Over analyzed movie review 2: Jojo Rabbit

Why is world full with hatred? At what point does someone start hating someone? We are all born with a clean slate. There is no prejudice passed on to us through genetic memory. Or is it?

There have been tons of movies that are themed around the second world war and Fascism. Particularly, Hitler has been an object of fascination for many film makers. Not just the film makers, Hitler has been a subject for a lot of artists, authors. Many people see him as an incarnation of the devil himself, some people idolize him.

For centuries Jews were persecuted in Europe by Christians. By 19th century, in Europe, religious discrimination has made way to racial discrimination just like else there in the world. The Colonialism, slavery and other forms of racial discrimination have been prevailant for quite some time. Hitler was not the first antisemitic, he was the first one to show his hate on such a scale. In a way he was more passionate about his ideas.

From days of Europeans enslaving most of the non-European world, to then Americanized Europeans enslaving Africans, to the present days of discrimination against various communities such as African Americans in the US, Shia discrimination in Pakistan and Rohingya discrimination in Myanmar. Hatred has been very consistently prevalent. Any one who is different is hated. Any differences in the language spoken, accent, appearance, culture are at least frowned upon or made fun of if not hated outright. But I believe that people who say that its not hate because they are not harming them or hurting them by making jokes of them are just lying to me or lying to themselves. It’s also a class of hatred, but not as passionate as Hitler’s. The problem starts with classifying others as being different and then it worsens when you start feeling your self being superior to others. Not just the person, the false pretenses that ones language or culture or food habits are superior to others.

Jojo Rabbit masterfully captures these origins of hatred. It is the story of a boy in preteens in Nazi occupied Austria during the days of the second world war , who has an imaginary friend (none other that the Führer himself). The boy is hell bent on joining the Hitler youth. A comedy of errors results in him hurting his leg and deforming his face and then having to stay at home while his mother went out for work. He then discovers a Jewish girl hiding in their home in her dead sister’s room and the subsequent events in his life.

This is an adaptation of a fictional novel by Christine Leunens’s book Caging Skies. The most profound scene in the movie for me was a boy who when tasked with killing a rabbit as part of an initiation to the Hitler youth camp plots to kill a person in learning that she is a jew. May be, It boils down to a basic instinct that is embedded in every living thing. Fear of the new? From Humans to Animals, the survival instincts are encoded in our DNA. The fight or flight action that every living thing takes when it feels threatened is essential. Animals are to an extent justified in fearing the unknown, given their relatively less developed cognitive abilities. The alienation of the runt of the litter or an albino is very common in the animal world. Yet, this treating everything different as a threat continues to be one of the biggest problems Humans have. Now is this how every human feels? or is there some outside help? Are some people taking advantage of this? How come a 9 year old boy end up valuing a rabbits life more than a human’s?

His dad is away fighting the war, his mom is very anti-Nazi. Where does he get this animosity towards Jews from? His peers and the society. The society as a whole wrongly stereotypes people. When a significant number of people start repeating lies, then it becomes the truth. This is what the Nazi’s did. This is what the British did to India. This is what a lot of left leaning so called literary icons like Wendy Doniger are still doing. We also do this is a small scale everyday. We may not realize it.

Since it is the Corona virus season, some examples in that context may be more effective.The people who are criticizing the food habits of the Chinese ignore the horros of Mao’s rule, the starvation it caused and the subsequent evolution of their food habits. The Indian’s who are discriminating against people from North east India because of being similar in appearance to Mongoloids. The people who are alienating all Muslims because of the role of few who were part of the Tabligi Jamat congregation in New Delhi which accounts to more than 50% of the active Covid-19 cases in India. Before being branded a ‘Libtard’, let me get to the other-side. I do not plan to spare anyone here. The Tabligi Jamat members who igonred the advice of doctors and their head who broadcasted a message that people should continue visiting mosques and praying as ‘their’ god is powerful than doctors. The pastors who are ignoring social distancing rules in the US to continue holding masts preaching that the blood of Jesus will save them. All of these ignore any information or advice from others, this is because they inherently believe themselves to be superior is every important aspect.

Let’s revisit the facts in the case of the unfortunate events that lead to the outbreak of Covid-19 in the southern states of India. Instead of just looking at what different groups of people did, lets also try to look at the series of historical events that lead to this. Firstly, even-though the entire world was panicking about a new fast spreading deadly virus that doesn’t have a cure, people inside the Tabligi headquarters were together because they have been conditioned to believe that God can cure the disease and they are immune from it because they believed in a certain god. They are not alone in this. The feeling of superiority due to their faith drives them to believe that they are immune to the corona-virus. This is what has lead to at least 2000 people to remain together in dormitories when the world was screaming them to social distance. Finally, once they were evacuated and the information came to light that there were several thousand others who has left to their hometowns days prior to the evacuation, there was a call from the government for the participants to come forward voluntarily. But only a minor percentage of them came forward, once identified and when authorities tried to move them to isolation centers, the health officials were greeted with stone pelting and other attacks. This is a result of the fear that has been planted in their minds decades ago and carefully watered & nurtured by certain political and social groups for their profits. Now when the rest of the country saw these events, they reacted according to their own prejudices by generalizing them as trouble makers and doomsday seekers. Some even quoted that this is another form of Jihaad. The hate here is mutual. The number of terrorist attacks that happened in India, to the general disgust at being forcefully ruled by the Delhi sultanate that resulted in the majority of the country enduring personal, financial and cultural damages. This has been deeply rooted in the psyche of many Indians. The recipe is primed for a toxic, explosive cocktail. It has been been brewing for ages, it just exploded now.

From the guy in your office who makes fun of the accent or culture of another colleague to the Indians who refer to North east Indians as Chinkis. From the proud Marathas who want to drive all migrants out of their state to the separation movement of Telangana. All of them are deeply rooted in a person or a group of persons trying to gain advantage from deeply rooted hatred in people. The only difference between these people and the Nazi’s is that Nazi’s hate was more direct and passionate.