On Inhumanity
Dehumanization and How to Resist It
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
The Rwandan genocide, the Holocaust, the lynching of African Americans, the colonial slave trade: these are horrific episodes of mass violence spawned from racism and hatred. We like to think that we could never see such evils again--that we would stand up and fight. But something deep in the human psyche--deeper than prejudice itself--leads people to persecute the other: dehumanization, or the human propensity to think of others as less than human.
An award-winning author and philosopher, Smith takes an unflinching look at the mechanisms of the mind that encourage us to see someone as less than human. There is something peculiar and horrifying in human psychology that makes us vulnerable to thinking of whole groups of people as subhuman creatures. When governments or other groups stand to gain by exploiting this innate propensity, and know just how to manipulate words and images to trigger it, there is no limit to the violence and hatred that can result.
Drawing on numerous historical and contemporary cases and recent psychological research, On Inhumanity is the first accessible guide to the phenomenon of dehumanization. Smith walks readers through the psychology of dehumanization, revealing its underlying role in both notorious and lesser-known episodes of violence from history and current events. In particular, he considers the uncomfortable kinship between racism and dehumanization, where beliefs involving race are so often precursors to dehumanization and the horrors that flow from it.
On Inhumanity is bracing and vital reading in a world lurching towards authoritarian political regimes, resurgent white nationalism, refugee crises that breed nativist hostility, and fast-spreading racist rhetoric. The book will open your eyes to the pervasive dangers of dehumanization and the prejudices that can too easily take root within us, and resist them before they spread into the wider world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Philosopher Smith (Less Than Human) offers a deeply researched and lucid assessment of the psychological and sociopolitical act of dehumanization, or the process by which one is encouraged to view a particular group of people as subhuman. The author argues that "ehumanization is a psychological response to political forces," and carefully deconstructs key ideological structures that allow for dehumanization concepts such as race and even the label of "human." He then explores how those ideas have been used politically to justify dehumanization, exploitation, and mass murder. Political leaders who dehumanize accomplish their goals, Smith argues, by framing racism and prejudice as "psychologically natural antagonisms" and "brute facts of nature." His examples include dehumanization during chattel slavery and the Holocaust, and of Vietnamese people during the Vietnam War and immigrants to America during Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. An extensive further reading section at the end will support those who wish to dive deeper. Smith's useful work serves as a solid entry-point for those grappling with the psychological and political workings of white supremacy, xenophobia, and other forms of us-versus-them thinking.
