Blogger-SMS | Déjà Vu ~ Times

A Message to the Mark Passios of this World

Yes, there are huge problems in this world (with order-followers being a major one), but how do we listen to you without remembering how déjà vu you sound? how familiar your “righteous” tirades against “undesirables”? how repetitive the preludes to tyranny and justification?

Words matter, so perhaps it is time to review the words of Philip Zimbardo of the Standford Prison Experiment and author of The Lucifer Effect.1

One of the worst things that we can do to our fellow human beings is deprive them of their humanity, render them worthless by exercising the psychological process of dehumanization. This occurs when the “others” are thought not to possess the same feelings, thoughts, values, and purposes in life that we do. Any human qualities that these “others” share with us are diminished or are erased from our awareness. This is accomplished by the psychological mechanisms of intellectualization, denial, and the isolation of affect. In contrast to human relationships, which are subjective, personal, and emotional, dehumanized relationships are objectifying, analytical, and empty of emotional or empathic content.

The misperception of certain others as subhuman, bad humans, inhuman, infra-human, dispensable, or “animals” is facilitated by means of labels, stereotypes, slogans, and propaganda images.2

Have you just flipped a coin of the realm, believing you had acquired a new one when in reality you are just holding the old coin with a different face?
___________________/
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment ; https://www.prisonexp.org/the-story ; see also: https://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-spirit-of-power.html
2. Zimbardo, Philip. The Lucifer Effect (p. 222-223). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.