Violence and Dehumanization: What makes it tick?
Dehumanization is an ancient process that has occurred numerous times throughout history, such as during the Holocaust, when African Americans were forced into slavery, and during the Rwandan genocide. In all of these situations, groups of people were seen as less human and thus less deserving of human rights, which eventually lead to violence against them. In extreme situations such as these, dehumanization can lead to genocide, or the extermination of a group.
Although many people think that it is a thing of the past, dehumanization also exists today, such as in the conflicts in Palestine and Syria. It also includes seemingly mundane issues such as bullying and racism. It is a known
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According to the Oxford dictionary, violence is “Behavior involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something.” As human beings, it is difficult for us to inflict violence on our fellow man. Humans have emotion and a conscious which prevents them from giving others pain; and when they do so, they usually feel pain themselves. And yet, violence is everywhere, from our history textbooks, to the media, to our everyday lives. This is because of the process of dehumanization. Dehumanization is defined as “The process of depriving a person or group of positive human qualities.” When people are dehumanized, they are seen as less than human, or subhuman. It is necessary to categorize an individual or group as sub-human in order to legitimize violence against them or the violation of their human rights. So, dehumanization leads to violence by making it acceptable to the perpetrator. Once groups or individuals are seen as not fully human, the persecution of these groups becomes more psychologically acceptable, and restrictions against aggression disappear (Maiese, 2003). In my survey, I asked whether participants agreed with the statement, “If groups of people behave in a barbaric manner, it is justifiable to stop them even if force has to be used”. Majority of the participants, (59%) agreed with this statement, proving that when people are dehumanized,
Two articles, in particular, help clarify and explain this trend. The first is “The Genocidal Killer in the Mirror” by Crispin Sartwell, who explains how so many average people can be turned into hordes of willing and eager killers. In the case of Rwandan, Sartwell notes how the Hutu government ordered the mass-killings of the Tutsis for the “greater good” of it’s people, forcing the people to see the Tutsis as schemers and assassins to prevent personal injury to themselves and their loved ones. The other article, was Erich Fromm’s “Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem”, in which Fromm illustrates how many can be forced into becoming an automatized man, who simply does as he is told by his superiors, allowing him to become a killer without conscience. Fromm also discusses the importance of group mentality upon morality, and how when subjects are viewed as a group, they can be demonized and easily passed off as subhuman. Though both Crispin Sartwell’s article “The Genocidal Killer in the Mirror” and Erich Fromm’ piece “Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem” are from two vastly different time periods, the Cold War era with its apocalyptic fears and the post- Col...
The process of dehumanization is a process which has been repeated throughout history. Dehumanization takes place in the book Night, in which the author of the memoir, Elie Wiesel, is exposed to its effects. He is taken from his family and home, sent to a concentration camp in which he first comes in contact with people who have gone through the process of dehumanization. Most mistake the noun “dehumanization” as the verb “to dehumanize.” Dehumanization is a process, a twisted art; while to dehumanize someone is to persecute in one’s mind and actions whilst the subject being dehumanized still acts and thinks humanly. In a basic summary, to dehumanize is just a step in the process of dehumanization. Dehumanization is a process in which the subject/s are prosecuted (dehumanized), thieved of their family needs, and then stripped of their physiological needs.
