11/29/05

Its something I notice other people doing often. War is the typical example that comes to mind: hearing people get so upset about a few deaths in the US when half a million Iraqis died because of our cutting off their supplies, and most people don't seem to think its even worth taking the time to consider.

I think this hits home a little more for me because of having Russian heritage. I was a little kid in the 80s, and don't really remember a whole lot of the details of the iron curtain, but I recall the general emotional undercurrent: that the Russians weren't as valuable as we were, and that it didn't really matter if a bunch of them died.

It was very lucky that my grandfather decided to stow away on a boat when he was around 13, most of his family was murdered by Stalin. I didn't learn about that until I was a little older school age, and had already spent a fair bit of life accepting the media mentality of Russians as "those other bad people whom we need to beat into submission and kill if necessary." That way of thinking doesn't mesh to well with "those are people just like me."

This is not commentary on whether or not various wars are necessary, I am certainly not knowledgeable enough or in appropriate position to case ethical judgment there either. And even dehumanization sadly may be necessary, since if war is necessary, it may be the only way to do what needs to be done. I don't know, and there's not much I could do about it even if I did devote my life to trying to figure it out: I'd prefer to try to change the world I live in in other ways.

But I don't like dehumanization, it bothers me when I notice other people doing it, which is often, and I try to take as empathetic a view as I can handle myself. The stuff I've been learning about premie treatment up until recently for example is pretty disturbing. That people, doctors, assumed they couldn't feel pain and therefore didn't give them any pain medications, even when they were having surgery. It wasn't until as recently as 1985 that the US changed this barbaric policy. (to anyone with any emotional intelligence who is at all observant, it is very obvious that premies feel pain: they cry, grimace, their pulses shoot way up, and they make many of the other standard human expressions of it. The medical profession finally came around once they demonstrated the babies pain through studies)

I observe current person to person examples of dehumanization often, and by its very nature, people don't realize that they're doing it.

And the other day I was pointed at an example of some I'd done myself a few years back. My perspective has changed immensely since then, and reading it from my point of view now, I consider what I did absolutely horrible, mean, and totally unethical. Not the sort of thing I would do.

Except when dehumanizing someone. In fact, it was so not a big deal at the time that I'd completely forgotten about it.

But while I did go through a period where I was pretty much a cult member and didn't think that anyone who was not an intellectual/atheist snob was worthwhile (or that I was worthwhile for that matter: not surprisingly I also had very low self-esteem at the time), my perspective has changed a lot.

While I am still very opinionated in my own beliefs, and still spend a lot of time considering and in essence, judging various things and people, I've become much more humble in my moral judgment. So much of what we think and how we act is situational, luck of the draw of genetics, of where and when we're born, of who we know, etc. I now tend to think of myself much more in the realms of lucky than morally superior, or unlucky/inferior for that matter. I still believe in free will, but believe judgement in that realm to be so complex that since I have not chosen philosophy as my calling that I will leave it to others ;) In fact, really, I don't think its something I feel that people are capable of doing at all well at this point... maybe when we have a much better understanding of psychology, among other subjects.

But I do still pass judgment among other things, about people's ethical perspectives, and of which people I wish to be around and/or I think contribute to society, the world, my life, etc., in ways that I like and wish to encourage/discourage.

I wish to discourage various points of view I've had in the past, although I will attempt to use this recent personal lesson to be more understanding of people who behave in a similarly shortsighted manner ;)

And unfortunately, I do think that dehumanization is something pretty well ingrained in human nature, and that while I try to rid myself of it, it will probably sneak up on me again. But as I am only human, while I will try to minimize it, I will also try not to ostracize myself about it either.