32 lines
2.1 KiB
Plaintext
32 lines
2.1 KiB
Plaintext
Dehumanization
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<p>A reader, responding to the suggestion that we call the Baathist<br />
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holdouts in Iraq <a href='http://www.ibiblio.org/esrblog/index.php?m=200311#85'><br />
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werewolves</a>, asked rhetorically whether the intent was to dehumanize<br />
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them. Lurking behind this question was the theory that war supporters<br />
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like me need to make our enemies into un-persons in order to justify<br />
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continuing to kill them.</p>
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<p>This question displays a kind of self-absorption by a person who<br />
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cannot really imagine a moral stance different from his/her own. In<br />
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such tender-minded thinking, the world is neatly divided into humans<br />
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that one must treat pretty much as though they were one’s next-door neighbor,<br />
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and non-humans who are not part of the moral community. The possibility<br />
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that a human being could be outside the moral community is essentially<br />
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ignored.</p>
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<p>But there are human beings who are outside the moral community by nature.<br />
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We call them psychopaths. They lack the wiring for empathy and reciprocity<br />
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that makes it possible for most human beings to cooperate; they can (and<br />
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often do) commit sickening atrocities for pleasure. Fortunately, most<br />
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psychopaths have other kinds of neurological deficits as well and are<br />
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therefore not very bright. </p>
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<p>Some people who probably were not born with psychopathy make themselves<br />
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into psychopaths. Consider, as a relevant example, Saddam Hussein and<br />
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his sons. They fed living people into shredders for amusement. No semantic<br />
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debate over whether that sort of monster is “human” or “dehumanized”<br />
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is going to change my judgment that that it deserves a violent<br />
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death as quickly as that result can be arranged.</p>
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<p>The Baathist holdouts in Iraq are the hench-monsters of the<br />
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Husseins — the men who tore infants’ eyes out and strapped women<br />
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to tables in rape rooms. Calling them “werewolves” or “orcs” is not<br />
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an attempt to dehumanize them; that would be pointless, since they<br />
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have already dehumanized themselves.</p>
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