One the biggest mistakes we all made was to believe that genocide is abnormal, exceptional, outside range of human behaviour and acceptability.
The contrary is true and has always been true. Once we know and accept that, we can try to organise and act to counter it.
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The contrary is true and has always been true. Once we know and accept that, we can try to organise and act to counter it.
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https://twitter.com/Rrrrnessa/status/1824406571327033544
TL;DR: read-watch "Exterminate all the brutes."
Slightly longer: in the 2nd half of the 20th century, there was a short time when Western governments and cultures pretended they were against genocide: one in particular, the Holocaust. But before that, they had been for it.
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Slightly longer: in the 2nd half of the 20th century, there was a short time when Western governments and cultures pretended they were against genocide: one in particular, the Holocaust. But before that, they had been for it.
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Hitler himself stated his inspiration from the British concentration camps pioneered in Africa, and the German genocide of the Herero and Nama in Namibia. Colonial genocides & man-made famines were, and still are, acceptable. As evidence, see no further ..
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... than the continued cult of Churchill in the UK.
Somehow, though, the Holocaust became unacceptable. This was not inevitable: Holocaust survivors were at first most often silenced and shamed, even within Israel. This history is well-known. But then the Holocaust became THE
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Somehow, though, the Holocaust became unacceptable. This was not inevitable: Holocaust survivors were at first most often silenced and shamed, even within Israel. This history is well-known. But then the Holocaust became THE
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... example of a genocide, and genocide suddenly became unacceptable - however without learning any of the previous history or responsibility. The Holocaust, rather than the continuation of a long history, became a singular event, outside of history or comparison.
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The perpetrators of the Holocaust became singular monsters, outside of normal human range or understanding.
But here is the unfortunate truth that treating the Holocaust as the One True Unrepeatable Genocide obscures: genocides are not unusual. And that means ...
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But here is the unfortunate truth that treating the Holocaust as the One True Unrepeatable Genocide obscures: genocides are not unusual. And that means ...
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that perpetrators of genocides are not rare or outside of human range. They are well within range. They are common. They are normal. They are us.
Born under different stars, of different parents, my family members would likely have been perpetrators, not victims.
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Born under different stars, of different parents, my family members would likely have been perpetrators, not victims.
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I would like to believe they would have chosen the path of resistance, but that would just be a wish.
So here is my main point: unless we learn to see genocide as normal, something that can and does happen in the course of (especially colonial) history ...
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So here is my main point: unless we learn to see genocide as normal, something that can and does happen in the course of (especially colonial) history ...
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and unless we learn to see ourselves and our fellow humans as potential perpetrators of genocide, we will never learn to recognise and stop them in real time.
The Israelis, the IDF and their foreign supporters, all the way up to Biden, are perpetrating a genocide EXACTLY
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The Israelis, the IDF and their foreign supporters, all the way up to Biden, are perpetrating a genocide EXACTLY
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BECAUSE they don't see themselves as ever being able to perpetrate a genocide, only prevent or rectify one.
The most dangerous thought a person (or organisation or society) can have is to consider themselves above a crime, because that guarantees they will perpetrate one.
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The most dangerous thought a person (or organisation or society) can have is to consider themselves above a crime, because that guarantees they will perpetrate one.
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If we want to stop and prevent genocides, we have to take seriously the fact that anyone, anywhere, can become complicit in genocide. It's not abnormal, quite the contrary. It's something our worlds are built upon. If we want to stop them, our responsibility ...
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and possible complicity is where we need to start.
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