COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE | APRIL 4, 2017

Dehumanization

Most people are born good. Most people are born with an innate sense of decency, a good concept of justice, and an inborn understanding of right and wrong. One of the first things you’ll hear out of a child’s mouth is “It’s not fair.” Nobody has to teach them of the principle of fairness. It’s just there.

Most people are also social creatures who innately care for others. For an extreme example: the easiest way for a terrorist to gain immediate obedience from hostages is to threaten to kill a fellow hostage. It’s also common for soldiers to give up their own lives and limbs to save their fellow soldiers.

Propaganda and advertising professionals, trial lawyers, crooked politicians and power junkies and psychos are all quite aware of the basic goodness and nobility in people. They manipulate it to serve their purposes.

The greatest serial killers in history are not “that quiet guy living in his mom’s basement”; they are the ones smart enough to turn it into a large-scale business. They are the gifted enough marketers capable of recruiting otherwise decent people to carry out their insane goals and create multinational corporations in the process.

From Genghis Khan to Stalin, Hitler and Mao, to the tribal, ethnic and religious massacres that continue today, all tyrants begin their recruitment with the art and science of dehumanization on the basis of the same mathematical assumption: “A” is less than “B” (A<B), expressed as “You are less than me, they are less than us and therefore deserve to be destroyed. Let the slaughter begin.”

It starts with gossip on the school playground or with online bullies and is developed and refined through the years.

History buff that I am, I will tell you an interesting, not-so-little historical factoid: Before introduction of the world’s three major religions—all carrying the message of peace, caring for others and treating others the way one wants to be treated oneself—the only thing that existed was war, cruelty, savagery and barbarism. There was no civilization. The only gods were force, butchery and death.

One characteristic all bigots share is cowardice. The only power they ever have is gained through manipulation of decent and courageous people into acts of cruelty on their behalf.

There is a very good reason for the current dehumanization campaign against Scientologists. Scientology, along with most other religions, is attempting to do the opposite of dehumanize. Its purpose is to uplift and improve people, to strengthen and enhance the intellect, sense of decency and ability of the people whose lives it touches. Scientologists are the enemies of dehumanizers—including bigots—who, like cancers, spread through every level of society.

One characteristic all bigots share is cowardice. The only power they ever have is gained through the manipulation of decent and courageous people into acts of cruelty on their behalf; bigots will only directly take on those they perceive are weak but will stay well in the background, backbiting anyone who appears strong. Any bravery they have lasts only until the people they target decide to stand up.

Well, for us Scientologists—who have been turning the other cheek for too long—that time has come. And stand up we will. It is only a matter of time until the bigots fade to the rear of civilization, along with their disgusting dehumanization campaigns.

Photo: Linda Bucklin/Shutterstock.com

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