In Chapter 10: “Predators, Prey, and Parasites” of The Most Dangerous Animal, David Livingstone Smith discusses some of the psychological ways people (particularly groups of people) use to overcome the inborn revulsion to killing fellow human beings in genocidal ways. Genocide and Democide, and Smith discusses, are not particularly useful in terms of expanding our genetic “fitness”, and most normal (non sociopathic) humans have difficulty killing human beings that have done them no wrong.

Three of the psychological tricks that perpetrators of genocide use that Smith discussed that I found particularly interesting were under the sub-headers: pollution, revulsion, and extermination.

According to Smith’s evolutionary psychology perspective, humans are instinctively fearful of natural enemies that are small and impossible to see. Parasites (such as ticks, lice, worms, etc.) viruses, and diseases are something that--despite their tiny size--can cause serious illness or even death if proper care is not taken to keep clean. According to Smith, perpetrators of genocide and democide accuse their enemies of being “viruses”, “worms”, “parasites”, and/or accuse them of “polluting” their particular gene pool or society. A particularly effective example use by Smith is on page 202, when he uses an example from the mouth of Adolf Hitler:
“The discovery of the Jewish virus is one of the greatest revolutions that has taken place in the world. The battle in which we are engaged today is the same sort as the battle waged, during the last century, by Pasteur and Koch. How many diseases have their origin in the Jewish virus! We shall regain our health only by eliminating the Jew.” – The Most Dangerous Animal

As Smith notes on the same page, diseases have a “profound biological underpinnings” in the human mind. Hitler exploits this phobia by relating disease with the Jewish race. Thus, the only way, according to Hitler, that the disease of humanity can be erased is by cleansing the Europe of their existence—in much the same way a person might eradicate termites.
A CNN article that was only just released attests to this disturbing phenomenon can cause normal human beings to perform inhumane atrocities by “self-deceiving” their moral consciousness. Recently discovered photos show Nazi officers at a retreat near Auschwitz “relaxing as thought they are taking break from routine job, not an extermination factory”.
As Phillip Zimbardo—author of The Lucifer Effect says in the article: “Dehumanization is the most powerful psychological tool used in all mass murder and genocides.... Dehumanization blurs your vision. You look at these people and you do not see them as human…Instead, the enemy is treated as a germ -- as something to eradicate, or else face the threat of infection.” Indeed the Nazi officers depicted in the CNN article do not appear to be disturbed by the atrocious genocidal acts in which they are taking part. Their self-delusion has tricked their minds into feeling as though what they are doing is both acceptable and perhaps even morally right.



In discussing the pitfalls of moral objectivism, Smith uses a passage from Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn in which Huck feels guilty for not having turned in Jim—the fugitive slave—to white bounty hunters. While in retrospect it might seem ridiculous that Huck felt morally conflicted over helping to free a slave, he made a rational decision to help Jim and bad for doing it. The Huckleberry Finn example shows how the context of a situation can turn objective morality on its head. It is not hard to see how in such situations good-willed human beings will commit atrocious acts of evil in the interest of moral goodness. In Nazi Germany, the public sentiment was that Jews were “vermin” and a disease that sullied the otherwise perfect German “master race”. It is no surprise, therefore, to see Auschwitz workers smiling and having fun on their time off. And why shouldn’t’ they? In their minds, they are doing Germany and the world a great favor. “Morality” and “goodness” can be collective illusions that are used to justify heinous and inexcusable acts of violence towards our fellow human beings. Not only will they be able to do it without feeling remorse, but they often will feel pleasure and satisfaction.



Conclusion:
How genocide on the kind of scale that occurred under the Nazis during the Second World War was allowed to happen without public outrage is a question that is still asked today. As morally idealistic and civil human beings, we want to believe that the world is a just and fair place and that humans are naturally good. We like to think of the Holocaust (like American slavery) is simply a dark spot on human history that does not represent the true character of human nature. However the truth, as Smith shows, is a far less positive picture. Indeed, mass exterminations (genocides and democides) occur throughout modern and ancient history; be they in Cambodia, Rwanda, the Balkans, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, Stalinist Russia, Maoist China, or even right now in Darfur. Only by understanding how normal, decent, everyday human beings are driven to genocidal actions through dehumanizing self-delusions will we ever have any chance of preventing future exterminations of our own species.