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Question about self concept
Question about self concept
Question about self concept
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The Psychology of Human Rights Violators and Courageous Resistors Using a vocabulary based on the work of social psychologist Ervin Staub, it is clear that many researchers have found elements of the human psyche and the human experience that contribute both to acts of courageous resistance in the face of horrific human rights abuses as well as contributing to the perpetration of the acts themselves. Certain categories emerge while assessing the actions of an individual in either of these circumstances: environmental or circumstantial pressure and support; concept of self in relation to others, and specific learning experiences that coalesce into paradigms from which actions are taken. In his analysis of human rights violations, Staub discusses “difficult life conditions,” “in-group/ out-group” distinctions, and “learning by doing.” Various other scholars of human rights have a vocabulary that will enhance the meaning of this terminology in the context of both human rights violators, and courageous resistors of that violence. Staub's assessment of “difficult life conditions” and how people behave under threat to safety and security is supported and expanded upon by Kristen Renwick Monroe, who posits that, though ethnic difference and tensions are not a sufficient to explain human rights abuses, they will be magnified by economic struggle or other stresses, and can explode into acts of extreme violence. She draws in the concept of dehumanization, addressed by Staub and many others, positing that the cognitive perceptions of a people under strain can be manipulated to scapegoat a group of people in an attempt to release the frustration of powerlessness in hard times. The idea that one can distance oneself from one's victi... ... middle of paper ... ...ing the path of “learning by doing” towards courageous resistance. Those raised in authoritarian cultures according to various theorists, including Staub, often don't have the internal locus of control that allows them to make the connection between seeing oppression and choosing not to participate in it. So, this is another place where theories of pro-social actions and human rights violation are converse to one another. A synthesis of all of these theories leads me to believe the following: if one can use the similar pathways of “learning by doing” and “authorization” within a pro-social, inclusive world view and create a society where authoritative child rearing need not become authoritarian child rearing, it is possible to say that there may one day be a world where there will be no violations of human rights that will require others to courageously resist.
Jacobs, David, Jason T. Carmichael, and Stephanie Kent. 2005. “Vigilantism, Current Racial Threat and Death Sentences.” American Sociological Review 70: 656-677.
“No radical change on the plane of history is possible without crime,” This quote from Hermann Keyserling is just one of many statements that help describe the meaning and true raw power of Civil Disobedience. Civil disobedience as defined by Merriam Webster is the “refusal to obey governmental demands or commands especially as a nonviolent and usually collective means of forcing concessions from the government”. The most promising and understandable of the definitions of Civil Disobedience would be that given to us by Gandhi from India “Compassion in the form of respectful disagreement”. Even the Veterans Fast for Life from here in the United States must agree when saying, “when leaders act contrary to conscience, we must act contrary to leaders.” To understand why civil disobedience is so important in our lives you must first look into your heart and realize that the integrity of mankind has no need of rules.
Wells, Karen C.. "rescuing children and children's rights." Childhood in a global perspective. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2009. 168-169. Print.
The author argues that in order for oppression to be vitally explored, the factors that create oppression must be realized. Oppression gives material advantage to the oppressor. "All social relations have material consequences". The author argues that all identities must be considered interconnected.
Center for the Study of Human Rights, Columbia University. (1994) Twenty-five Human Rights Documents. New York: Columbia University.
In addition to showing how social inequalities and hierarchies fall along “social categories of class, race, gender, and sexuality,” Holmes also reveals how they become legitimated and internalized. He argues that in reason of this violence, the suffering of migrant workers has been “taken for granted, normalized, [and] naturalized.” By defining the challenges and structural factors at each level of these imposed hierarchies, Holmes is able to propose structural solutions that would remedy to the "clinical gaze" and ameliorate the health system the workers rely
Some of these long term effects might include a political, ideological shift and a positive effect on the victim’s political perspective. In brief, it was discussed that survivors of wartime victimization become more involved in political debate, and develop trusting relationships with other citizens than those who did not experience victimization. The overall thesis of the article was that civil war victimization affects long term political identities. In addition the extent of the identity differs depending on the type of victimization that was done; physical, psychological, etc. Being a witness or victim to a harsh crime has extreme effects on one’s psychological state, which can then lead to changes in political identity. The effects of war victimization are divided up into 3 categories; 1. Rejection of identity of the armed group (perpetrator of violent act experienced), 2. Acceptance of identity of perpetrator (due to fear of retribution), or 3. Demobilization/apathy (rejecting all parties involved in conflict). The first leads to political support of rivaling group(s), the second leads to support for armed group, and the third leads to a decreased political interest in general. Finally, there is the possibility that victimization has no effect on a person’s political
This kind of social issue is more evident when episodes with violence are trending topics. For example, during and after the September 11th’s attack in New York, many Arabs, Muslims, and South Asians, were subject to revisions and detentions because authorities had no clue about how those mentioned attacks were perpetrated and who did them. It was not just a matter concerning authorities, society in general condemned hardly to the entire eastern community, even though many of that people stopped, detained, and questioned, did not have any linkage with this terrorist event.
