Part 2.

The dehumanisation of humans.

There is a long history of hierarchical mass society elites using concepts borrowed from the world of other life forms to dehumanise human opponents so as to avoid accepting the truth of their intention to endanger or perpetrate homicide against them. This happens whether the intention is to dehumanise individuals or whole goups of them. More often than not people who feel themselves superior to other human beings, then tend to consider others as inferior and generally use a range of terms based upon ‘animal’ comparisons. The range can vary from reasonably benign animals such as dogs, cows, pigs, monkeys, to more superficially problematic animals and insects such as snakes, rats, sows, pigs, vultures, fleas, tape worms, bugs etc. The essence of the superior attitude of elites to their victims in using such terms, is to equate the targeted human being to some kind of animal characteristic. The Nazis were not alone among the European elites in using this discriminating self-serving tactic, but they did their very best to excel at it. Thus for example;

“.Julious Streicher, newly appointed Reich Commisar for Franconia, gave orders that 250 Jewish tradesmen in Nuremboug should be arrested and set to plucking the grass out of a field with their teeth.” (The Holocaust . M.Gilbert. P 29. Electronic version.)

The purpose of this humiliating punishment was to make the Jewish victims mimic the animal status of grazing cows, goats or sheep. Similar incidents are also widely reported as occuring in Vienna and elsewhere. It was a reappearance of the earlier inhuman treatment of Afro-Caribbean slaves on the plantations of North and South America. In the case of the Nazis, the term sows was frequently used by them to describe Jews as were the terms; Rats, Vermin, Tape Worms and even Vampires. Indeed many other derogatory terms were chosen on the basis of not identifying Jews as full members of the human species. In describing what he classified at the time as the abscess of decadence occuring within hierarchical mass societies in general, and Germany in particular, Hitler in Mein Kampf declared that;

“On putting the probing knife carefully to that kind of abscess one immediately discovered, like a maggot in a pubescent body, a little Jew…” (Adolf Hitler. Mein Kampf.)

So from the future elite leader of the integrated hierarchical mass society of Germany along with its satellite countries and numerous occupied countries we have designations of other human beings – that he had a paranoid dislike of – as maggots! And this kind of misinformed animalistic paranoia was also being spread to the children of Germany by literate people who agreed with Hitler – as the following extract from a children’s poem reveals.

“Now, children, keep a good look out;
Whenever you see a Jew about.
The Jew creeps around, a regular fox.
Keep your eyes open , or you soon be on the rocks.”
(Quoted in ‘Antisemitism and the Holocaust. B, A Griech Polelle. Chapter 2)

In the publicly available material on the German version of European racism, there are many such examples as these – as there are also within most colonial period countries such as Britain, Europe and America. But in line with one of the two crucial constructs noted earlier, so too is the arrogant elite assumption of doing the imaginary, invisible, all-powerful Gods work. Hitler, provides us with an example of the elite characteristic which was used then (and now) to justify hierarchy and killing in name of God.

“…I believe today that my conduct is in accordance with the will of the Almighty creator. In standing guard against the Jew I am defending the handiwork of the Lord.” (Adolf Hitler. Mein Kampf.)

Whether this statement was rhetorical propaganda or sincere monotheistic belief by Hitler, is not clear: However, in his desire to extend Germany’s territory to the east and to North Africa, his attraction to German capitalists was because he was also extending the resources and markets available to German Capital. His project of creating a Greater Germany was by means of territorial conquest and nothing and no one would be allowed to stand in the way of this expansion. It mattered not whether it was other hierarchical societies, such as Poland, Scandinavia, Russia or the Jewish people, who stood in the way. The holocaust, as a ‘final solution’ of how to get rid of the economic, financial and cultural competition from Jews in Germany and Poland, etc., was therefore a logic step for the sectarian, supremacist elite-form of fascistic thinking, whose army by then had been ordered to march toward Moscow.

“The Holocaust was unprecedented – as compared to other genocides – because it was the planned, deliberate policy decision of a powerful state that had mobilised all its resources to destroy the entire Jewish people. (Hitler and the Holocaust. Robert Wistrich. Page 12.)

