The Sloganeer: Paradise (How People Justify Inhumanity)

First, the song choice, Meshell Ndegecello's Sloganeer-Paradise.  It's an assault on so many things, but the most obvious is religious extremism.  It's a challenging piece of music lyrically for someone with conservative social values, which I for the most part identify with, in my utilitarian moralistic tendencies.  Anyway, the emotion of the song is something I relate to, the confrontational inquisition.  Your faith, your perspective ought to be able to weather challenges with some measure of reason.  It should be up to the task, and I feel mine is, so if anything, her challenges to think, are conversation starters- food for thought.  In then end, she has no desire to see a world populated with killers who justify their actions with fervor for one belief system/ world view or another fueling their inhumanity.  That very subject came up recently.  When addressing it, someone thought this was nifty when I posted it elsewhere online, so I'm reposting:

As far as how we turn people into "the other" it's a process for sure. Here's a pseudo-academic view on that I worked up when I was an undergrad, and I'm sure a Pro has done better:

1. polarize (an issue between people)

2. ostracize (the people on opposing sides of the issue)

3. dehumanize ( the people on the opposing side with stereotyping, or literally via mortification of self when people are institutionalized for example, be it a mental hospital, the penal system, the military... )
*
4. Civilize/ re-civilize (the people on the opposing side when possible, via indoctrination, rehabilitation, or more radical interventions via medication and surgical procedures etc. )


and if and when continuing those efforts are seen as untenable

5. Rationalize why it makes sense to Colonize/ Penalize/Sterilize/Lobotomize/ Euthanize/ the opposition/ offensive party.


So... be it the left or the right, the net result of argument that forgoes the dialectic process is negation of the opposition. When you are dealing with lifeforms, to do that, is to become inhumane. Given the correct circumstances, most people have it in them, in the form of fight or flight response, particularly when flight isn't an option.

* I want to add Criminalize to the continuum as relates to behaviors of, or interaction with the opposing the party, but it feels a little myopic and is covered in step 5.