A blog for POLS 209, Dictatorships and Revolutions, at Victoria University of Wellington. A place for students to talk and think about political pathologies all over the world. This is our other blog - see also here
Annalee - do you think these people were evil per se? Or was there something in the political systems in which they were embedded that made them likely to do things that resulted in so many deaths?
This is quite interesting to look at in terms of what they use to classify "evil". The number one aspect that seems to count in this article is numbers of deaths yet to me this partly depends on how much power the dictator has, if their power is over a lot more people they will have a greater effect but this does not mean they are more evil. If this is done by percentage it will be a more useful way to classify evil. The idea of evil also seems to rely heavily on their position as a dictator as I doubt it would be likely if any of these dictators did not rise to power they would of still be deemed as evil. I am sure that if many other people were in their positions the situation would not be much different defiantly if the common ideology or system in place allows for their power to get out of control. I doubt Hitler believed he was evil he would of thought that he was making humanity better and many people agreed with him. Their moral senses becomes even more warped when they see some people as sub human. I think this is why morality and ethics are incredibly important topic when it comes to politics and that people should not believe that a certain group of people are that different to themselves, even naming someone as evil should not happen, it is fine to say someone has done an evil act but they themselves are not evil. To call someone evil dehumanises and creates them into a monster. I guess this is why classification is very useful as it allows people to compare all aspects of what it is they are analysing.
Apart from the incredible lack of historical understanding in the article, the bodycount of imperialism is far greater than anything these guys ever achieved. Millions die each year from hunger and preventable diseases and not because medicine and food aren't available but because our economic system deems it unprofitable to help them. If an advanced alien race landed on our planet I have a feeling that facepalming would ensue.
What you have said is very true, I also feel like you can expand that to the wider international aspects of capitalism (closely linked to imperialism - in the quest for new markets). Primarily, in the sense of Immanuel Wallerstein's theory of World Systems. He projected a Marxist class analysis on to the international realm, to understand the relationships between states. Where state interaction is determined by one's hypothetical positioning in either the 'core', 'semi-periphery' or 'periphery' position. One can attribute the millions of preventable deaths which occur due to lack of necessities (food, medicine etc.) as in part a product of the exploitative relationship between the 'core' states and those in 'periphery'. This relationship where the 'core' (UK, US, NZ ...) exploits the labour and resources of the 'periphery' (Bangladesh, Haiti, El Salvador ...) is responsible for the hugely unequal development in the world today. I think a compelling example of this is the recent collapse of a clothes factory in Bangladesh, in which the cheap labour of a periphery country was exploited to devastatingly effect. As you said millions die each year from hunger and preventable diseases, this is directly attributable to the unequal distribution of resources between the core and the periphery. Why is it that half of the food the world produces is wasted when millions of starve? I think we need to consider the millions dead as a result of unfair dictatorship on resources that characterises the core.
Wallerstein's world-system theory seems to be an expansion on Lenin's theory of imperialism, which is what I more or less subscribe to, but to be honest I haven't actually had an in-depth reading of Wallerstein. Dictatorships can be of an individual or of an entire class. Someone has recently posted about the "troika dictatorship" in Greece but, in fact, elitist dictatorships masquerading as democracies have always been the case. The financial crisis simply exposed these thugs for what they were.
Annalee - do you think these people were evil per se? Or was there something in the political systems in which they were embedded that made them likely to do things that resulted in so many deaths?
ReplyDeleteThis is quite interesting to look at in terms of what they use to classify "evil". The number one aspect that seems to count in this article is numbers of deaths yet to me this partly depends on how much power the dictator has, if their power is over a lot more people they will have a greater effect but this does not mean they are more evil. If this is done by percentage it will be a more useful way to classify evil.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of evil also seems to rely heavily on their position as a dictator as I doubt it would be likely if any of these dictators did not rise to power they would of still be deemed as evil. I am sure that if many other people were in their positions the situation would not be much different defiantly if the common ideology or system in place allows for their power to get out of control. I doubt Hitler believed he was evil he would of thought that he was making humanity better and many people agreed with him. Their moral senses becomes even more warped when they see some people as sub human.
I think this is why morality and ethics are incredibly important topic when it comes to politics and that people should not believe that a certain group of people are that different to themselves, even naming someone as evil should not happen, it is fine to say someone has done an evil act but they themselves are not evil. To call someone evil dehumanises and creates them into a monster. I guess this is why classification is very useful as it allows people to compare all aspects of what it is they are analysing.
Good points Amy - but maybe it is the fact that they came to have essentially unlimited power that made them able to do evil things?
DeleteApart from the incredible lack of historical understanding in the article, the bodycount of imperialism is far greater than anything these guys ever achieved. Millions die each year from hunger and preventable diseases and not because medicine and food aren't available but because our economic system deems it unprofitable to help them. If an advanced alien race landed on our planet I have a feeling that facepalming would ensue.
ReplyDeleteWhat you have said is very true, I also feel like you can expand that to the wider international aspects of capitalism (closely linked to imperialism - in the quest for new markets). Primarily, in the sense of Immanuel Wallerstein's theory of World Systems. He projected a Marxist class analysis on to the international realm, to understand the relationships between states. Where state interaction is determined by one's hypothetical positioning in either the 'core', 'semi-periphery' or 'periphery' position. One can attribute the millions of preventable deaths which occur due to lack of necessities (food, medicine etc.) as in part a product of the exploitative relationship between the 'core' states and those in 'periphery'. This relationship where the 'core' (UK, US, NZ ...) exploits the labour and resources of the 'periphery' (Bangladesh, Haiti, El Salvador ...) is responsible for the hugely unequal development in the world today. I think a compelling example of this is the recent collapse of a clothes factory in Bangladesh, in which the cheap labour of a periphery country was exploited to devastatingly effect. As you said millions die each year from hunger and preventable diseases, this is directly attributable to the unequal distribution of resources between the core and the periphery. Why is it that half of the food the world produces is wasted when millions of starve? I think we need to consider the millions dead as a result of unfair dictatorship on resources that characterises the core.
DeleteWallerstein's world-system theory seems to be an expansion on Lenin's theory of imperialism, which is what I more or less subscribe to, but to be honest I haven't actually had an in-depth reading of Wallerstein. Dictatorships can be of an individual or of an entire class. Someone has recently posted about the "troika dictatorship" in Greece but, in fact, elitist dictatorships masquerading as democracies have always been the case. The financial crisis simply exposed these thugs for what they were.
Delete