Genocide & Cruelty

Genocide and Cruelty Throughout history people have taken actions which show us that some people are cruel and participate in outrageous acts. We can go back and look at the United States and their use of slaves from Africa. In Germany, less then 100 years ago, Adolf Hitler and the Nazis orchestrated one of the most hateful and dehumanizing acts with their concentration camps with the killings of millions of Jews, Gypsies, gays and others. Following these devastating acts the United Nations said they would not let genocide like the concentration camps ever occur again. But just 11 years ago in Rwanda 800,000 people were killed in genocide with little or no intervention from the United States or any other country. Philip Hallie spoke about some of the actions and the reason behind some people and their cruelty in ÒFrom Cruelty to Goodness.Ó In the article Hallie is questioned as to whether these acts of genocide can be prevented through good or if these acts can not be stopped and are an event in history. Hallie makes a great point when he says that goodness can prevail over evil. My feelings are similar to those of Hallie as I feel that there is some good in everyone and that genocides and Rwanda can be prevented or helped through good. The premise behind Philip HallieÕs article pretty much speaks for itself in the title, ÒFrom Cruelty to Goodness.Ó He first sets out to define cruelty. Hallie defines institutionalized cruelty as Òcruelty (what the anti-cruelty societies usually call Ôsubstantial crueltyÕ) involves the maiming of a personÕs dignity, the crushing of a personÕs self-respectÓ (Hallie, 6). Hallie goes on to say that Òpower differential is crucial to the idea of cruelty, then when that power differential is maintained, cruelty will tend to be maintained, and when the power differential is eliminated, cruelty will tend to be eliminatedÓ (Hallie, 8). He says cruelty is Òan imbalance of power wherein the stronger party becomes the victimizer

Cited: Hallie, Philip ÒFrom Cruelty to GoodnessÓ As reprinted in Vice & Virtue in Everyday Life. Sommers, Christina and Sommers, Fred, United States, Thomson Wadsworth publishing. ÒGhosts of RwandaÓ Frontline, PBS Home Video, videocassette