(posted from Vancouver)
Observers
of the now decade-long intractable genocides and civil wars in Darfur,
Somalia, Chad, Zaire and other African nations describe the same gang
phenomena repeated endlessly: Men horrifically tortured and
slaughtered, women systematically and repeatedly raped, children
kidnapped and forced into slavery and military duty, animals and other
resources stolen, and villages burned to the ground. What is it about
human nature that so many can perpetrate such atrocities for so long
without remorse? Why does this happen?
If you read Lakoff, you
probably appreciate that there are two sets of answers to this
question, depending on whether you subscribe to a conservative or
progressive worldview.
The conservative worldview would, I suspect, hold that the answer to this question is:
- Because we are, as a species, weak and subject to temptation, sin and 'evil' behaviour.
I'm not a believer in 'good' and 'evil' and I tend to have a very
optimistic view of human nature, so I just can't buy this.
Alternatively, I think, conservatives would say...
- Because those in power can get away with it.
"Because we can" is a very cynical view of the malleability and lax,
opportunistic morality of humanity. Does the husband who repeatedly
physically or sexually abuses his spouse or child do so just "because
he can"? The idea that this could be the case terrifies me. It doesn't
fit with my observation and experience with human nature. Yet I know
victims of such abuse who have been traumatized for life by such
experiences and who believe this is what underlies it, or at least that
this is what allows it to occur. I have a lot of time for the victims
of such outrage -- we need to pay heed to them, because they have much
to teach us about both the dark side and the indomitable spirit of
humanity. By this reasoning we need laws and enforcement to prevent us
from behaving monstrously. The thought that such could be the case
breaks my heart.
The progressive worldview, I think, would proffer these three answers to this question:
- Because they think it's morally justified.
I've spoken with some of the people who have signed up for service in
Iraq and Afghanistan, who really believe that what they are doing is
needed to fight 'evil' in the world, or to make that corner of the
world a better place. I don't know enough to know whether that belief
is justified by the realities in those countries or not, though I am
very dubious. The point is that they believe they have the moral
authority to kill "the enemy" in a country a half world away. I am sure
that the gangs of the world also believe that their violent behaviour
has moral authority as well. It doesn't matter whether I can understand
the logic of that belief, or whether it was arrived at by logic or
propaganda. The point is that they really believe that what they're
doing is morally right, justified, necessary to 'defeat the enemy'.
- Because they can't help themselves. I
have met abusers who are truly addicted to their abusive behaviour.
That addiction is sometimes reinforced by co-dependency from their
victims, but this seems entirely inessential. Whether their victims
tolerate their abusive, addictive behaviour or not, they continue to do
it until they're stopped. This is where the solution to the problem
gets muddy, because the 'solution' to this problem may not be that
different from the 'solution' to the "because we can" explanation that
conservatives buy into. So there is a strange alliance of conservatives
and progressives that believes that regulation and enforcement of laws
against such behaviour is the best solution. The problem is that the
perceived best treatment for violent criminals who commit these
offenses, once they're 'arrested', differs greatly depending on whether
you buy the conservative "because they can" argument or the progressive
"because they can't help themselves" argument. The former calls for
strict punishment, the latter for rehabilitation. Few people support
both, so the fate of those 'arrested' often depends on the worldview of
the incarceraters. The result when the former worldview prevails is
capital punishment or "get what they deserve" Abu Ghraib eye-for-an-eye
'solutions'. The result when the latter worldview prevails is twelve
step programs, which sometimes work, but often don't.
- Because to the perpetrators, this is the only way they know to behave.
Human creatures are amazingly adaptive, impressionable, open to
suggestion, and to propaganda that tends to make them, to use ee
cummings' term, "everybody else". When and where slavery has been
legal, the slave owners seemed to accept that treating some other
humans as slaves was normal, natural behaviour. My story about Lucky
the dog has resonated with a lot of people, teaching us why both
perpetrators and victims of atrocities seem unable to see their actions
as anything other than 'normal'. It is, heartbreakingly, for many
people, the only life they know. Perpetrators begin and 'teach' more
perpetrators, victims beget more victims, and victims become
perpetrators themselves. If you know only illness, health is unimaginable.
What
do you think is the main reason for what goes on in so many struggling
nations, and behind closed doors in 10% or more of the homes in every
nation, and in the factory farms and prisons and Guantanamos and old
age homes and orphanages and so many other places in the world where
cameras never go? What makes 'ordinary' people become gangsters,
abusers, monsters?
And what can we do? Salon's Broadsheet
has some good ideas for donations to help women in Congo who are
victims of the world's worst epidemic of systemic rape -- a systemic
violence that is nothing less than a campaign "to destroy women".
Please put them on your Christmas list.
What else? My sense is
that your answer to "what can we do" depends on which of the five
"because" causes you think is behind these horrific crimes. But we have
to do something, so I want to hear what you think. I am coming to
believe conversation is our best tool for emerging the kind of
understanding we need to decide what we need to do. So I'm listening --
what do you think?
|
MADE IN CANADA
trust your
instincts 
