We have met the enemy, and he is us.
-- Pogo, by Walt Kelly
I see a common thread running through the war in Iraq, the blue versus red debate, the Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib torture, and recent divisions in the Kos community over the anonymous letter about Donna Brazile.
Dehumanization. Us versus Them.
This behavior is built into the way most of us think. I find it easier to think I understand you if there is a box, a category, or a group into which I can put you. And if the group I put you in is opposed to a group I put myself in, you cease to be human to me. You are the Enemy. You are Them.
At the heart of every cruelty, injustice, and evil act that we inflict on one another is some level of dehumanization.
Look. There is no "Them." There is only you and me.
Any time I label you as a member of a group, and ascribe to you all the views and responsibilities of the group, I dehumanize you. If I'm a Democrat, you're not human unless you're a Democrat too. If I'm a Republican, you're not human unless you're a Republican too. If I'm a Dean supporter, you're not human unless you support Dean too. If I'm one color, you're not human unless you're the same color.
We and our predecessors have been harming and killing one another for as long as our species has existed. And every time, the harmful act is preceded by some form of dehumanization.
I couldn't harm my friend or my sister. They, after all, are human.
I couldn't harm my father. He's human. He's also a Republican. Oddly, I can say and do things against Republicans, and somehow that's not the same as doing or saying something harmful to my father.
But it is.
Out of respect for you, dad, I will always confine my vitriol to the mistaken and destructive policies your political party supports. You will always have my unconditional love.
Hate the sin, love the sinner
During my 18 years as a Christian, I was trained as an effective evangelist. I learned to talk to people about Christ, to convince them of the value of being saved. One of the central beliefs we held as evangelists was that everyone is essentially good, and perhaps has been led astray by temptation. Our job was to overcome the evil and save the good person. Hate the sin, love the sinner.
To this day, I still believe that all people are essentially good (with some exceptions due to mental illness). I also believe that it is extraordinarily easy to be led to mistaken conclusions with evil results. While there are indeed some genuine psychopaths and sociopaths, the vast majority of humanity means to do good. What goes wrong is how we achieve "good."
It is good to care for my family. So, I look for ways to acquire money to care for them. I purchase some land, and I find that other people want the lumber that can be harvested from the trees on that land. They want to use that wood to build homes. Well, this certainly seems like a win-win, doesn't it? I get money to feed my family, and they get wood to build homes for others.
Obviously, there is room for tremendous damage in this example. While short-term good may indeed be achieved, there are disastrous consequences in store for excessive and unsustainable logging (as the collapse of the Easter Island civilization demonstrates).
The bottom line here is, never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by ignorance. And remember that while both are curable states of being, ignorance is the easier of the two to treat.
The soul of DailyKos
I've been participating in and administrating online communities for several years now. Inevitably, schisms form. Sides are chosen. Inevitably, each side believes it is fighting for the soul of the community.
What hubris.
The community's soul is the collection of our individual minds. No one "side" can rule the soul of a community. Certain ideas can be heard more often than others, yes. Certain users can exert social (or administrative) pressure on others, yes.
But the soul of the DailyKos community is mine and yours, not some token that can be seized by warring factions. Always, always remember this: you are the community. In a very tangible way. What is the community but the combined minds of us all, shared through willful communication?
Similarly, a community has no "direction" but the sum of the actions of its individual members. Whither DailyKos? Wherever you and I go today. Period.
We are all different
Brian: "You are all individuals!"
Crowd of worshipers: "YES YES WE ARE ALL INDIVIDUALS!"
Brian: "You are all different."
Crowd: "YES WE ARE ALL DIFFERENT!"
Lone voice: "I'm not."
Person next to him: "SHH!"
-- Monty Python's "The Life of Brian"
As a progressive (I guess a label's okay as long as I apply it to myself), one of my highest beliefs is that we are all valuable, respectable, and unique. Even so, I often catch myself lumping people together unjustly.
Labeling someone is the beginning of dehumanization, and leads to the sort of oppression that progressive philosophy opposes.
If there is one thing I would impart to you, it is this: We are all individuals. Worthy of respect. Worthy of help. And free to think on our own. Always.
- Read what you are about to post. Consider what you are about to say.
- Does it attack or defend an idea, or a person?
- If it attacks a person, is that attack based on that person's membership in some despised group?
Let's all open our eyes and keep focused on what is important: the ideas and actions we must champion in order to bring the most good to the most people.
Let's focus our attacks on bad ideas and misguided values, and focus our support on good people and constructive values.