Pub Date : 2020-09-23DOI: 10.1332/POLICYPRESS/9781447356974.003.0009
S. Rees
This chapter discusses how seizing the opportunities to remove cruelties depends on enthusiasm for a revived democratic politics, plus facility in language to reinterpret human rights, advocate UN peace-keeping responsibilities, and promote the principles of humane governance. A language for humanity includes questions of identity, ideals of humane governance, and determination not to be cruel to future generations. Politicians have been curtailing freedoms in the interests of 'security', allegedly to make nation-states more efficient and to combat terrorist threats. These developments, coupled to a burning planet, display immediate crises. Instead of undue reverence for the integrity of nation-states, humane governance would champion the principle of the Responsibility to Protect. Advocacy of humane governance rests on indictments of the worst effects of capitalism: worldwide inequity, the invisible powers of corporations and appropriation of resources, impoverishment, huge incidence of mental illness, and vast numbers of people feeling worthless.
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This chapter identifies the social, religious, political, economic, and cultural forces which facilitate cruelties. It reveals patterns of values, attitudes, and behaviour, beginning with the age-old stigmatizing of victims. Such negative labelling is implemented in policies of national inclusiveness: whom to regard as normal and worthy, as compared to policies of exclusiveness which designate whom to see as abnormal and unworthy. Even where notorious killers and torturers could be identified, the moral and cultural contexts of their acts require an examination, which includes cruelty to animals and violence to the environment. The chapter also looks at the evils of violent cultures, such as the security politics of Israel, Iran's authoritarian theocracy, America's love of imprisonment, and entrenched discrimination in the Indian caste system.
{"title":"Values, attitudes, behaviour","authors":"S. Rees","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv170x518.8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv170x518.8","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter identifies the social, religious, political, economic, and cultural forces which facilitate cruelties. It reveals patterns of values, attitudes, and behaviour, beginning with the age-old stigmatizing of victims. Such negative labelling is implemented in policies of national inclusiveness: whom to regard as normal and worthy, as compared to policies of exclusiveness which designate whom to see as abnormal and unworthy. Even where notorious killers and torturers could be identified, the moral and cultural contexts of their acts require an examination, which includes cruelty to animals and violence to the environment. The chapter also looks at the evils of violent cultures, such as the security politics of Israel, Iran's authoritarian theocracy, America's love of imprisonment, and entrenched discrimination in the Indian caste system.","PeriodicalId":408318,"journal":{"name":"Cruelty or Humanity","volume":"63 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129993423","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This chapter focuses on humanitarian alternatives as a response to the persistence of cruelty worldwide. It explores the diverse forms of advocacy for a common humanity through literacy about non-violence and for the health-promoting values of creative, non-destructive uses of power. A common humanity refers to a quality of living, as in the enjoyment of political and economic rights, and to a set of values, as in the acknowledgement of responsibility to care for others. Commitment to 'humanity' includes a moral imperative to respect such rights and to live by such values and begins by assessing the ways in which power is exercised. Ultimately, the philosophy, language, and practice of non-violence offers the fulfilling alternative to a global fascination with punishment and other forms of violence. In commentary about the vision required to build an economy not based on inequalities and injustices, the chapter also assesses the place of technology, whether it is help or hindrance.
{"title":"Humanitarian alternatives","authors":"S. Rees","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv170x518.11","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv170x518.11","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter focuses on humanitarian alternatives as a response to the persistence of cruelty worldwide. It explores the diverse forms of advocacy for a common humanity through literacy about non-violence and for the health-promoting values of creative, non-destructive uses of power. A common humanity refers to a quality of living, as in the enjoyment of political and economic rights, and to a set of values, as in the acknowledgement of responsibility to care for others. Commitment to 'humanity' includes a moral imperative to respect such rights and to live by such values and begins by assessing the ways in which power is exercised. Ultimately, the philosophy, language, and practice of non-violence offers the fulfilling alternative to a global fascination with punishment and other forms of violence. In commentary about the vision required to build an economy not based on inequalities and injustices, the chapter also assesses the place of technology, whether it is help or hindrance.","PeriodicalId":408318,"journal":{"name":"Cruelty or Humanity","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114341296","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-09-23DOI: 10.1332/POLICYPRESS/9781447356974.003.0002
S. Rees
This chapter details individual cases of cruelty which illustrate the character of perpetrators, whether governments, state institutions, or individuals, and the awfulness experienced by the victims. In each of these cases, individuals lived in contexts of discrimination and violence. Political forces, government policies, and cultural influences prepared the stage and built the contexts. Examples cover the plights of asylum seekers, refugees, immigrants, prisoners, and indigenous peoples. The chapter also discusses the mass murders of the 20th century, several of which are counted as genocides. Despite the 'never again' motives of those who crafted the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the small print of the Geneva Conventions, those genocides gave momentum to cruelty which has not been easy to stop. The chapter then argues that citizens who stay silent about cruelty may be as responsible as the leaders of governments, as responsible as the members of police forces and military who obey politicians' orders. From 2000, participants in cruelty could include media personnel; they may say or write nothing about inhumanities presented to them, thereby enabling the public to remain ignorant or indifferent to suffering.
