During our discussion last class, one of the things that we touched on was the idea that we want (or maybe expect is a better word) the perpetrators to be genuinely bad people. When we see things like the video of Hitler at his hideaway, not in uniform, seeming like a normal person, it is deeply disturbing.
This reminded me very much of a book I read for an Anthropology course, titled "Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill," by Jessica Stern. One of the topics that Stern addresses in her book is the same issue that we discussed, namely that people expect terrorists to be bad people. However, these same people who blow up buildings and attack noncombatants also "profess strong moral values," and these "ordinary people can commit seemingly demonic acts." Most of the terrorists she interviews are family men, devout to their religion, giving to those who are in their circle.
Stern has some answers, but many of her answers point to twisting of religious dogma, which is difficult to tie to the Nazis. She does talk about an idea of doubling, where a person has two selves. Stern quotes a psychiatrist who has studied Nazis, Robert J. Lifton, who says "cult members become two people: the self they were, and the new, morally disengaged killer self." It becomes easier to see the ties here. She goes on to talk about "extinguishing the recruit's ability to empathize with his victim," which we have seen when studying the Holocaust.
This book is a very interesting one, and I recommend it. I'm sure there are many more ties, but this is what comes freshly to mind to share.
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Here is an interview with Jessica Stern, the author, with an excerpt from the book.
1 comment:
So interesting ... another book to add to my summer reading list.
Thanks.
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