Prejudice affects the entirety of the world today. Hundreds of thousands of people flee prejudiced governments all around the world. A current example of this inhumanity is the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people in Myanmar. According to the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund, “Today, there are an estimated 720,000 Rohingya children in Bangladesh and Myanmar, in dire need of humanitarian assistance and protection – and looking to the outside world for help.” (United Nations Children's Emergency Fund). As reported by the New York Post, the Myanmar military is committing crimes against humanity. Children are being murdered and women are being raped. (NY Post). The military of Myanmar has been dehumanized because of their prejudice
Numerous cases in history show that identification with a particular group can lead to dreadful outcomes. Together, with historical evidence, classic psychological studies tell a very powerful story. Decent people can take on oppressive roles and succumb to oppressive leaders. However, people often resist tyranny, and their resistance tends to be most effective when it is collective.
Young begins her theory by defining injustice by two parameters: oppression and domination. She details how each functions to promote injustice, thus restricting one’s ability to pursue true freedom. She then continues by explicating differences between two similar concepts: oppression and discrimination. The two differ in their targets and methods; oppression focuses on groups while discrimination targets the individual. Additionally, oppression tends to be socially present, while discrimination is intentional. Both oppression and discrimination together undermine efforts at achieving liberty for their respective victims. Of paramount importance in Young’s conception of freedom are her five faces of oppression: exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and violence. While potentially dangerous in limiting oppression to strictly five “faces,” these “faces” serve their purpose in forwarding how oppressive behavior impacts its victims. Respectively, the five faces maintain hierarchical structure in society, establish uselessness and lack of self-respect, force victims to abandon their autonomy, establish a sense of double consciousness, and set a standard for violence. Young’s five faces of oppression serve as a good model for freedom because they are broad in scope and create lines for comparison. Rather than reducing oppression to describe specific groups such as Jews or
Is total equality worth the price of an abusive government? Governments are trusted to protect their civilians, and when that trust is breached it is an injustice. A social negligence might occur if a regime begins abusing their citizens, like in Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.’s short story, “Harrison Bergeron”. “Harrison Bergeron is an example of a social injustice because the government erases individuality, prevents progressive thinking, and kills those who try to rebel.
Brown, A. Widney., and LaShawn R. Jefferson. "VI. ILLUSTRATIVE CASES." Afghanistan, Humanity Denied: Systematic Denial of Women's Rights in Afghanistan. New York, NY.: Human Rights Watch, 2001. 16+. Print
The first article written by Marianne Szegedy-Masszak is written over the ‘horrific physical abuse and humiliation committed by American Military guards against Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison” (Szegedy-Maszak 75). This article uses both the Stanford Prison experiment and the Stanley Milgram experiment to compare the actions of the soldiers in Iraq. It delves into the reasoning behind their behavior such as a way to “…work[ing] off the rage, anxiety about their own safety and their sense of helplessness” (Szegedy-Maszak 76). The second article, written by Herbert C. Kelman and V. Lee Hamilton is over “one of the worse atrocities committed by the U.S. military: The My Lai Massacre.” where up to 500 elders, women and children were brutally killed by the U.S. military (Kemlan and Hamilton 131). Both articles speak on three major reasons as to why crime of obedience happens; authorization,
Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Continuum., People respond to fear through either fight or flight, opposition or consent, rebellion or conformity. In George Orwell’s 1984, we see how fear, if used by the government to exercise its power, can enforce consent, even in individuals whose initial instinct is to fight for freedom, truth, and justice. Unfortunately, it is sometimes hard to notice when a government begins to use tactics as such because, after all, using fear as a tool for power can only be truly effective if people don’t notice it’s happening.