Anthropomorphism and Dehumanization

After I read posts on Alternet about right wing hate groups and religious welfare groups and while I was searching the web I stumbled upon this article about anthropomorphism and dehumanization and people’s behavior to attribute human characteristics to non-human beings and inversely, our capacity for dehumanization, when we treat fellow humans as animals or objects. A quite interesting article worth reading….

Quote:

 ”… from pets that can seem considerate and caring, to gods that have goals and plans for one’s life, to computers than can seem to have minds of their own. People show an impressive capacity to create humanlike agents—a kind of inferential reproduction—out of those that are clearly nonhuman… People ask invisible gods for forgiveness, talk to their plants, kiss dice to persuade a profitable roll, name their cars, curse at unresponsive computers, outfit their dogs with unnecessary sweaters, and consider financial markets to be “anxious” at one moment and “delirious” the next.”

Cruel examples of dehumanization aren’t difficult to find throughout human history either….

The Khmer Rouge, for instance, described their victims as ‘worms,’ Nazi propaganda depicted Jews as vermin or rats, and Rwandan Hutus described the Tutsi as ‘cockroaches, in Abu-Ghraib and all these “terrorist-prison camps”, prisoners are just numbers and the “lynching” of African American as well as the ongoing violence between Palestinians and Israelis are other examples of what dehumanization can do to people.

The Lucifer Effect by Philip Zimbardo describes very well why good people can turn evil….

Dehumanization is one of the central processes in the transformation of ordinary, normal people into indifferent or even wanton perpetrators of evil. Dehumanization is like a “cortical cataract” that clouds one’s thinking and fosters the perception that other people are less than human. It makes some people come to see those others as enemies deserving of torment, torture, and even annihilation. ….three examples of forms that dehumanization has taken: Nazi Comic Books against the Jews; Faces of the Enemy—world-wide propaganda images of the “enemy,” and “trophy photos” of American citizens posing with African Americans who had been lynched or burned alive—and then portrayed in post cards mailed to family and friends.

Also worth reading and watching….

While the implications of framing people, animals and objects in terms of humanity are evident in our day to day lives, it is rather seen as a harmless comfort what some people find in dressing up a pet….

In contrast to the more dangerous and cruel examples of objectifying fellow humans by developing an “enemy image” with feelings of anger, fear, and distrust that shape the way people (groups or parties ) perceive each other….

With this negative stereotype to view a group as different, less than human or evil (in contrast to one’s own side) effectively justifies wrongdoing against them also outside of overtly violent conflicts, as in political debates or just think about homeless people and gays.

Sociologists and historians often view dehumanization as central to some or all types of wars. Democratic governments sometimes present “enemy” civillians or soldiers as less than human so that voters will be more likely to support a war they may otherwise consider mass murder. Dictatorships use the same process to prevent opposition by citizens. Such efforts often depend on preexisting racist, sectarianor otherwise biased beliefs, which governments play upon through various types of media, presenting “enemies” as barbaric, undeserving of rights, and a threat to the nation. Alternately, states sometimes present the enemy government or way of life as barbaric and its citizens as childlike and incapable of managing their own affairs.

Anthropologists Ashley Montaguand Floyd Matsonfamously wrote that dehumanization might well be considered “the fifth horsemen of the apocalypse” because of the inestimable damage it has dealt to society. When people become things, the logic follows, they become dispensable – and any atrocity can be justified.

I just can second that!

If you really think about it… do we not dehumanize one another daily? The examples I mentioned above are dehumanization on the biggest scale. But in our small, quiet lives do we recognize the human in one another? Do we recognize the human in people who are homeless or gay, are we able to see the human in a killer or terrorist? Do we recognize the human in politicians, in our opponents and in those that are presented as “enemies”?

Apparently those people mentioned in the “hate-group-articles” do not but what is with you and me…. ? Do we recognize the human in each other?