Auschwitz Birkenau: Dehumanization

This article details the conditions of the death camps that murdered millions of people, mostly Jews, and how it ended. There are villains and heroes in this article, but mostly human beings who have the capacity to survive under difficult and barbaric conditions. 

We cannot afford to turn away from this history. We cannot afford to let someone else decide our values, manufacture consent, and dehumanize people in order to gain absolute control over nations. Auschwitz-Birkenau. My Jewish Learning. 

When Cruelty is the Point

The Atlantic published an essay by Adam Serwer October 3, 2018, which is most disturbing yet salient.  "The Cruelty Is the Point: President Trump and his supporters find community by rejoicing in the suffering of those they hate and fear."

This essay lists incidents that I find very difficult to read. In the 30's black men chained to poles—whipped to death while white men grin proudly as though this was an accomplishment. "Their cruelty made them feel good, it made them feel proud, it made them feel happy. And it made them feel closer to one another."

A Mississippi crowd of Trump supporters cheered as the president mocked Christine Blasey Ford for reporting the attempted rape by Kavanaugh when she was a teenager. "Lock her up!" they shouted. The trial or at least a part of it was taped for mainstream viewing.

Ford, a psychology professor, reported the laughter of Kavanaugh and his friend Mark judge as "Indelible in the hippocampus ... that part of the brain that processes emotion and memory".

Adolescent male cruelty "is a bonding mechanism, a vehicle for intimacy through contempt." White men in lynching photos bonding through cruelty. These examples say—the white man has evolved to be part of the global family of cruelty and torture.  

You may be thinking that white women and black men are as capable of cruelty as white men. But what I find so chilling in the history of World War I and II is the branding of men's psyche in the camaraderie of violence and cruelty.  That something in the healthy brain has been erased so that men can serve the ruling elite through bonding by traumatizing rituals to "toughen him up" rendering him unable to interrogate his feelings without falling back into the trauma.

When we question this behaviour men may get defensive or applaud it by further abuse. Should women learn how to do this? I have seen women who are willing to display cruelty and violence for the sake of maintaining power over a group.

I have even felt that hardening in my own heart when it appeared it was required "to do the job." To lose that intelligence of empathy and sensitivity which informs my place in the group. 

What makes me most fearful for the future is how easily we can become monsters through unidentified trauma and fear. This is like a setting in the mind which makes me do something I thought I was incapable of doing.

This is why election day is not the only opportunity I have to protest against injustice, cruelty and stupidity. I am a member of the human family and have an obligation to take care of us by caring what happens to them. This is my political task between elections.

Petty Cruelty in the World's Greatest Country?

"No, this is about petty cruelty turned into a principle of government. It’s about privileged people who look at the less fortunate and don’t think, “There but for the grace of God go I”; they just see a bunch of losers. They don’t want to help the less fortunate; in fact, they get angry at the very idea of public aid that makes those losers a bit less miserable.

And these are the people now running America." Paul Krugman. NYTimes.

This is a clear article to read, but I wonder why anyone wants to see people starve and suffer?  What values have generated in such a social climate that the Republicans and Trump supporters are for this. Are people generally this cruel or is the state simply manufacturing consent? How does this benefit the American nation?

The Crown of Centralized Power

The crown of centralized power is the castle. Protected by the walls and weapons, the servants and sycophants just like medieval monarchy.  The walls are built by ideology and propaganda:  those who are in positions of power have earned  or inherited them.  The weapon is money.

If people become too socially enlightened they challenge power and when that happens the canons are rolled out.  Blaming the most powerless, finding scapegoats, ritual abuse, war, public shaming, pornography, poverty, misogyny, misanthropy, misandry, racism, homophobia and inequality. These are the weapons that divide and conquer. The fleeting feelings of superiority may bring support for the crown, but is soon diminished because there is no good feeling when you realize you are being manipulated.

The psyche of the ordinary man, woman and child is to be ritually punctured with doubt, self-loathing and fear. Violence towards others in entertainment and the commons atomizes the people who believe no-one can be trusted.

When people intentionally torture other people and animals for no good reason, it means the individual has become so isolated from his own nature, his thoughts and feelings,  that he seeks to harm others as the only way to feel his presence in the world. The propaganda around this make humanity redundant.

Ritual cruelty is the proof that the human spirit has been robbed of dignity and worth.  That hate has separated us at a very deep level, from our kin and our neighbours.  We are no longer a family. We are merely instruments (workers, soldiers, politicians and court jesters) for the ruling system. There is no need for music, art, stories or love in the world. The impenetrable castle is anti-life.

Under fascist rule humanity must be turned into a mindless united machine.  We can see this in the marching parades of totalitarian nations. Schools that train children to be obedient factory workers. Technology that isolates us from others with trivial entertainments. Advertising that elevates consumerism above relationship - a gift as a replacement for love and time.

Our struggle for human rights and dignity is a threat to power because it replaces power-over with belonging, support, love and compassion.

The true meaning of power is life. People, animals, plants, air, water and the gifts they offer us. Without these elements castles are broken ruins that nothing and no-one can see.