#MYLDN (1093)

What do all the people in my photographs have in common this week? Absolutely nothing.

We seem to be obsessed at the moment with trying to bulk people together and make assumptions based on the groupings we put them in…women do this, men do that, muslims do this, jews do that, blacks do this, whites do that..etc yawn etc. Why are we convinced that people’s characters and motives can be explained by bunching together with a gi-normous amount of people who maybe share the same skin colour or gender or whatever? We would never diminish ourselves by this process or to those closest to us so why do we think its going to be an accurate analysis of anyone else when all we consider is their cultural or sexual identity?

I’m not saying there isn’t evil shit being done by certain groups of people but what those groups have in common is not their race or their religion but the fact that their members  all have a bloodlust and think their ‘justified’ violence is a solution to unjustified violence done to them. And they think that is the correct solution without being able to see  any sense of irony to that.  It pains me to read that Britain is now a more racist place than it was before Brexit. Hate crime is up. And based on what? Faulty categorisation that’s what. To judge someone solely by race alone is just a pathetic use of available data. We obviously share some traits with certain demographics we belong to but they are a tiny part of the whole story.

Every single one of us has a universe inside of us and we are all a mass of contradictions. We are riddled with ideas that conflict with one another. We are the product of a multitude of different influences. There isn’t a person on the planet who’s defining characterstic is their nationality. It is only ever a part of who we are and it is also a part that we were born into. It was thrust upon us. We did not choose it.

I was born into a race, a religion and a nationality but they do not define me. Far from it. If anything I reject the notion of cultural identity. It is an illusion. And a prison. If you are human beings who happen to live near one another or have similar ancestors you might share a tinsy bit more dna than people on the other side of the planet but that is it and as the entire human race is 99.9% identical, flagging up the 0.01% as being a driving force in our behaviour is a pretty ridiculous thing to cling on to when you think about it.

People from different creeds and colours might actually stop fighting each other if they just chose to classify themselves in bigger groups. If you are a member of the human race (which I am assuming you are) you’re ‘out’ group would be aliens. Which have yet to be discovered so currently there is no-one to fight. See? Suddenly no enemies. No-one to hate, And all you had to do was identify as a member of a wider classification. World peace. Job done. Wasn’t that hard. Now where’s my mofo nobel prize?