Dehumanization, Humiliation, and Cruelty

Have you ever wondered why those who dehumanize others expend so much time and effort humiliating and degrading those whom they dehumanize?

According to testimonies published by +972 Magazine:

Israeli soldiers subjected Palestinian detainees to electric shocks, burned their skin with lighters, spat in their mouths, and deprived them of sleep, food, and access to bathrooms until they defecated on themselves. Many were tied to a fence for hours, handcuffed, and blindfolded for most of the day. Some testified to having been beaten all over their bodies and having cigarettes extinguished on their necks or backs. Several people are known to have died as a result of being held in these conditions.

Consider Nikolaus Wachsmann’s description of the treatment of Ernst Heilmann at Börgermoor concentration camp.

Once he had to spend an entire day smeared from head to toe in human excrement. Another time he crawled on all fours into the prison barracks, led on a chain by an SS man, barked loudly and exclaimed “I am the Jewish Parliamentary Deputy Heilmann from the SPD [Social Democratic Party of Germany]” before he was maimed by guard dogs.

Simply saying, as is so often the case, that dehumanizers are sadistic, that they enjoy wielding power over their victims, or that they hate their victims, or gesturing vaguely to obedience, is not much of an explanation. The extreme, gratuitous violence that so frequently accompanies dehumanization is theoretically incomprehensible if one does not understand how dehumanization makes monsters.

My essay on dehumanization, humiliation and cruelty was just published by the Council for Global Co-operation. You can read it here

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