The Other (edition 2008)

A series of lectures and essays on the topic of The Other by a Polish journalist and foreign correspondent.

The Other are those living in other lands and cultures, we know of them but don't really understand them, don't know what it means to be them or how the world looks through their eyes. They are often of another race, another skin colour, another religion.

Human civilisations can react in one of three ways to encounters with the Other: fence themselves off and build walls to keep the Other out; go to war to dominate and humiliate the Other; or open dialogue and trade to learn from the Other. The author promotes the latter course but history is littered with examples of walls and barriers, wars, colonialism and apartheid. [p.73, p.81]

"We treat the Other above all as a stranger, as the representative of a separate species, but the most crucial point is that we treat him as a threat" [p.58]. This feeds nationalism, racism and xenophobia when the Other appears in our midst, and in response the Other forms a ghetto of his own.

The modern era of communication provides new challenges. The Global Village is a misnomer because "the essence of a village depends upon the fact that its inhabitants know each other well, commune with each other and share a common fate. Meanwhile nothing of the kind can be said of society on our planet, which is more like the anonymous crowd at a major airport, a crowd of people rushing along in haste, mutually indifferent and ignorant." [p.75]

In the end, we have to communicate with the Other in order to truly understand ourselves, to see ourselves reflected from the Other's perspective, and to gain an appreciation of ourselves as a self contained being, separate from another. "I know that I am, because I know another is" [p.68].

Interesting stuff. ( )

Definitely food for thought. It's good to be reminded of how we perceive and treat "the other". Despite the topic's profound themes, this is a light read - highly engaging and absorbing. ( )