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Barbarous Thinking Comes Easily |
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by Jeffrey D. Sachs
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10 Jun 2004
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Once we recognize how vulnerable all of the world is to a descent into violence, the importance of international law and international institutions such as the United Nations becomes more obvious. The United Nations successfully resisted U.S. pressure to condone a war with Iraq despite repeated U.S. claims, now known to be false, that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. The U.N. process worked, while the U.S. policy failed. |
One consequence of the Iraq war is to expose (once again) the false divide between ''civilized'' and ''barbarous'' nations. The United States seems as capable of barbarism as anyone else, as the abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison make clear.
There seem to be two common characteristics for a country to descend into barbarism. The first is the relentless human tendency to classify the world as ''us'' versus ''them,'' and then to reduce ''them'' to sub-human status. Such classifications probably evolved because they strengthened the cohesion of the ''in'' group.
This descent into barbarism generally occurs in the midst of economic crisis or when localized violence has flared. Fear leads one group to coalesce to protect itself, perhaps by attacking a competing group.
This pattern was evident in Yugoslavia's wars of the 1990s, where ethnic communities that had lived together more or less peacefully became enmeshed in civil war in the midst of a deep economic crisis. Similarly, Israelis and Palestinians have both engaged in barbaric acts in a tragic interplay of mutual fear that empowers extremists in both communities.
American reactions to the Abu Ghraib torture scenes, followed by the beheading of the American hostage Nicholas Berg, show clearly the route to barbarism in a supposedly civilized country. In May The New York Times polled readers in a city in the U.S. heartland, Oswego, Ill. One retired businessman said, ''Let's kill them all. Let's wipe them off the face of the Earth.'' A Nazi leader would not have said it differently.
Barbarous thinking comes easily, and right-wingers fuel the fervor, as when the radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh said: ``They're the ones who are perverted. They're the ones who are dangerous. They're the ones who are subhuman. They're the ones who are human debris, not the United States of America and not our soldiers and our prison guards.''
I am not saying that the United States is more depraved than other countries. But the idea that any nation is morally superior, or that it has been divinely chosen as a leader of nations, is dangerous.
Once we recognize how vulnerable all of the world is to a descent into violence, the importance of international law and international institutions such as the United Nations becomes more obvious. The United Nations successfully resisted U.S. pressure to condone a war with Iraq despite repeated U.S. claims, now known to be false, that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. The U.N. process worked, while the U.S. policy failed.
By putting itself above the law, America allowed itself to succumb to barbaric behavior. Similarly, the abusive treatment of Iraqi prisoners proves why the new International Criminal Court is vital. U.S. leaders have strongly resisted the jurisdiction of the ICC, but American wrongdoing at Abu Ghraib shows why the United States should be subject to international law.
Perhaps that lesson -- the need to subject even the most powerful country to international law -- will be one benefit of the otherwise disastrous Iraq war. If this lesson is learned, the world will be far safer. America itself will be safer, in part because it will be less likely to unleash a spiral of violence fueled by irrational fears and misunderstandings of the world.
Jeffrey D. Sachs is professor of economics and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University.
Copyright 1996-2004 Knight Ridder.
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http://www.earth.columbia.edu/
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