Let’s start this second part with the declaration of the UN (United Nation) from 1948, one of the most important documents in history about how to identify humans.
Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and right. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one other in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 2: Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.
Artikel 3: Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
From a little longer historical perspective, and even today, we many times identify humans as not human and legitimize a destructive behavior.
In the book “kill all the brutes,” we can read about how Brittania identifies people in Africa as not human and with a need for civilization. They legalized what they called an experiment in 1898, where the private person Leopold II became ruler of an area as large as Europe with between 11 – 28 million people.
By identifying these people in Africa as not humans, they saw it as a sport to go into battles with African tribes. It was a fight between guns and sticks. In the Battle of Omdurman, as an example, the English lost 48 soldiers and killed 11,000 Sudanese. They also left us with the rebus; why did the other 16,000 wounded soldiers from Sudanese die. The answer could be as simple as identifying these people as animals given the right to kill them. By identifying these people in Africa as not humans, they saw it as a sport to go into battles with African tribes. It was a fight between guns and sticks. In the Battle of Omdurman, as an example, the English lost 48 soldiers and killed 11,000 Sudanese. They also left us with the rebus; why did the other 16,000 wounded soldiers from Sudanese die. The answer could be as simple as identifying these people as animals given the right to kill them.
The famous philosopher Herbert Spencer wrote in Social Statistics 1850 that imperialism had served civilization by expelling lower beings from the earth. Another renowned philosopher Eduard von Hartmann wrote (1884): When a dog’s tail is to be cut off, it does the dog no favors to do this gradually, inch by inch. And on the other hand, when wild peoples are on the verge of destruction, it is not humane to prolong their death struggle by artificial means. The true human friend can only wish to accelerate the extinction of the wild people and work for its goals.
Redding this, we can understand that formal education or status has been used to encourage and accept killing other people. You don’t need to identify; they will do that for you. So as we let over to other people to identify without thinking, we will repeat this destructive situation repeatedly. The more transparent and trustworthy the information is, and the less you let others think for you, the bigger chance to value it humanly.
If identification leads to legitimacy and perceives one’s right to act. Can we also understand the extremely cruel actions that Cesar, Genghis Kahn, Hitler, and Putin represent? It’s probably easier than we think. Humans have identified their stereotypes and indirectly given them legitimacy for their actions. Probably these persons acted out of a feeling that they have the right to do what they did and are still doing. A thumbs down from Cesar that extinguished a human life was not linked to anything emotionally abnormal for him; more legitimated act. When the leader of Norwegian expressed his disgust to Putin in Russia about the killing of civil persons in Ukraine, Putin answered: people die in battle! For him, it isn’t something emotionally strange. It’s more like a routine behavior like a cat taking a mouse.
What happens if someone still dares to question their actions? The answer is simple, the brains of these people activate a defense. Like two children arguing. The difference is that when two children quarrel, the parents often mediate. The motive that it wasn’t me that started can be dealt with because children are identified as children who can be reprimanded and leads correctly. A tyrant with the identification as a ruler has obtained a position where you can behave as you wish, and this opportunity will be connected to his emotion. We have almost told him not to listen to other’s thoughts if he doesn’t want to. It’s others to listen and be reprimanded.