The crucial element of the above quoted summary to bear in mind in the current period, is the following part; “the deliberate policy decision of a powerful state that had mobilised all its resouces to destroy the entire_____ people.” The reader needs only to consider past and recent events to fill in the blank space with any number of collective identifiers, including that of the Palestinian people. And an interesting analogy to the unqualified European elite support for bombing the whole of Gaza by the pro-Zionist elite in Israel in 2023 is povided in the study of the German Nazi version of a superior people within Martin Gilbert’s book on ‘The Holocaust’. The author noted that;

“The strong helping the strong to attack the weak; this was to become the hallmark of Nazi action. (The Holocaust. M. Gilbert. Page 21 electronic addition.)

Martin Gilbert fails to detail the fact that this characteristic was not unique to Nazis, but a common characteristic of all hierarchical mass societies and sectarian movements. Strong military alliances of advanced countries ganging up on weaker colonial peoples is par for the course in historical as well as contemporary periods of time. The immediate military support for the strong military state of Israel by the US, UK and other European countries indicates that this characteristic too is still fully operational in the 21st century. Before leaving this section on de-humanising those standing in the way of aggressive powerful elites, we should return to the earlier observation that fundamental to all hierarchical mass societies is the need of the elite to have a compliant people to exploit and use as cannon fodder and to have enough land (resources) to exploit. Interestingly, an international academic study of Nazi ideology concluded that the concept of race frequently served this purpose;

“Nazi ideology developed out of the twin concepts of Rasse and Raum (Race and Space) and Blut und Boden (blood and soil,..” (Racial Science in Hitlers New Europe 1938- 45. Edited by Weiss-Wendt & Yoemans. Introduction.)

The purpose of inventing the category of race as applied to the human species, was to deliberately create a false distinction between those human beings counted in the ‘in group’s and those outside it. It served no other purpose.  Anyone who has read the prior origins of the Zionist project (by Theodor Herzl) of Jews creating ‘The Jewish State’ in an already occupied country such as Palestine, will recognise Israel’s subsequent trajectory from 1948 on to its present situation in 2023. Reading that document will also reveal the following points; That the state involved a) an exclusive Jewish membership (Herzl paragraph 10 and 16) and contain enough space to develop it (Herzl paragraph 49), were the two foundational rationales behind it. Concluding that Palestine was the preferred destination for creating a future Jewish State’ Herzl wrote;

“We should there form a portion of a rampart of Europe against Asia, an outpost of civilisation as opposed to barbarism. We should as a neutral State remain in contact with all Europe, which would have to guarantee our existence.” (The Jewish State’ Theodor Herzl. Paragaph 64. emphasis added. RR)

Philosophically and socially the project was also viewed by Herzl and other senior Zionist Jews as civilisation versus barbarism. These and other paragraphs of this initial Zionist founding document, reveal that everything the astute Mr Herzl had envisioned has been more or less implemented by subsequent elite leaders of Israel and that the guarantees of Israeli existence by Europe has been amply secured. The addition of the US elite as providing unequivocal support, being a bonus checkmate to the real life economic and political exploitative chess game being played out in the Near and Middle East.

Perhaps the self-critical reflection needed by non-Zionist Jews, whose self-interest has allied themselves with Zionism, is to answer the following questions. Has all these decades of annexation and killing of Palestinian workers and militant resisters made the lives of the ordinary Jewish working people more secure and stress free? Is Mr Hertzl’s penultimate Zionist wish for Jewish people that; “We shall live at last as free men on our own soil, and die peacefully in our own beds.” (‘The Jewish State, T. Herzl. Conclusion); any nearer to fruition? And is that not a common aspiration for all human life on earth – including the Palestinians?

Wanting a space of your own does not of course create an unsolvable problem as long as no one else already occupies it. However, the problem for the original (and present) Jewish Zionists and their supporters who continue to want sufficient space to create their own hierarchical mass society chose a space already peopled by existing communities who were already living off the land. Furthermore, most of the people living in and on the land of Palestine did not want to sell it or leave it and so the problem needing solving by Zionists after 1948 was how to achieve exclusive use of that already occupied territory.

