what is the key question?
why do ordinary people commit genocide?
what is genocide?
genocide is an act committed with the intent of destroying ,in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group
what does genocide involve?
- killing members of the group
- causing serious bodily or mental harm to them
statistics
- 6 million European Jews were killed during WW2 due to the holocaust by the National Socialist German Workers Party in Germany led by Adolf Hitler
- around 800,000 people were killed in the Rwandan genocide
agency theory
- obedience is when an individual follows orders given to them by an authority figure, an authority figure is a member of society with a higher social status and power and commands obedience.
- e.g Hitler was an authority figure who commanded obedience from Germany and threatened punishment if his orders were disobeyed
- suggests we have 2 states of mind
- the autonomous state is where we act under our own power, decisions are based of our own idea of what is right and responsible.
- the agentic state is where we act as agents of those in authority, give up our free will and defer any responsibility for our actions onto those in charge.
- Under the agentic state you are more likely to be blindy obedient to an authority figure and commit acts of genocide even if you are against it.
- agency theory suggests that soliders go from the autonomous to agentic state (agentic shift) .
- This can create moral strain where you feel discomfort in giving up control as you don’t actually agree with the orders being given to
- so people may not actually want to commit genocide they just may feel as if they have no other choice so just act against their own moral code
- for example, Hitler ordered soldiers to kick jews out of their homes and have them taken to concentration camps, soldiers would not dispute these orders as they were in the agentic state but would have felt moral strain
- those committing genocide due to obeying an authority figure may use defence mechanisms such as denial or avoidance (e.g) not looking at the victim or rationalisation where they shift the responsibility on the victim.
- When Eichmann was on trial (a nazi), he said he was just following orders (denial of responsibility).
realistic conflict theory
- suggests that prejudice is due to competition over limited resources, such as land, money, political power or military status.
- prejudice is caused due to a fixed, pre-determined, usually negative stereotype about a group or an individual based on limited information. It can lead to discrimination where someone acts on their prejudiced attitudes. .
- prejudiced attitudes can cause someone to commit genocide as they see the other group as a threat to their survival.
- resentment towards the out-group is due to zero-sums fate, where only 1 group is the winner and the other is the loser
- people fight over resources that help them to survive
- for example, the nazis, used propaganda calling the Jews greedy, making people feel as if they needed to take resources away from them, leading to them becoming prejudical.
alternative theory
SLT could explain the reason why genocide is committed. For example, role models such as parents may display verbal or physical acts of aggression, leading to a child adopting these behaviours and imitating the abusive behaviour onto safer targets like weaker ethnic minorities, showing how the learning theories may be able to explain genocide better than the social theories.
why is this key question important?
This is an important question to answer as it could identify warning signs of genocide, helping to prevent events like WW2 from reoccuring again. For example, by using superordinate goals (working towards a common goal). Individuals will benefit as they can avoid being persecuted and killed due to being a part of a certain group and society benefits as we can remain peaceful.
