Rehumanising the 'enemy'

The first and most effective tactic used by warmakers to justify their actions is dehumanisation. We will always be reluctant to accept the killing of real people on a mass scale. When the enemy is constantly reduced to a single entity about which we only hear awful things then we have a much better time supporting war. I'll talk about exactly how this is done later on.

I want to start by sharing something that I found myself doing recently. Then I'll talk about my first hand encounters with ex-members of the totalitarian regime in Cambodia.

I'm back and how I began to believe in nonviolence.

Long story short it's been three years since I even looked at this blog but I wanted to continue it to share my reflections about peace, nonviolence and the experiences that I've had in Cambodia which have helped to strengthen my beliefs. As a recipient of a post-Arrupe Jesuit education and as someone who works very closely with the J's and the Marists I'll be linking it to my spiritual beliefs as well so if that's not your thing then just skip those bits.

To begin I want to give a brief history of how I became committed to this kind of philosophy. 

Onward!