Tolerance: neither xenophilia nor xenophobia

A few days ago I wrote a post about some of the various meanings of the symbol of the swastika in the countries I visited over the last few months: Nepal, Switzerland and Morocco. In particular, it was upsetting to see it graffitied on bathroom stalls and old city walls, a clear symbol of hate and intolerance. I continued to mull it over for a while, and eventually the word xenophilia came to mind. I didn't know whether it is actually a real word or not, but I kind of liked the sound of it. The opposite of xenophobia, I though, as from my physics days I remember hydrophilia--the property of a material or compound having an affinity to water--being the opposite of hydrophobia--a lack of such an affinity.

So I did what any good citizen of the 21st century would do: I googled it. It turns out that xenophilia is indeed a word, although xenophily may be a more common synonym. And it is indeed the opposite of xenophobia. For better or worse, though, the Wikipedia article on xenophily is negative and actually a bit disturbing, frankly. The negative part is a reference to George Washington's 1796 Farewell Address, where among other things he warned against potentially negative consequences of being infatuated with a foreign nation. The disturbing bit is summed up nicely in the opening paragraph: ...a person may date someone of another race not because they like them as people but specifically because they are different. That's enough to convince me that the meaning of xenophilia is more loaded than my initially naïve notion of simply the opposite of xenophobia without the negative--and potentially sexual--connotation. Perhaps in the end the less exotic tolerance was the word I was looking for. Fair enough.

In addition to the obligatory Wikipedia article, my cursory search of xenophilia led me to this post from a few years ago on the conservative blog Faultline USA. On one level I can sympathize with the concerns of this conservative blogger--and George Washington, for that matter. I agree that attraction to foreignness for its own sake is at least wrong-minded and potentially even dangerous. However, intolerance, bigotry, xenophobia or worse, outright hatred, I cannot tolerate.

On the last night of my 18 day trek in the Everest region, my fellow trekkers and I went out for a drink at the Irish Pub in the Sherpa village of Lukla, where the airstrip is that we would use the next morning to fly back to Kathmandu. By the way, no, that is not a real Starbucks--copyright is not respected in this part of the world--and yes, those are prayer wheels on the entrance to the Irish Pub.

Left to right here we have Emma and Joe, English veterinarians gradually making their way home after living and working for about a year as large animal vets in rural New Zealand, Bruce, an accomplished mountaineer and pulmonologist from southern California, Moses--or Moshe in Hebrew--a retired lieutenant colonel in the Israeli army of Moroccan descent. The television in the Irish Pub in Lukla was tuned to the English version of the Arabic-language news network Al Jazeera. Sitting there watching the news with my new friends, I realized that I felt a little uncomfortable. Was I being un-American by watching this Qatari news station? I asked Moses his opinion of Al Jazeera. I don't remember his exact words, but the essence was that this 24 year veteran of the Israeli army respects the channel, that he trusts their reporting. Why did that surprise me? Maybe the nuance, the reminder of the world's complexities. For what it's worth, here is Al Jazeera's code of ethics. Reasonable enough.

There were a number of different stores on the news that night, but I believe it was something about the recent constitutional amendment in Switzerland banning the construction of new minarets in the country that sparked a conversation relevant to this post. We started talking about the issue of Muslims in Europe, assimilation and such. Emma, in particular, seemed frustrated by the view of some in the UK that the Muslim community there should be allowed to implement Islamic Sharia law. What occurred to me is that perhaps one of the only things that a liberal, tolerant society like the UK should not and cannot tolerate is intolerance itself. So to the extent that Sharia contains elements of intolerance it has no place in the UK. Of course, that is an oversimplification, but to me, anyway, it feels like a decent starting point for thinking about this complex issue.

I appreciate the criticism of the conservative blogger. Reflecting on these words helps me to clarify my own values. If I am completely honest, there is a part of me that is attracted to this foreignness for its own sake. And if I want to be especially self-critical, I could even go as far as to call it a naïve, base infatuation. At times it may be just that.

But if I take a step back, I can paint my interests in a more positive light, as well. Thinking back over my writings in this blog over the last few months, I realize that a good deal of it has been about my quest to find a middle way between xenophobia--an irrational and unwarranted fear of the foreign--on the one hand and xenophilia--an irrational and potentially dangerous infatuation with the foreign--on the other. My hope is that with a combination of intuition and analysis I can find this middle path of tolerance between these unattractive extremes.