Notes on Dehumanisation
Notes on Dehumanisation
the destructive sequence and how to break it
Human beings essentialise. It’s a way of thinking about the world. When we essentialise humans we consider some invisible essence inside them that we can’t see or touch and that nonetheless exists and makes that person themselves or monstrofies them. We reduce other humans to some preconceived essential ranking in the course of our thinking. It comes so naturally to us we barely know we do it. It’s like breathing, we aren’t aware of our breath unless something disrupts the intricate process that operates beneath the surface to enable us to breathe independently + unobstructed.
All tribes essentialise. The most common form of essentialising presents itself as othering. The Other, to be distinguished from Us. The Rules + Contextual Framework of Us can easily justify othering The Other. Social media becomes a force multiplier for poisonous ideas, or it serves as a Volksklempfanger. Are poisonous ideas free expression? Well, is any deadly poison freely available to the masses? Does freedom mean everyone must have unfettered access to poisonous stuff that could lead to mass destruction?
Dehumanisation is a psychological process with a high social contagion factor.
propaganda fuels dehumanisation in a three step process:
rage farm and demoralise the masses
designate a human scapegoat
promise salvation through membership to a group
What does a society need for dehumanisation to take root? 1. A healthy supply of helplessness, both immediate and reserved, 2. A target of blame for that helplessness, 3. A charismatic tribal force as a means to overcome helplessness and achieve salvation.
How does this play out in the Muslim-Arabist world? How does this play out in the Kahanist world? How does this play out in the Christian world? How does this play out in the progressive American anti racist world? How does this play out in the western progressive decolonisation world? How does this thinking play out in the discourse over the Hamas-Israel war? Why are Eurocentrists called colonisers and Arabists called the colonised? Why are the English and French called slavers and Turks and Arabs aren’t? Why do progressives invent pejorative terms for their political opponents? Does designation of privileged mean it’s okay to abuse those humans in the designation? Why do we need to put humans in labeled boxes? It often feels like another version of herding people we don’t like into cattle cars. Yes, that thinking ALL goes in the same direction, to the same destination — a Final Solution.
What if the remedy to dehumanisation existed at the individual level? What if we could use our tribal membership to learn about ourselves, to exert control over ourselves rather than to impose the tyranny of we over others? Maybe the greater jihad is the jihad of our time —meaning, maybe the important existential battle is against ourselves, our ego?
“We see things as they are not, because we see them centered on ourselves. Fear, anxiety, greed, ambition and our hopeless need for pleasure all distort the image of reality that is reflected in our minds,” writes Thomas Merton in No Man is An Island.
Where I disagree with Merton is his invocation of Original Sin. Having grown up in the Catholic faith and culture, I think Original Sin is a tribal signal to justify dehumanisation — the essentialism I mentioned above, and of which David Livingstone Smith, aka
, speaks and writes, I often intellectually link to Original Sin. In fact, I think the Cartesian concept of humans as dualistic Lego-block like entities lends itself to dehumanisation. The mind-body approach to humanity essentialises the human experience and commodifies the human being. Think of the Chain of Being. Descartes created the philosophical-scientific afterthought we call dualism to accommodate the Original Sin doctrine. A dogma that reduces God to human form also essentialises humanity—is there a connection?Ways to push back against dehumanisation, according to David Livingstone Smith:
learn about ourselves and humanity
inculcate humility
So, what if we used our religion—religious faith paradigm to learn about our internal experience and inculcate humility in ourSelf, rather than to rearrange everyone’s entire life and hierarchically morally rank humanity to suit our whim? What if religion is for Self Smelting, and not a gang we join for tribal signalling, and not a means for world domination?
What if we needn’t “lose our religion” in order to practise it?1 What if we do need to break free from the tribal signalling of religion to follow God? Just a thought.
What kind of person do I want to be? To whom do I wish to belong?
“Losing my religion” is actually an old southern expression for being at the end of one’s rope, and the moment when politeness gives way to anger.