Magnus Fiskesjö, a professor of Anthropology at Cornell University, just gave a talk entitled “The Future of Genocide in Asia: Burma and Elsewhere”. He began with a discussion of the unique human nature of genocide, in comparison with other animals (which do not commit genocide); and spoke at some length about our human perceptions of reality being our own varying creations, in interaction with some true reality, that our capacity to create also means we can imagine or create unrealistic fears about other human beings. This was setting the stage for his foray into genocide in Southeast Asia.
His primary example was from Burma, where some influential people have been maligning the Rohingya, a Muslim minority, some of whom came from Bangladesh. The government has passed legislation designed to curb births and marriages among them (an action that is counter to the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide). Using the Burmese example, he noted how persons in authority (religious, secular, local) were, in some cases, able to counter such tendencies, downplaying the purported dangers posed by the maligned group. Until recently, when Aung San Suu Kyi was elected in a fair election (attested by many international observers), Fiskesjö had feared the nation was moving toward genocide—partly because of the failure of the previous military government to downplay or counter outrageous and inaccurate claims made against the Rohingya. He has become encouraged by her election.
However, I was in fact frightened by the patterns he identified, from his more general study of genocide globally. He provided examples (of both true genocide and tendencies in that direction) from Germany, Rwanda, Ivory Coast, China, and the US. He then examined genocide historically, and laid out some of the typical pre-existing conditions that led to the occurrence of actual genocide:
- countries at war—resulting in a portion of the population used to considering enemies less than human
- an ignorant and isolated populace
- governed by something other than a ‘stable democracy’
- worrying changes in the terms of reference used in daily speech (use of language that dehumanizes the potential victims)
He argued persuasively for looking to history to identify these patterns, and for being alert to signs of these patterns in our own country and others. This was what frightened me.
- The US has been in one war or another for decades; we have accumulated many people who have been exposed to the dehumanizing effects of war.
- Although we have had in the past a comparatively good educational system, concerns about its current quality have emerged, and our media do not provide the kind of balanced and accurate coverage that was the case when I was young—resulting in quite amazing ignorance of the rest of the world, given the communication infrastructure available in the country. A case can be made for a level of ignorance within large sectors of our population that is worrying.
- Our political system, once an excellent example of a stable democracy, has ceased to function as intended. The two main parties are poles apart, unwilling to compromise about anything, with resulting failure to govern. Our ‘stable democracy’ may in fact be a thing of the past.
- Most worrying of all is the speech of Republican candidates for president—perfect examples of ‘people in authority’ whose words are listened to. The terms they have been using, about Mexicans, Syrian refugees, Muslims, fit perfectly into the kinds of speech identified as a precursor in cases where genocide was an ultimate end-point. Obama and other Democrats strive to counter these remarks, but there is no denying that these hate-mongers have a stage on which to speak.
History suggests we should beware of these tendencies, taking every opportunity we have to counter this kind of speech, to restore our democracy, to reduce ignorance, and to work toward global peace. As individuals, of these goals, we have the most power to counter this kind of speech; and to be aware of the dangers these patterns pose.