Profound and beautifully said, Natasha. I especially enjoyed your juxtaposition between the less bloody conflicts (e.g. Mean Girls) and the horrors we're seeing play out in present day, because like you, I see the correlations between their basic mindsets, which ultimately leads to the dehumanization of our fellows. Which naturally leads to one's own ability to commit atrocities.
During my service in the military, I recall quite lucidly the sorts of pejoratives my contemporaries (and shamefully, myself) employed to cover the large swathes of people who might have possibly fulfilled the roll of our "enemy". It wasn't until my departure from that uniformed career, that I came to realize the unconscious psychological tactic of such pejoratives, which served to dehumanize these people, further enabling us to become the very monsters we thought we were fighting.
Thanks for writing this! It reminded me of this James Baldwin quote:
"The roles that we construct are constructed because we feel that they will help us to survive, and also, of course, because they fulfill something in our personalities; and one does not, therefore, cease playing a role simply because one has begun to understand it. All roles are dangerous. The world tends to trap you in the role you play and it is always extremely hard to maintain a watchful, mocking distance between oneself as one appears to be and oneself as one actually is."
This is so clear and concise - and timely. Thank you! It is significantly easier to demonize others than to recognize our own potential for the same evil or our active participation in the evil we deplore. And valorizing victims can be a good way to absolve ourselves of responsibility. The Holocaust was carried out not by monsters but by ordinary people who were simply following orders: we prefer to see evil as something that is grotesque and alien, which allows us to disassociate ourselves from it. Hannah Arendt called this "the banality of evil" and, to this day, is criticized for "trivializing" evil and blaming the Jews for complicity in their own victimization. Parallels in the Middle East right now are painfully obvious.
I needed to read this—what challenges me is how to keep this view while also working toward change, convincing (some) others that that approach does not decontextualize history. But also, I’ve been around a lot of Palestinian Americans the past weekend at a conference for Arab American writers and they are intent on being subjects of resistance, not victimhood, but there are systemic forces that decry even acts of nonviolent resistance as a kind of violence. And forces that assume they’re siding with violence/terrorism unless proven otherwise. Which can force people into a position of victimhood. So it’s not necessarily/always that people want/like to be victims. The prevailing narratives push them there.
I'd say the vast majority of people neither like nor want to be victims at all. It's a very shitty feeling. People are ready to do a lot, as not to feel it/feel something else/feel anything else/not to feel at all-when they are victims, actually. In my experience. I've quite a lot of it, although one can always have more.
I missed where you said you were a little bit afraid to publish this. If so-why were you? I disagree with details, or have different experience with this or that, or can add more, etc -but the premise of the post is so glaringly clear, -or is it to me?- and written in such a way that really tries to bring people together, rather than apart, that I ask myself-how come a normal person hesitates to hit the button? In the land of the free, the home of the brave?
Can it be that precisely that normalcy is in a way, I thought suddenly? How interesting it is, that so many hesitate to hit the button not at all, not for a millisecond-and you do.
..don't hesitate to hit the button, Natasha.
I wanted to write more, but it's your Substack, and my comment is long enough.
PS another interesting (to me) thing-coincidentally, my last post is about Judith. Or rather, portrayal of Judith -I have a painting that's called "Judit" at home. Not Carravagio, for obvious reasons- but they have a few things in common.
Profound and beautifully said, Natasha. I especially enjoyed your juxtaposition between the less bloody conflicts (e.g. Mean Girls) and the horrors we're seeing play out in present day, because like you, I see the correlations between their basic mindsets, which ultimately leads to the dehumanization of our fellows. Which naturally leads to one's own ability to commit atrocities.
During my service in the military, I recall quite lucidly the sorts of pejoratives my contemporaries (and shamefully, myself) employed to cover the large swathes of people who might have possibly fulfilled the roll of our "enemy". It wasn't until my departure from that uniformed career, that I came to realize the unconscious psychological tactic of such pejoratives, which served to dehumanize these people, further enabling us to become the very monsters we thought we were fighting.
Thanks for the kind words & sharing such a thoughtful, brave comment.
Thanks for writing this! It reminded me of this James Baldwin quote:
"The roles that we construct are constructed because we feel that they will help us to survive, and also, of course, because they fulfill something in our personalities; and one does not, therefore, cease playing a role simply because one has begun to understand it. All roles are dangerous. The world tends to trap you in the role you play and it is always extremely hard to maintain a watchful, mocking distance between oneself as one appears to be and oneself as one actually is."
What a paragraph—Baldwin never errs. I’m flattered by the comparison!
This is so clear and concise - and timely. Thank you! It is significantly easier to demonize others than to recognize our own potential for the same evil or our active participation in the evil we deplore. And valorizing victims can be a good way to absolve ourselves of responsibility. The Holocaust was carried out not by monsters but by ordinary people who were simply following orders: we prefer to see evil as something that is grotesque and alien, which allows us to disassociate ourselves from it. Hannah Arendt called this "the banality of evil" and, to this day, is criticized for "trivializing" evil and blaming the Jews for complicity in their own victimization. Parallels in the Middle East right now are painfully obvious.
Bingo—Arendt is top of mind.
I needed to read this—what challenges me is how to keep this view while also working toward change, convincing (some) others that that approach does not decontextualize history. But also, I’ve been around a lot of Palestinian Americans the past weekend at a conference for Arab American writers and they are intent on being subjects of resistance, not victimhood, but there are systemic forces that decry even acts of nonviolent resistance as a kind of violence. And forces that assume they’re siding with violence/terrorism unless proven otherwise. Which can force people into a position of victimhood. So it’s not necessarily/always that people want/like to be victims. The prevailing narratives push them there.
Absolutely—& the systemic nature of oppression is surely part of the reason victim-as-role vs identity gets conflated in the first place.
I'd say the vast majority of people neither like nor want to be victims at all. It's a very shitty feeling. People are ready to do a lot, as not to feel it/feel something else/feel anything else/not to feel at all-when they are victims, actually. In my experience. I've quite a lot of it, although one can always have more.
Exactly why I hit the button anyway. Thanks so much for this.
I missed where you said you were a little bit afraid to publish this. If so-why were you? I disagree with details, or have different experience with this or that, or can add more, etc -but the premise of the post is so glaringly clear, -or is it to me?- and written in such a way that really tries to bring people together, rather than apart, that I ask myself-how come a normal person hesitates to hit the button? In the land of the free, the home of the brave?
Can it be that precisely that normalcy is in a way, I thought suddenly? How interesting it is, that so many hesitate to hit the button not at all, not for a millisecond-and you do.
..don't hesitate to hit the button, Natasha.
I wanted to write more, but it's your Substack, and my comment is long enough.
PS another interesting (to me) thing-coincidentally, my last post is about Judith. Or rather, portrayal of Judith -I have a painting that's called "Judit" at home. Not Carravagio, for obvious reasons- but they have a few things in common.
https://substack.com/@joukovsky/note/c-42777810?r=7yhbb&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
I was a little afraid to publish because of the very behavior it calls out! Eg, “ basic humanitarianism branded anti-Semitic…”
Thanks for reading & sharing these thoughts