POW Conditions
- HalcyonFlower
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Re: POW Conditions
There are a lot of great points made, especially by PashaRu. Feeling to be part of something or a collective can definitely make one do terrible things as well.
- bookowlie
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PashaRu wrote:Nationalism, patriotism, and pride of country - "My country is the best one" - are often the enemies of compassion and understanding. It's a very narrow-minded point of view, and when the propaganda machines churn out hate, prejudice, and lies, especially during wartime, this makes those on opposite sides look at one another one-dimensionally - simply as "the enemy" - and then it becomes easy to treat such ones as less than human. In the years leading up to WWII, Hitler methodically carried out propaganda campaigns to sub-humanize the Jews, and by the time the Final Solution was instituted, there were many who had already been so thoroughly brainwashed, participating in the genocide didn't present much of an ethical or moral dilemma for them.
Those who abuse prisoners in a POW camp are conditioned to look at those prisoners as inferior beings. Once that has been accomplished, the rest is easy.
I agree completely!
- babika1962
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More interestingly though, let's say you're nothing more than a young soldier, an idealistic young man or woman on your first tour of Iraq, and your troop captures some insurgents or political hostiles that your superiors believe hold vital information and you're told to interrogate the prisoners using whatever tactic you need to use in order to extract that information from them. Let's say that you witness so-called tactics of torture inflicted by your fellow soldiers. What do you do? Do you participate? Do you report your fellow soldiers to your superiors for torturing a prisoner, a potential enemy whose intel could quite conceivably lead to an attack on your country? It's a very, very slippery slope.
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PashaRu wrote:Nationalism, patriotism, and pride of country - "My country is the best one" - are often the enemies of compassion and understanding. It's a very narrow-minded point of view, and when the propaganda machines churn out hate, prejudice, and lies, especially during wartime, this makes those on opposite sides look at one another one-dimensionally - simply as "the enemy" - and then it becomes easy to treat such ones as less than human. In the years leading up to WWII, Hitler methodically carried out propaganda campaigns to sub-humanize the Jews, and by the time the Final Solution was instituted, there were many who had already been so thoroughly brainwashed, participating in the genocide didn't present much of an ethical or moral dilemma for them.
Those who abuse prisoners in a POW camp are conditioned to look at those prisoners as inferior beings. Once that has been accomplished, the rest is easy.
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Agreed. A seed of hate can lead some to commit unspeakable acts.Taylor Razzani wrote:Unfortunately, I think hate makes people do such terrible things, and it is usually grossly misguided hate. This hate also changes people's views and makes them think lesser of their enemies, making it okay in their eyes to do such horrible things. It's mind boggling that humans can treat others humans this way just because of different views.
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Very true!rssllue wrote:In addition to that, I have to say that when we think about everything that is encapsulated in the"all" part of that quote, it is an extremely scary thought and one that I believe very few of us would truly agree with. We mostly like the idea of "fair play" instead of a "free-for-all" attitude. I truly think that sayings like these are easily glossed over too much because we are so used to hearing them and that they really don't hold water when they are actually scrutinized.
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This nails it on the head for me. Somehow, and don't ask me how because there's no way I could do it when people become POWs or even these days highly suspected of terrorism or plans to do things, they seem to be thought of as sub-human. Unfortunately, there are plenty of folks who have no problem treating animals or these "sub-human" people wrongly....Taylor Razzani wrote:Unfortunately, I think hate makes people do such terrible things, and it is usually grossly misguided hate. This hate also changes people's views and makes them think lesser of their enemies, making it okay in their eyes to do such horrible things. It's mind boggling that humans can treat others humans this way just because of different views.
It's really sad that people have to go through that. There are things far worse than death, and standing up for your beliefs - even as a soldier - doesn't give people the right to torture them.
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I agree. Usually soldiers, heck, people are conditioned to think that their nation or religion or culture is the right one. Anyone who disagrees is in the wrong. There isn't space for difference of opinion. They then are filled with the need to dominate and defeat the other side to prove their own righteousness.PashaRu wrote:Nationalism, patriotism, and pride of country - "My country is the best one" - are often the enemies of compassion and understanding. It's a very narrow-minded point of view, and when the propaganda machines churn out hate, prejudice, and lies, especially during wartime, this makes those on opposite sides look at one another one-dimensionally - simply as "the enemy" - and then it becomes easy to treat such ones as less than human. In the years leading up to WWII, Hitler methodically carried out propaganda campaigns to sub-humanize the Jews, and by the time the Final Solution was instituted, there were many who had already been so thoroughly brainwashed, participating in the genocide didn't present much of an ethical or moral dilemma for them.
Those who abuse prisoners in a POW camp are conditioned to look at those prisoners as inferior beings. Once that has been accomplished, the rest is easy.
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Taylor Razzani wrote:Unfortunately, I think hate makes people do such terrible things, and it is usually grossly misguided hate. This hate also changes people's views and makes them think lesser of their enemies, making it okay in their eyes to do such horrible things. It's mind boggling that humans can treat others humans this way just because of different views.
It seems like you took the words out of my mouth. Hate is a thing that makes generally nice good hearted people do terrible things and not look beyond that hate.
- TangledinText
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