Demonization

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Demonization or “ devilization ” is the representation of another person or group, the opponent or the enemy as essentially evil. It is the most extreme form of dehumanization of the other. It developed from religious origins and today primarily has a political function, especially in political conflicts, in preparation for and waging war.

description

Demonization is a rhetorical and ideological manipulation technique for the disinformation or the distortion of facts (similar to the sacralization, heroization or the victim theory, which occurs under the opposite sign ), which consists in judging political, ethnic, cultural or religious entities as inherently evil and malicious through a moral judgment depicting and thus justifying oneself and indirectly describing it positively: Calling the other evil implies the deification of one's own point of view. As a rule, demonization is associated with dehumanization , which denies the opponent humanity, human dignity and the right to human rights .

Bar Tal classifies it as one of the forms of delegitimation, alongside dehumanization , reification , exclusion , labeling and the group stereotype.

For Rodney Barker, demonization is the most extreme form of enemy image - stereotype , with the help of which the world is divided into two neatly separated halves, thus enabling a Manichaean struggle of good against evil.

The peace psychologist and researcher on the causes of war, Ralph K. White (1907–2007) sees them as a misunderstanding and a lack of communication as a misperception as component in war situations, without which there would have been no wars in the twentieth century.

Anne Morelli , following Arthur Ponsonby, regards demonization as an important principle of war propaganda , in close connection with the assignment of war guilt and one's own justification. She sees demonization as the necessary step in propaganda to personify the enemy. The hatred of the population has to be diverted to a psychologically appropriate image, since a person cannot hate a people as a whole, but a dehumanized image of a hostile leader who is then substituted for the entire population . For Morelli, demonization is closely related to the mobilization of the population, it is a method of mass psychology that is disseminated through the mass media.

In the form of personalization and moralization, it distracts from the political events and directs the interest to more easily assessed negative traits in private life.

function

It is a form of emotionalization ( hate propaganda ) to stigmatize and marginalize the opponent, whose threat can only be averted by means of violence and no price is too high for combating it. The aim is to discredit and defame a person or group.

The emotional charge triggered by the process of demonization makes both the civilized dialogue between conflicting parties and the objective analysis of the situation difficult. Demonization is part of a narrative that is used to frame events and ratings. The scope of interpretation includes a sharp separation between "us" and "them", a clear friend-foe scheme. Demonization intensifies the attitudes and attitudes of the actors and channels the actions towards the conflict. It creates the hatred that is necessary to overcome the barriers of civilization in asserting one's own interests.

history

Originally, demonization consisted of the reinterpretation of the politheist deities into lying, malicious demons, mostly through monotheistic religions.

In 1486 the inquisitors Jacques Sprenger and Henri Institoris published in Malleus maleficarum. It's a real change of perspective for the church: while until then witches had been persecuted for heresy and the church saw their practices as mere superstitions with no foundation, they were now viewed as possessed and the incarnation of the devil. This took place two years after Pope Innocent VIII's bull Summis desiderantes affectibus. One can see in it a will to legitimize the witch hunt.

techniques

  • Conclusion by analogy or amalgamation with a topic that has something in common with the object of demonization (you are a vegetarian, just like Hitler, so ...);
  • Devaluation (how much intelligence can you expect from an athlete?);
  • False appeal to the laws of nature.
  • Negative connotations and semantic shifts to create rejection

The formation of taboos

Demonization is often associated with the use or creation of taboos: a subject that is judged so negatively that its evocation itself becomes problematic. The majority of societies studied by ethnologists use similar methods to limit deviations from the norm, which could jeopardize the group's viability. In this sense, demonization is nothing other than the more or less conscious use of a natural mechanism.

Famous examples

criticism

The realistic school of politics ( Kenneth Waltz ) considers the criticism of forms of propaganda such as demonization to be of little help, since these epiphenomena are deeper geostrategic conflicts of interest. Relations between the states are essentially anarchistic and are based on the assessment of the material and military capabilities of the other. Ideal characterizations such as friendship or enmity are unsuitable in international politics.

See also

References

  1. ^ Linn Normand: Demonization in International Politics: A Barrier to Peace in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict . Springer, 2016, ISBN 978-1-137-54581-7 ( com.ph [accessed April 25, 2019]).
  2. ^ Linn Normand: Demonization in International Politics: A Barrier to Peace in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict . Springer, 2016, ISBN 978-1-137-54581-7 ( com.ph [accessed April 25, 2019]).
  3. ^ R. Barker: Making Enemies . Springer, 2006, ISBN 978-0-230-28753-2 ( com.ph [accessed April 25, 2019]).
  4. ↑ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/11/AR2008011103743.html
  5. ↑ Ralph K. White: Nobody wanted war: misperception in Vietnam and other wars . Doubleday, 1968 ( com.ph [accessed April 25, 2019]).
  6. ↑ Ronald J. Fisher: The Social Psychology of Intergroup and International Conflict Resolution . Springer Science & Business Media, 2012, ISBN 978-1-4612-3288-9 ( com.ph [accessed April 25, 2019]).
  7. ^ Arthur A. Stein: Why Nations Cooperate: Circumstance and Choice in International Relations . Cornell University Press, 1990, ISBN 978-0-8014-9781-0 ( com.ph [accessed April 25, 2019]).
  8. ^ Anne Morelli: The principles of war propaganda . zu Klampen Verlag GbR, 2015, ISBN 978-3-86674-444-8 ( com.ph [accessed April 25, 2019]).
  9. ^ Salvador Vidal-Ortiz, Brandon Andrew Robinson, Cristina Khan: Race and Sexuality . John Wiley & Sons, 2018, ISBN 978-1-5095-1387-1 ( com.ph [accessed April 25, 2019]).
  10. ↑ Tom De Luca, John Buell: Liars! Cheaters! Evildoers !: Demonization and the End of Civil Debate in American Politics . NYU Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0-8147-1975-6 ( com.ph [accessed April 25, 2019]).
  11. ^ Linn Normand: Demonization in International Politics: A Barrier to Peace in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict . Springer, 2016, ISBN 978-1-137-54581-7 ( com.ph [accessed April 25, 2019]).

Web links