Friends and Colleagues, This is a Call for partnership in publishing, in your language, of a manuscript tentatively called in English THE VIRUS OF DEHUMANIZATION: A PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORY OF FANATICISM. It had been published in Hebrew. This is not a regular business proposition, because I do not have the means to finance the publication or its translation from my sub-standard English to a publishable language. Rather, I direct this Call to persons who would be motivated to become involved in the project by sharing my belief, that this work has a potential of becoming a breakthrough in Peacemaking, Peace Education and in changing the world of conflict and war as we know it and as we try to help it the best we can and know how. In other words: I am extending my hand to kin-spirits. This is also an invitation to enter into a dialogue which would start with your reading my introduction here, and could lead to any type of collaboration and help in both directions - all the way to co-authorship. I have no money to pay you, but am willing to equally share the future royalties, if theyd be any. And in case you wonder - I am happy to share all my intellectual property free for the asking because, first, I really believe it has a tremendous value for all and, secondly, I am an old man now and have decided that Id much rather be plagiarized than ignored. I am anxious to receive your response - Olek Netzer -------------- Introduction to the manuscript: ------------ 1) Link to my 5-minutes video presentation on YouTube: youtu.be/vHZnLe5w8Pw 2)Introduction to the Theory of Dehumanization Olek Netzer, Ph.D. - olek.netzer134@gmail Description: A detailed mapping of the inner space of persons who think and behave as in Prejudice, Fanaticism, Racism, Ethnocentrism, Xenophobia, and any other term used to denote socially organized war/conflict. Methodology: Direct Causation Approach. It wont ask What are the causes for the 9/11 attack, because the causes became immediately obvious: they did it because they wanted to, believed that in doing it they do the most justified, noble, godly thing. Research Question: How exactly do normal people manage to justify in their own eyes even the most obviously erroneous ideas about other humans; and the most inhuman acts of mass-destruction - without running into an intolerable Cognitive Dissonance with their own highest values of Sanity, Truth, Virtue, Justice?. Research Method: Analyzing conflict related texts in the Israeli public media over 20 years; comparing with patterns of reasoning and moral justification in other war and conflict arenas past and present. Results: A major Discovery: The mental mechanism of conflict-orientation (fanaticism, prejudice) is Blind Areas. Prejudiced persons are mentally blind to see realities that do not conform to their dehumanized orientation, like the facts that “We” and “Them” are human individuals, that “We” are liable to error and crimes as any human, and that “Them” are in reality individuals with varied human characteristics and qualities same as we. The analytical and diagnostic tool to work with: The Dehumanization Syndrome, a list of symptoms of dehumanized orientation. It would make the condition of racism or ethnocentrism identifiable operationally and definable by clear criteria in any specific expression, including ones own (see Attachment). Application in personal and political discourse: The meta-goal is bringing Blind Areas to awareness. Without Blind Areas prejudice and Dehumanization would be impossible to maintain in normal persons. Analyzing texts about wars and social conflicts for identifying symptoms of Dehumanization. Informing the public about rates, characteristics and changes of dehumanized behavior in media sources and political leaders. Responding to dehumanized expressions by asking open questions about realities covered by Blind Areas. For example, When was the last time you felt that someone was wrong or unfair in accusing Them? – Guided to look at realities covered by Blind Areas, dehumanized persons get an opportunity to fill the human void on the conceptual maps of their social orientation. Application in Education: When children are old enough to learn of WE and THEM, wars, enemies and heroes, slavers and slaves, perpetrators and victims of genocide, etc., theyd be old enough to learn that there has always been Dehumanization (perhaps, in simple words Social Evil). Learners should be alerted to the danger that we could become unfair and evil when we judge, hate, condemn and fight people of other nations or groups. Prognosis: Bringing Blind Areas to awareness effectively undermines the dehumanized self-justification system. As politically motivated behavior must be self-justified, bringing Blind Areas to individual and public awareness will have a healing effect on society, unlike other existing methods that touch indirect causes and could have only prevention or mental-sanitation effect.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 04:13:46 +0000
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