essay 3

dehumanization

Haig Bosmajian connects Dehumanization, language, and power in his article called Dehumanizing people and Euphamizing war. He looks at examples of this in history, as well as in everyday life. Dehumanization was used during the holocaust. Hitler referred to the Jews as a “disease” and “parasites”. Hitler also spoke of the “Jewish bacilli” and the “demon of communism.” So by calling the Jews by these names, people no longer thought of the Jews as human. They began to actually think of them as a disease rather than actual human beings. That is why people were able to accept this atrocity that was occurring around them. They were able to accept the extermination of millions of people. People accepted this because they didn't even think that it was people being killed, only a disease being killed.
As I mentioned before Haig Bosmajin sees a connection with dehumanization, language, and power. This connection really makes a lot of sense to me. The most effective way to dehumanize is to use language. Language allows you to influence people without them seeing anything at all. If people had actually seen the Jews being murdered in the gas chambers they would have come to realize a lot sooner that there were actual people being killed. But during this time people saw nothing. They only saw their Jewish neighbors disappearing without return. While they saw nothing, they were constantly being influenced by language. Hitler and the Nazi's told people what what happening. The words of a murderer were the only “facts” anybody was given. But Hitler was in a position of power, so people listened to him. People believed what he said and regarded it all as fact. By listening to Hitler people no longer though of the Jews as human. Hitler had now turned them in to a disease that he was curing. He was being the good guy, he was solving a problem. Through his language he was able to influence a large amount of people so much to the point where they accepted the mass killing of millions of Jews. So language is the first step, next is power. At first I thought that the purpose of dehumanization was to gain power. But I realized that the real connection was that power is what is necessary to initially dehumanize. You need to convince a large number of people that a certain group is no longer human. To refer to these people as terrorists, a plague, evil, or a disease. This use of language is very effective, but it is useless unless there is a way to reach people. The goal is to influence through language, but how is this possible? It is possible if you have power, and a lot of it. You can use highly effective dehumanizing language all you want, but its not going to influence anybody unless you have power. You need to have enough power to be able to reach all of these people to start with. So possibly have control of the news or many television stations. So once you have the power to reach these people, you still need enough power for them to listen to you. That really takes a lot of power. Then once you have the power to reach a large audience that will listen to you, you now use language. As I said before, language will influence people the most especially with dehumanization.
As I previously mentioned, this technique of dehumanization through language and power was used during the holocaust. Hitler convinced millions of people that his extermination of the Jews was merely the cure to a disease. That they weren't actually killing people anymore because he had completely dehumanized the Jews. I actually don't think that the holocaust is the best example for this. People commonly disregard anything that they hear about the holocaust. The holocaust is considered the worst thing that has ever happened in humanity. So by saying that Hitler dehumanized the Jews through language doesn't really say much because nobody thinks that anything like the holocaust will ever happen again. So why not take a look at dehumanization in our everyday lives. There are many examples of our media/government dehumanizing even today. The best example would be the war in Iraq. Although many Americans are not in support of the war, the majority of the victims throughout the entire war have been dehumanized. Words in the news such as victims or losses make us forget that it really means the death of our American troops, as well as middle easterners. Everything that I see in the news about the war is so dehumanizing. Those who are currently fighting in the war seem so unreal to me. They refer to the opposition as the enemy or a virus. When in reality I actually have no real clue what they actually did wrong. We really have no idea what is going on in this war. We don't know who is fighting within Iraq, we don't know what the goal of the war is, and we really don't even know why we are at war anymore. I don't see these people being killed in the war as humans because I know nothing about them. I cant even picture a dead person in Iraq, because I don't know what type of war is even being fought. Is it one where you only shoot if shot at. Is there a giant battle line with opponents charging from both sides. Is the war only little battles here and there? I don't know, I have no idea, because I know nothing about the war. I believe that I am a fair representation of the average American, and I really have no idea what is going on in Iraq. Therefor I see none of the people in the war as actual humans. The tool of language in this case is more the lack of language. The lack of language and information in this case is what has lead to dehumanization. Even though I am aware of this dehumanization, by the media and government,of the people in the war it is still effective. It has still managed to do its job. I really do not view them as human anymore.
So what can we do to reverse the effects of dehumanization? What can we do to make people realize that those who die in the war are real people? Even more, how do you reverse the effects of dehumanization in any situation beyond the Iraq war? Lets first look at the definition of dehumanization before we try to come up with a solution to the problem. In the article Dehumanizing people and Euphemising war by Haig Bosmajian gives a very good explanation of what dehumanization really is, more specifically, what the language of dehumanization really is. It is “words and phrases that fool us in to accepting the unacceptable.” So we are dealing with things that really are unacceptable, but people are blinded by the dehumanizing language used by people in power. So the simple solution, or “antidote”, to this problem is to show people the truth. Americans need to understand how real the war is. After that they will no longer accept what is happening. Why would they? Remember that this is something that is unacceptable that people have come to accept. People just need to be shown the reality of the war and they will no longer accept these things that are going on today. This applies to any other case of dehumanization. All you need to do is bring the people back to life. You just need to show people that these groups that have been dehumanized really are people. So it is obvious what needs to be done to fix dehumanization, simply bring the people back to life. The real question is how to go about doing this. This situation with the Iraq war is a tough one. You're pretty much up against an entire government. But I think that it is possible. If news were to be as unrestricted as it was during the Vietnam war, we would not still be at war. If we were to see the graphic reality of what is going on in Iraq, people would not be okay with it. News should no longer have so many restrictions. Then people would be able to see the real truth. But the media is only oh thing. If our religious and political leaders were to help show people the truth we would not have an issue with dehumanization. Religious and political leaders have so much power to influence others. Currently our political leaders are really abusing this power especially. They are actually contributing to dehumanization. But if these two types of leaders joined together with their immense power, and strong language, they could accomplish a lot. Everything that we hear about on the news about the war needs to be straightforward. We need to know exactly what is happening over there. We need clear concise language, as well as accurate accounts of what happens over there with visuals. This would most definitely make people view those in the war as humans. This would make people no longer accept the unacceptable, and people would actually do something about it. This applies to any situation of dehumanization. If you can get people with power, to use effective language, you can fix dehumanization.