It is a well-documented fact that war can bring out the worst in people, especially in regards to racism. The Yugoslav wars that took place from 1991 to 1995 exemplify this fact. During the Yugoslav wars the Serbs attempted to create an independent united nation and in order to do so endeavored to eliminate the Bosnia Muslims. “Often described as Europe's deadliest conflicts since World War II, the conflicts have become infamous for the war crimes involved, including mass ethnic cleansing” (Wikipedia contributors). The horrors committed during the war in Yugoslavia, by ordinary citizens can best be understood when one looks at the war, and war in general, from a sociological perspective.
There is no denying war enables cruelty, such as racism and persecution based on race in a variety of ways. One way in which war enables terrible acts is by giving certain groups power over others. As the Stanford Prison experiment shows having complete power over another group can quickly lead to abuse of that power (Zimbardo). This seems to be especially true during times of war when the power one group has over another is literally the power of life or death. Another way in which war enables atrocious behavior is by giving people an excuse for their actions. The Milgram experiment, which was implemented after WWII, was a psychological experiment that showed people are willing to commit acts they normally would not if someone in power tells them to do so. This experiment confirmed the philosopher Hanna Arendt’s claims that “the horrifying thing about the Nazis was not they were so deviant, but that they were ‘terrifyingly normal’” (Kowalski, 52). The same can be said of the Serbs, who while ordinary people managed to commit terrible atrocitie...
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...onger has any power over Kenan and his family and perhaps is able to recognize the cruelty of her actions. Although she does not apologize, neither can she meet Kenan’s eyes.
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In “Cruelty, Civility, and Other Weighty Matters” by Ann Marie Paulin, she was trying to get across a very important message: skinny doesn’t mean happy. The main idea was about how our culture in America encourages obesity because of the food choices they offer, how expensive weight loss pills and exercise bikes is, and etc., yet the culture also is prejudice against these same fat people that they encourage. It’s a constant back and forth in America between what is convenient with the little time we have in between everything we have to do each day and working out to be skinny enough for everyone to not judge you. Ms. Paulin wrote this article for literally everyone, this article was for skinny people to show them like hey, you’re not all
In the novel All quiet on the western front by Erich Maria Remarque one of the major themes he illustrates is the effects of war on a soldier 's humanity. Paul the protagonist is a German soldier who is forced into war with his comrades that go through dehumanizing violence. War is a very horrid situation that causes soldiers like Paul to lose their innocence by stripping them from happiness and joy in life. The symbols Remarque uses to enhance this theme is Paul 's books and the potato pancakes to depict the great scar war has seared on him taking all his connections to life. Through these symbols they deepen the theme by visually depicting war’s impact on Paul. Paul’s books represent the shadow war that is casted upon Paul and his loss of innocence. This symbol helps the theme by depicting how the war locked his heart to old values by taking his innocence. The last symbol that helps the theme are the potato pancakes. The potato pancakes symbolize love and sacrifice by Paul’s mother that reveal Paul emotional state damaged by the war with his lack of happiness and gratitude.
The last two decades of the twentieth century gave rise to turbulent times for constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, eventually leading them to split apart. There were a number of damaging aspects of past history and of the political and economic circumstances that contributed to the breakup and eventually caused the situation to snowball into a deadly series of inter-ethnic conflicts. Yugoslavia was reunified at the end of the war when the communist forces of Josip Broz Tito liberated the country. Under Tito, Yugoslavia adopted a relatively liberal form of government in comparison to other East European communist states at the time and experienced a period of relative economic and political stability until Tito’s death in 1980. In addition to internal power struggles following the loss of their longtime leader, Yugoslavia faced an unprecedented economic crisis in the 1980’s. As other communist states began to fall in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, some former Communist leaders abandoned communism and founded or supported ethno-national parties, blaming the economic suffering on the flaws of communism and other ethnic groups. The ethnic violence that followed would not have been possible without the willingness of politicians from every side to promote ethno-nationalist symbols and myths through media blitzes, which were especially effective due to low levels of education in the former Yugoslavia. Shadows of the events of World War II gave these politicians, especially the Serbs, an opportunity to encourage the discussion and exaggeration of past atrocities later in the century. The ethnic violence in the former Yugoslavia can be traced back to a series of linked damaging factors such as the de...
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In War Without Mercy, John W. Dower approaches World War II from both the Western perspective and the Japanese perspective. Dower, as many others, views the war as a race war (Dower 4). Racism negatively influenced the conduct of this war. The amount of violence and brutality inflicted on each enemy is only made possible by the thought that this enemy is less than human. Dehumanizing another person makes it easy for someone to act as they please without remorse.
Once the Cold War ended, the Socialist Federal of Yugoslavia was led by Josip Broz Tito, an enigmatic dictator. He kept great control numerous ethnic, religious, and nationalist groups. When Tito died, politicians started turning Serbs, Croats, and Bosniaks against each other. Soon, the Bosnia Genocide started which claimed approximately 100,000 people’s lives. About 80 percent of the people killed were Bosniaks.
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