When the author of Night, Elie Wiesel, arrives at Auschwitz, the Jewish people around him, the Germans, and himself have yet to lose their humanity. Throughout the holocaust, which is an infamous genocide that imprisoned many Jewish people at concentration camps, it is clear that the horrors that took place here have internally affected all who were involved by slowly dehumanizing them. To be dehumanized means to lose the qualities of a human, and that is exactly what happened to both the Germans and the Jewish prisoners. Wiesel has lived on from this atrocious event to establish the dehumanization of all those involved through his use of animal imagery in his memoir Night to advance the theme that violence dehumanizes both the perpetrator
At the start of Adolf Hitler’s reign of terror, no one would have been able to foresee what eventually led to the genocide of approximately six million Jews. However, steps can be traced to see how the Holocaust occurred. One of those steps would be the implementation of the ghetto system in Poland. This system allowed for Jews to be placed in overcrowded areas while Nazi officials figured out what to do with them permanently. The ghettos started out as a temporary solution that eventually became a dehumanizing method that allowed mass relocation into overcrowded areas where starvation and privation thrived. Also, Nazi officials allowed for corrupt Jewish governments that created an atmosphere of mistrust within its walls. Together, this allowed
Dehumanization has been around for many years and seen all throughout our world’s history. Dehumanization means to deprive of human qualities, personality, or spirit. In history, people had been dehumanized for all types of reasons, whether it be because of race, gender, age, sex, or any other characteristics. One of the most brutal and memorable examples of dehumanization was the holocaust which took place in many different locations in Europe. Hitler was ruling German at the time and started this disturbing holocaust. Many Jews were dehumanized in this time. The Germans were horrible to the Jews and treated them like they were animals. The Germans had animalized the Jews as shown in the book Maus I and Maus II. Spiegelman depicts the Germans as cats and the Jews as mice because
Not only do people dehumanize people of different races, but they also dehumanize people of different decent, gender or sexual orientation. In A Lesson Before Dying, Maus I and Maus II, dehumanization was a pretty bold theme that stuck out and was displayed in all three books. The authors used this theme to display the hate that humanity has for each other. Being dehumanized had many different and similar effects on each of the main characters. Some took it much more harshly than others, but each character learned and ended up coming out as a better person in the end because of how strong they were.
How does dehumanization cause people to feel hopeless? What can this hopelessness lead to? Dehumanization is depriving people of their human qualities or rights. Dehumanization is present in fictional novels and in today’s society. Racism, stereotypes, and prejudice can all cause people to feel dehumanized, and this humiliation often leads to desperation and hopelessness.
Works Cited "Dehumanization." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 01 May 2014. Web. 01 Jan. 2014.
Violence in all of its manifestations is based on an exercise of power. It represents a means to gain power, to maintain power, or as a response to a threat to one's power. As long as a society maintains the legitimacy of social hierarchies, of the right of some people to have power over others, there will be violence. One can either seek to diffuse the concentration of power or to control violence. By its very character, the attempt to control violence is self-defeating. The control will itself become violent.
“Violence is the act of purposefully hurting someone. … One in twelve high schoolers is threatened or injured with a weapon each year” (Trump, 2005).
Violence causes a great deal of suffering and harm in the world today and yesterday (Cross 2013). Peace and conflict researchers are undeniably justified in their selection of inter and intra-state violence as objects of study because the social context for both the performance and understanding of violence is of central importance (Cross 2013). However it is surprisingly rare to find a definition of violence (Moore 2003). Thus uncertainty prevails as to whether violence is limited to physical abuse or includes verbal and psychological abuse (Moore 2003). Agreeing with Moore (2003), Galtung (1969) said it is not important to arrive at a definition of violence because there are obliviously many types of violence. Violence is not
This sense of difference provides a motive or rationale for using our power advantage to threaten the ethnoracial Other in ways that we would regard as cruel or unjust if applied to members of our own group. The possible consequences of this nexus of attitude. and action range from unofficial but pervasive social discrimination at one end. of the spectrum to genocide at the other. . .
The human attitudes have always been a curiosity that captivated most of the great social theorists like Karl Marx, Engels and Durkheim. One of the most unhumble attitude of the humanity was Racism and stereotyping.
Dehumanization: a psychological process whereby opponents view each other as less than human and thus not deserving of moral consideration. (Maiese, 2003) Dehumanization has a massive potential to bring out the worst in humanity. Be it the Jews in Nazi Germany or the Tutsis during the Rwandan genocide, one thing remains constant, It’s a lot easier to harm and kill someone if you don’t consider them a person.
Festinger, Pepitone and Newcomb (1952) cited in Review of general psychology (1997) proposed when a group is not looked at as an individual the sense of deindividuation arises. Studies conducted inside the laboratory carried out by (Zimbardo, 1969) cited in Review of general psychology (1997), showed that the deinividation group gave significantly longer shocks as they were not recognised and identified due to the hood they wore and their name being anonymous. Compared to the individuated group where they were identified with name tags. This proves how anonymity of a person can encourage them to portray high level of violence. Zimbardo (1969) cited in Psychology Bulletin stressed that “deindividuated