As humans, we are capable of a lot. We are able to display dizzying acts of love towards one another, to exemplify kindness and friendship, mercy and compassion. Humans are witness to motherly love, to parental care, to voluntary sacrifice, and in beautifying their relationships humans can foster feelings of warmth, protection and goodwill. But just as the human is capable of such goodness so too can he inflict unimaginable cruelty. When it comes to the dark side of human potential, one of the most devastating things we can do is to dehumanise others. To dehumanise someone is to decide they do not have, nor do they deserve, the basic rights and dues we give to ourselves and anybody we favour. It is to render them sub-human,unworthy, alien and as a result, completely expendable.

The one we dehumanise, we now count as the Other. The Other consists of incomplete parts,insufficiently human and thus inadequate for a place in the world, our world. For the dehumanised, principles of morality no longer apply and any moral restraints against abuse,

torture or killing are readily overcome. Dehumanisation is effacing, it is to contort another’s

image and ascribe to it all the qualities one would find repugnant to have within oneselves.

All hatred, and that which is vile and callous is often imputed upon that Other. The self feels

secure knowing he is not like that Other. The dehumanised Other is irrational, savage and

threatening. On mental canvases the dehumanised Other is painted with broad strokes and

wide brushes. There are no identifications, no fine lines, no nuances, no greys and no subtle

outlines. The dehumanised is feared, mistrusted and generalised. In rallying calls against the

Other, images and narratives of how alien, barbaric and inhuman the Other is are propped up.

These ideas are then repeated continuously and relentlessly until believing anything different

about that Other becomes incongruous. Any sympathisers with the Other are better placed

with that Other, rather than with ‘us’.

On Human Being

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