Menu
header photo

Project Vision 21

Transforming lives, renewing minds, cocreating the future

Blog Search

Blog Archive

Comments

There are currently no blog comments.

What’s the connection between a “man-horse” and the immigration reform?

Last week, a national radio program, broadcast coast to coast, devoted three hours to interview an individual who said he is in reality a horse trapped inside a human body, probably because that’s how he was reincarnated this time.

This kind of interview, heard in a network with one of the largest audiences in the country, reveals not only how desperate radio producers and hosts are to get and keep a measurable audience, but also the fact a dehumanizing narrative is now widely accepted.

I have to confess I did not hear the interview. I am using it simply as an undeniable example of the search for meaning in our world, a world so voided of authentic meaning that the best thing a man can do to get some respect and recognition is to say he is indeed a horse with such a bad lack he is not stuck inside a human body.

There is something wrong when a person making those affirmations, who in previous times could have been sent to a hospital for medical or psychological attention, now gets a three-hour interview at a national radio network. At the same time, the same network provides less than two-minutes of news each hour to talk about world and local issues.

It’s true that, according to myth, there was a time when there was interaction between humans and horses, as the legend of a race of centaurs tells. And it’s true a few decades ago there was a TV program, Mr Ed, about an English-speaking horse.

But centaurs were always presented as extremely intelligent people and Mr. Ed was just a comedy. In both cases, the “man-horse” was something related either to myth or to fictions. Now, however, those cases appear on primetime and they are even taking seriously.

The de-humanizing process began centuries ago and it seems there has been an acceleration since the mid-1800’s, and even more during recent years.

That’s the only explanation I find for so many TV “documentaries” talking about how much damage people causes to the planet, to the point it is suggested it would be better for the humans to disappear and for the planet to continue without any human beings.

There two aspects of the de-humanizing process. First, it means to erase all meaning from inside humans. Second, it means to erase all humans from the face of the planet.

What’s the connection then between this de-humanizing process (exemplified in a “man-horse interview”) and us, Latino immigrants? There is a very important connection. Those of us who are in favor of an immigration reform often said the reform should be based in the respect to the “dignity” of the immigrants, because they should be treated as humans and not as “animals.”

But what’s the point of offering such an argument to a society where dignity and meaning are less and less connected to humanity, that is, precisely the opposite of what we offer as the basis for the much needed immigration reform?

Go Back