{"title":"Perpetrators and victims","authors":"S. Rees","doi":"10.1332/POLICYPRESS/9781447356974.003.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1332/POLICYPRESS/9781447356974.003.0002","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter details individual cases of cruelty which illustrate the character of perpetrators, whether governments, state institutions, or individuals, and the awfulness experienced by the victims. In each of these cases, individuals lived in contexts of discrimination and violence. Political forces, government policies, and cultural influences prepared the stage and built the contexts. Examples cover the plights of asylum seekers, refugees, immigrants, prisoners, and indigenous peoples. The chapter also discusses the mass murders of the 20th century, several of which are counted as genocides. Despite the 'never again' motives of those who crafted the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the small print of the Geneva Conventions, those genocides gave momentum to cruelty which has not been easy to stop. The chapter then argues that citizens who stay silent about cruelty may be as responsible as the leaders of governments, as responsible as the members of police forces and military who obey politicians' orders. From 2000, participants in cruelty could include media personnel; they may say or write nothing about inhumanities presented to them, thereby enabling the public to remain ignorant or indifferent to suffering.","PeriodicalId":408318,"journal":{"name":"Cruelty or Humanity","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133518589","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This chapter highlights the need to recover respect for human rights, for humanitarian law, and for the ideals written into the UN Charter. Those who craft policies could support areas of public life which either have not appeared on their radar or have not been perceived as having anything to do with cruelty. To that end, priority tasks in education for humanity concern issues which have been given insufficient emphasis. These issues include the erosion of human rights principles; reminders about the ways in which free market economic policies enable corporations to contribute to poverty and to cruelty to children; evidence of the increase in cruelty to animals; and the cruelties associated with the possession and threatened use of nuclear weapons. The chapter underlines the responsibilities of teachers, in schools, in colleges, and universities, plus journalists of every description, to educate about rebuilding civil societies through advocacy of human rights, including protection of a precious planet, and by supporting public institutions and services.
{"title":"Cruel or compassionate world?","authors":"S. Rees","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv170x518.12","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv170x518.12","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter highlights the need to recover respect for human rights, for humanitarian law, and for the ideals written into the UN Charter. Those who craft policies could support areas of public life which either have not appeared on their radar or have not been perceived as having anything to do with cruelty. To that end, priority tasks in education for humanity concern issues which have been given insufficient emphasis. These issues include the erosion of human rights principles; reminders about the ways in which free market economic policies enable corporations to contribute to poverty and to cruelty to children; evidence of the increase in cruelty to animals; and the cruelties associated with the possession and threatened use of nuclear weapons. The chapter underlines the responsibilities of teachers, in schools, in colleges, and universities, plus journalists of every description, to educate about rebuilding civil societies through advocacy of human rights, including protection of a precious planet, and by supporting public institutions and services.","PeriodicalId":408318,"journal":{"name":"Cruelty or Humanity","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123724487","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This chapter addresses the causes of cruelty. It covers a continuum of explanations from the banality of evil to automaton-like behaviour in bureaucracies, from pleasures derived from sadism to the cruelties fostered by selfishness. The banality thesis identifies widespread acceptance of cruelties if legitimized by states, their governments, their policies and/or by other powerful institutions. Analysis of conditioned behaviour refers largely to operators of state and non-state organizations who keep the wheels of cruelty turning, yet such personnel usually remain invisible, inaccessible, and non-accountable. Completing the cruelty puzzles requires accounts of sadistic behaviour, which is embedded as much in cultures of violence as in the pathology of any one person. The explanations overlap but have distinct characteristics. The chapter also considers cruelty driven by managerial demands for efficiency, a powerfully addictive notion which is not value neutral, and looks at the civil war between Colombian government forces and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels in Colombia.
{"title":"Explaining Causes","authors":"S. Rees","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv170x518.9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv170x518.9","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter addresses the causes of cruelty. It covers a continuum of explanations from the banality of evil to automaton-like behaviour in bureaucracies, from pleasures derived from sadism to the cruelties fostered by selfishness. The banality thesis identifies widespread acceptance of cruelties if legitimized by states, their governments, their policies and/or by other powerful institutions. Analysis of conditioned behaviour refers largely to operators of state and non-state organizations who keep the wheels of cruelty turning, yet such personnel usually remain invisible, inaccessible, and non-accountable. Completing the cruelty puzzles requires accounts of sadistic behaviour, which is embedded as much in cultures of violence as in the pathology of any one person. The explanations overlap but have distinct characteristics. The chapter also considers cruelty driven by managerial demands for efficiency, a powerfully addictive notion which is not value neutral, and looks at the civil war between Colombian government forces and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels in Colombia.","PeriodicalId":408318,"journal":{"name":"Cruelty or Humanity","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115404226","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2015-01-14DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190245504.003.0005
Hans Kundnani
{"title":"Perpetrators and Victims","authors":"Hans Kundnani","doi":"10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190245504.003.0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190245504.003.0005","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":408318,"journal":{"name":"Cruelty or Humanity","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-01-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125033247","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Language for Humanity","authors":"Liale Francis","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv170x518.14","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv170x518.14","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":408318,"journal":{"name":"Cruelty or Humanity","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116958552","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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