In this regard the colonial histories of the advanced countries of Europe and America provided the template – brutal miltary conquest of a land already supporting indigenous people. The European colonial dispossesion template also included the tactics of de-humanising and dispossessing the existing inhabitants, and in this (and many other ways), provoking a series of reactions. The predictable reactions of the provoked resisters subsequently being used to justify the use of ever increasing levels of force and brutality!

21st century genocide.

In case some readers imagine that there are only a few extreme cases of brutal treatment and savage disposession by hierarchical mass societies, particularly when modern ones claim to be introducing peace, justice and progress, it is worth reminding ourselves of the following. The eastern regions of the North American continent were never enough for the ‘civilised’ settlers from Europe. Once firmly settled down in the eastern territories; ‘Go west young man’, became the generational goal of the US elites – until everything from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast was in US possession. Everything in between, the Buffalo, the Native Indians, the French and Spanish settlers were effectively cleared out of the way, either being killed on mass, collectively punished or herded like cattle to ‘reservations’ elsewhere.

Similarly, the British, French and Dutch Europeans were never content with controlling the West African Gold and Ivory coasts or the South African coastal settlements. European hiearchical mass society elites were not content until the entire people of the Dark Continent in its most remote centre had been illuminated and decimated by their gunpowder weapon explosions and their chosen religion. That dispossesion template was also used by Europeans in Asia and the Oceanic Islands of Australia and New Zealand.

It should be obvious that mass society colonisers, never intend to share the annexed territory, however much their elites may deny they want it all. The reason is simple. Enough of their elite know that the economic system underpinning a modern state needs enough land, agriculture, industry and people to support a state bureaucracy, education and health services, a political class and a large taxable labour force to fund it all. So if the above is the pattern common to all hierachical mass societies beyond a certain size, and it most definitely is, then a small amount of land will not suffice, otherwise it would be an intentional community such as a kibbutz or commune and not a modern state.

The economic logic of nation building was so well understood (and also misunderstood) that the philosopher Hegel could assert that it was a duty of nations; “…to attempt the domination of the world.” By not fully understanding the hierarchical mass society systems, Hegel had confused the economic logic of them with an emotional attachment to the idea of patriotism and duty.

Understanding the economic logic of creating hierarchical mass societies – of a size sufficient to become and remain a nation – brings the realisation that the original nation-building Zionists and their successors have never intended to implement a two-state solution. The same logic would apply to any nation building elites of Hamas or Fatah.  The concept was used publicly for a period of time to disguise the real intention from those who were not astute enough to know they were being fooled. The disguise long ago served its purpose and forcing people to leave by leaving nothing sufficient to live on has accelerated. It cannot be too surprising, therefore, that shortly after the October 7 retaliatory incusion in 2023, by a Hamas-led raid into Israeli occupied Palestinian territory, came the following officially sanctioned declaration by an Israel war cabinet member;

“I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed … We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.” (Yoav Gallant. Israeli Minister of Defence)

Although Conrad’s phrase “exterminate all the brutes” was not used in this case, anyone familiar with the daily bombing and shelling campaign on Gaza in 2023 and the phrase; ‘We are fighting animals and we are acting accordingly’ will recognise the implicit similarities.  For example, there has been no attempt at any point in the Israeli determined narrative to distinguish between Hamas militant fighters and ordinary peaceful men, women and children in Gaza. Even if it were true that Hamas fighters were placing themselves within private and public buildings and underneath hospitals, (and this has not been reliably or independently confirmed) this would not make it morally right to bomb or shell these locations. A military force abiding by a moral code of any kind would find another means to engage with enemy fighters and defeat them.

This lack of implementing alternatives to bombing or shelling whole areas makes it absolutely clear that the implications of Israeli strategy is so close to the sentiment of exterminate all the brutes as to make no substantial difference.  It is also obvious that for some people, being the descendents of past victims of genocide does not prevent them from being the perpetrators or supporters of a future genocide against another people in the way. In other words, Israel is seeking it’s own version of a final solution to its own problem of Palestinian displacement.  However, it would be an overly simplistic analysis to conclude that Jewish Zionism equals Fascism or that Hamas Islamism equals fascism just because both contain ruthless killers.

