to write out of ourselves if we'll really be able to evolve. To me, being able to overcome what makes us human would really be a mutant power that be incredily powerful.

Sorry if this STW is too serious for you. But the news in general has been overly serious of late, and hopefully it made you a little sick to your stomach. And if we just roll over without addressing it, well, you'll find yourself against the wall someday. The ideals we repeatedly try to teach our children are based on the central concept of 'respect' - so let's start remembering what exactly that means.