One People, One Land, One Truth

Genocide is the intentional destruction of a certain group of people in whole or in part. The Holocaust is an example of a genocide. The effects of one can be felt for decades afterward. Genocide is a domino disaster, meaning if one happens, other things will follow like famine. It’ll affect the infrastructure of a country leading to mass poverty and poor living conditions. Because the point of genocide is to wipe out a certain group of people, it’ll cause a lack of workers causing the economy to nose dive. They often go hand-in-hand with a poor government structure like Socialism. Here are some tips to survive the next one.

Preventing One

The best way to survive a genocide is to prevent it from happening. When the UN passed the Genocide Convention in 1948, the world said “Never again!”. This, unfortunately, wasn’t the case. The two main reasons genocide still happens today are one, the world hasn’t developed the international institutions needed to prevent them, and two, leaders don’t have the political will to stop them. The UN Security Council has begun to develop strong, independent early warning systems to detect one before it reaches dangerous levels.

Happens In Steps

Genocides rarely happen overnight. It takes years to build enough hatred towards the targeted group to allow such a horrible thing to happen. Countries will employ propaganda tactics to help spread negative messages about the targeted group to make others turn against them. The targeted group is often seen as the scapegoat for all that country’s problems. The government will encourage the locals to take out their aggression on them as they will see them as the reason behind all the issues occurring there. Once they start doing that, the government will begin passing laws to attack their freedoms.

Combating Propaganda

A good way to prevent genocide from happening is to not believe the propaganda being spread about this particular group. Propaganda is information that is designed to be misleading or biased. Take what you see with a grain of salt. Do thorough research on a news story by reading from a news source on each side. Remember, there are often three sides to a story; side 1, side 2, and the truth. Never share false information on your social media page. Don’t take a celebrity’s word as the gospel truth, as they are often coached by a manager to take a specific side to further their careers. Always check your sources, no matter what.

Communal Protection

This is a viable strategy for stopping a genocide currently brewing in your country. Communal protection is when cooperative communal activities are undertaken by civilians to avoid genocidal oppression. Meaning, we have to stick together to stop it. Refrain from engaging in violence against that group. Don’t vote for politicians who use such tactics to get elected. Do help this group out when you can. Even if you hate them yourself for whatever reason, nobody deserves to be tortured and brutally murdered for something they can’t control.

Remembering Those You Lost

Despite the world’s best efforts at preventing them, genocide still occurs today, leaving hundreds of displaced victims. For those in the targeted group, they have a long path of recovery ahead of them. An important part of healing is loving yourself for who you are. Never let the oppressors win by hiding your culture. Embrace it for the world to see. Never forget the tragedy, but forgive those involved. Don’t pretend like nothing happened when something did happen. As hard as it is, you must be. Forgive those who were not directly involved. Don’t hate the oppressor’s group of people or you’ll just start the cycle all over again.

If in a genocidal country and you must flee to become a refugee, visit https://vocal.media/theSwamp/leaving-it-all-behind for information on how to do that.