The socio-economi reality is that both zionism and fascism express the totalitarian tendencies nurtured and periodically perpetrated by all the hierarchical mass society forms and the elites in control of them. These elites along with neo-liberal, social, democratic and communist elites have perpetrated crimes against humanity because they represent the periodical, crisis riddled, regional and ideologically modified versions of the 20th century hierarchical mass society model. However complex and further sub-divided, the layers have become, the basic hierarchical mass society model inherited from the past, comprises of an elite, a middle managerial/professional class and a large working class.

Those noted in the list above are simply the modern – and alternating manifestations – of this ancient hierarchical model in its modern iterations. And of course, Israeli politicians know that Hamas is based upon an idea and its members are located outside of the West Bank and Gaza and therefore Hamas cannot be eliminated by destroying the membership and thei organisational infrastructure within Gaza. But the Israeli elite don’t care. Like every other elite in control of a state, ruthlessly annihilating major resistance oppositions, is only a first or intermediate tactic.

Obtaining the maximum control of land and resources is their ultimate goal, and to obtain these, when they are already occupied, frequently requires a level of awe and fear such as the American elite unleashed upon Iraq in 2003/2011, which Russian elite unleashed on Ukraine and which Israel has now unleashed upon Gaza and the West Bank in 2023. One set of ideas can only be replaced by a more attractive set of ideas. But the Israeli Zionist politicians obviously don’t care about that. They also know that the Genocidal level of retaliation they have inflicted upon all Palestinians will increase the hatred of Jews among Arab people and increase the disdain for pro-Zionist Jews by many of those non-Arab people who have retained any form of humanitarian disposition.

It’s exceedingly difficult not to hate people who repeatedly steal your land and kill your family and friends so what else can be expected? Any group who repeatedly do hateful things for decade after decade will be feared and hated. Again the Israeli Zionist elite are intelligent enough to know this and clearly don’t care about that either. So far from Zionism being a protection against Judeophobia (since Arabs are also semites, Judeophobia is the more accurate term that I use) by its brutal actions against other semitic speaking peoples (ie. the Palestinians) Zionism is increasing the dangerous, all embracing, symptom of Judeophobia.

The earlier quoted statement by the Israeli Minister of Defence, also illustrates the utter intellectual bankruptcy as well as the inhumanity of the current political class in control of Israeli society. It also demonstrates the same bankruptcy when the almost identical references to their enemies as animals is uttered by those of the Islamic, Christian faith, or none. In the real world, not even carnivorous animals kill more than they can eat at any one time and no animal species, carnivorous or otherwise, mass kills it’s own species or any other species for that matter. The feeble, ignorant intellectual level of such official utterances should be a source of actual embarrassment to the ordinary Jewish citizens if they have not been intellectually confused by the propaganda gushing out from their pro-Zionist government. Moreover, it is a government committing appalling crimes against humanity and doing so in the name of all those who are classed as Jews.

Furthermore, the failure to condemn such statements by the modern 21st century western elites (such as Sunak, Starmer, Biden, Macron, Trudeau and their opportunist associates, also demonstrate their own intellectual and moral bankruptcy. After the experience of Nazi armed expansion and their genocidal final solution in the 20th century, previous elite ‘actors’ on the world stage decided in 1948 at the United Nations, that cutting off water, electricity, food, or fuel as Israel has done to Gaza, woul constitute Crimes against humanity. By their own classes definition the elites of Israel, USA, UK and Europe are openly perpetrating crimes against humanity and/or enabling them to take place. The US and UK elites in particular have become enablers of genocide par excellence.

The USA elite are currently engaged (via Blinken diplomacy) in a 4 point plan which effectively enables Israel to continue its expansionist ambition. 1. To provide material and intellectual support. 2. To prevent any outside help for Palestine. 3. To pretend to be genuinely concerned for ordinary Palestinians. 4. To make sure any survivors in Gaza and the West Bank are governed by an elite sufficiently subservient to allow the future ‘settlement building’ plans of the Israeli elite to continue. In the 21st century we are witnessing another genocidal blitskreig and for the Palestinians a Nakba point two. Humanity, by reason of being firmly stuck in the box of hierarchical mass society modes of production, has arrived at another set of existential contradictions.

Roy Ratcliffe (November 2023)