DEHUMANIZATION

David Livingstone Smith, Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2015) ("[D]ehumization is the belief that some beings only appear human, but beneath the surface, where it really counts, they aren't at all." Id. at 4-5. ("We are all potential dehumanizes, just as we all are potential objects of dehumanization. The problem of dehumanization is everyone's problem. My ask is to explain why." Id. at 25. "In this book, I will argue that when we dehumanize people we think of them as counterfeit human beings--creatures that look like humans, but who are not endowed with a human essence--and that this is possible only because of our natural tendency to think that there are essence-based natural kinds. This way of thinking does;t come form 'outside.' We neither absorb it from our culture, nor learn it from observation. Rather, it seems to reflect out cognitive architecture--the evolved design of the human psyche." Id. at 101. [Query: Have you noticed the need of many people to "feel special," to think of themselves as "unique" in a world of several billion people? Is this apart of the human psyche? If it is, then perhaps the tendency to dehumanize is part of the human psyche as well. After all, it is really difficult to maintain the view of oneself, or one's group, as special and unique unless one views some others as less-than-special, less than unique.] "In this chapter [Chapter 7, titled "The Cruel Animal"]  I'm going to defend the proposition that Homo sapiens are the only animals capable of cruelty and war. I'm going to explore where this leads and use it to develop a more detailed explanation of why dehumanization causes moral disengagement." Id. at 203. "Sometimes dehumanized people are thought to be a deposed or hated 'animal' of no determinate kind. However, they are more often represented as any of three kinds of creature: dangerous predators, unclean animals,or prey. There are occasional departures from this pattern, but for the most part, it is surprisingly robust across both time and place." Id. at 252. Ask yourself, how does the law dehumanize certain people? As lawyers, what is your role in that dehumanization process? Lately, there is a lot of lip-service being given to mercy, compassion, forgiveness, etc. Perhaps a little more attention should be given to our dark side, our tendency to dehumanize. It is relatively easy, and comfortable, to contemplate dehumanization by others, or aboard. It is a greater challenge to look closer to home and see the dehumanization of others in our own minds and hearts. And ask yourself whether notions of racial, ethnic, cultural, national, etc., pride are masking acts and values of dehumanization.).