Why is it so that, when given orders, some people commit torturous acts? For instance, everyone has heard of the scandals that went on at Abu Ghraib, a prison in Iraq. American soldiers were ordered to torture Iraqi prisoners, and they did so with no complaints. (There is a really great documentary on this called "Standard Operating Procedures," and it is available at the Georgia State University library, if nowhere else. I'm sure you can find it pretty much anywhere, including on the internet.) It was the same type situation in the Holocaust. Adolf Hitler ordered that his soldiers torture and kill millions of innocent people, and so many followed through without question. How is it that people are able to work in factory farms, having to kill and torture animals, and having to watch animals suffer? How do some people have the ability to (and the desire to) rape, murder, torture, and abuse people and/or animals? How does this happen, and why?
It all stems from oppression and the idea of dehumanization, or becoming less than human. I'm pulling my ideas and discussion from an article called "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" by Paulo Freire. He offers this perspective of dehumanization to explain why people have the ability, desire, or even need to do such things. For instance, maybe they've seen so much pain and heartbreak that it doesn't mean anything anymore. Maybe they were oppressed themselves and had something traumatic happen to them that made them immune to feeling sorry for people who are going through it now.
So if these dehumanized people feel oppressed, and that's why they carry out orders without questioning them and are, therefore, perfectly fine with torturing or killing or what-have-you, then what is their situation? Maybe they live in fear of what their master will do to them if they don't comply. Many of the soldier at Abu Ghraib said they feared being ridiculed by the other officers if they did not comply, and they feared losing their jobs. I'm sure the soldiers in the Holocaust did as they were told for fear of their own lives. People in the past have said fear can make anyone do anything.
But in his article, Freire says there are a few other reasons why the oppressed do as they're told without question. He says that "the oppressed, having internalized the image of the oppressor and adopted his guidelines, are fearful of freedom." Fearful of freedom. Wow. The oppressed fear what life would be like without their oppressors, possible because being oppressed is the only life they've ever known. They become used to it and, therefore, comfortable with it. And most people do not venture outside their comfort zones. Freire also says that "the oppressed find in the oppressor their model of 'manhood.'" Now that's interesting. So the oppressed look at their oppressors as their role models. Their oppressors are the only role models they've ever had, and they obviously exude power. So the oppressed, in a way, look up to their oppressors and want to be like them, because they long to have power that they've never had, even over their own bodies and minds. "The oppressed feel an irresistible attraction towards the oppressors and their way of life. Sharing this way of life becomes an overpowering aspiration. In their alienation, the oppressed want at any cost to resemble the oppressors, to imitate them, to follow them." So this reason and the one explained previously are two possible reasons why, for instance, kidnapped children do not try to escape from their kidnappers. Jaycee Dugard is an example of this. If you haven't read her autobiography, "A Stolen Life," on how she was kidnapped as a kid and raised into adulthood by her kidnappers, you should. A child's perspective on abuse and living in oppressive situations is interesting.
So this idea of some people being able to commit violent acts because they've been dehumanized is actually leading into the idea that oppressors are dehumanizing the oppressed, as in they "fail to recognize [them] as persons," as Freire puts it. "For the oppressors, 'human beings' refers only to themselves; other people are 'things.'" The oppressors do not view the oppressed as human beings, but as property. This is the idea behind why white people justified slavery way back when. This is why kidnappers and rapists feel no shame for doing what they do.
Something else caught my eye in Freire's article: He states that "conditioned by the experience of oppressing others, any situation other than their former seems to them like oppression. Formerly, they could eat, dress, wear shoes, be educated, travel, hear Beethoven; while millions did not eat, had no clothes or shoes, neither studied nor traveled, much less listened to Beethoven. Any restriction on this way of life, in the name of the rights of the community, appears to the former oppressors as a profound violation of their individual rights - although they had no respect for the millions who suffered and died of hunger, pain, sorrow, and despair. For the oppressors, 'human beings' refers to only themselves; other people are 'thing.' For the oppressors, there exists only one right: their right to live in peace." So, basically, Freire is saying oppressors are self-centered chauvinists. "In their unrestrained eagerness to possess, the oppressors develop the conviction that it is possible for them to transform everything into objects of their purchasing power; hence their strictly materialistic concept of existence. Money is the measure of all things, and profit the primary goal." This would be the mindset of people who enslave other people, including people who sell sex slaves for tens of thousands of dollars. As an example of what Freire says here, if a kidnapper's child victim runs away and is rescued, the kidnapper may feel oppressed, because his/her property fled from him/her or was taken from him/her. When Jaycee Dugard was rescued, her kidnapper may have felt oppressed, because his property had been taken from him. Interesting.
I also want to point out something Freire never touched on in his article. Oppressors make you believe what they want you to believe. They threaten you. They threaten your family. They manipulate you into believing whatever they want. They tell you your family won't love you anymore once you're reunited with them, so it's better to stay with the oppressor. They make you believe in false love. They make you think your oppressor is the only person who loves you. They brainwash you. They shape your mind into what they want it to be.
So now hopefully you have a better understanding of the term "dehumanization." Maybe now you understand why some people are able to commit violent acts - because they've been reduced to something less than human. Hopefully you understand that oppressors dehumanize their victims, and that is why they are able to do what they do. Maybe now you understand the mindset of oppressors and the oppressed. Maybe you understand the mental illness of the oppressors, and hopefully you understand why many oppressed people do not fight back and stay in their oppressive situations. I feel like an understanding of how the human brain works is important in being nonjudgmental toward people in different situations than your own.
This is the only picture of Abu Ghraib that I'm going to put up here, because the rest are too explicit. There are naked men, men with their heads bashed in and covered in blood, etc. So go google those images yourselves or watch the documentary I referred to above if you want to know more.
Jaycee Dugard's autobiography. The picture of her is the famous picture of Jaycee when she was a kid. I'm pretty sure it was the last picture she took before she was kidnapped.
Jaycee Dugard now in comparison to what she looked like at the time of her kidnapping. She was 11 when she was kidnapped and 29 when she was found with 2 kids of her own (ages 15 and 11.)
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