Fun At Auschwitz

Go see this narrated slide show of recently unearthed photos from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and then read Dr. J's Commentary.

That is the basis of the horrors that we observe in the behavior of the German guards at Auschwitz, of Southern townspeople, of American guards at Abu Ghraib, at Japanese soldiers during the Nanking Massacre of 1937: a particular group of humans aren't; they are sub-human and thus can be treated like animals (that is if one is into brutalizing animals). When one government engages in systematic dehumanization of one or more groups of either its own citizens or the citizens of a country with which it has gone to war, "fun at Auschwitz" and "fun at the lynching in the center of town" can happen, all too easily.

But it couldn't happen here again, could it? Nah. Couldn't possibly. We're just too advanced. No one could get away with labeling all of their political opponents as "traitors," as "godless," as "just not like us," as "not Christian and thus not qualified to govern" (and yes, none other than John McCain said that in so many words just the other day [The Progress Report, "Blackout and Brownout," Oct. 1, 2007]), and thus quite possibly somehow less than human. Couldn't happen here, could it. Could it?

It has, and could again. Much too easily.