When I was younger I had a much easier time telling right from wrong and good from bad, but as I aged those lines became blurrier and blurrier. I've been lucky to travel and live in different places for extended periods of time. I was born in Latvia and then my parents moved to Israel. When my parents divorced my mom and I moved to the United States where I've spend the lion share of my life and have been lucky to have friends of different ethnicities, races and backgrounds. I've spent months in India, Malaysia, and Hong Kong, among others, and got to know the people. In my experience, there really isn't much that separates us. We want the same things and have the same biases. We can be kind and noble, but none of us are without sin. And it has nothing to do with the color of our skin, our religions, nationalities, or tribal affiliations. No matter how much we'd like to think otherwise.
But, and there's always a but, there is something in our DNA that predisposes us to need an "other". The "other" not only defines "us" but is often handy to project our fears and biases on to. We might not want to admit it, but we all do it.
The below interview with Etgar Keret captures this much better than I ever could.
