Genocide: Worse Than War

I've discussed the horrors of genocide, and the human behavior surrounding it, a few times before on The Cynical Pharmacist. I'm always intrigued by human behavior and about what causes intelligent people to embrace the dark side of life.

Although originally produced a couple of years ago, it's just now that I discovered the documentary entitled "Worse Than War" on my local PBS station. It's a must-watch for the younger generations.

It's a film that documents the multiple genocides of our century, discussing the reasons behind them, why they continue to occur, and what can be done to prevent them. Although I disagree with Mr. Goldhagen's solution to prevent future genocide, I found his film informative and thought-provoking.

You can watch the entire film on your local PBS station, or the linked website. Here's a clip from the film of interviews with imprisoned murderers who participated in the Rwanda genocide -



There's a reason why I posted this one clip from the documentary. It highlights the mentality of those criminals who perpetrate these types of crimes against humanity. To me, most crimes are perpetrated because of two things - ignorance and selfishness.

If you notice in this clip, the one criminal discusses his crimes only as they relate to himself. He doesn't believe ignorance played a role, and doesn't see how he was manipulated by psychopathic leaders to commit his crimes. He expresses no remorse, nor empathy. It's all about him.

Like I've said in my previous posts about crimes against humanity, the small groups of selfish sociopaths and psychopaths who create these hateful situations almost never personally commit their crimes themselves, yet are still able to achieve their goals, and are seldom held accountable.

They're successful because of their abilities to manipulate ignorant and selfish people (video) into supporting their efforts and committing the crimes on their behalf. They find enablers.

And this is where I disagree with the filmmaker's solution for preventing future genocide.

To me, the only solution in preventing the further atrocities of genocide comes from within each of us. It's not something that requires "other" people to address and prevent, especially selfish, apathetic, or corrupt politicians from other countries.

Genocide would never occur again if most of us were a little more skeptical and less trusting, looked beyond our own selfish motivations, controlled our emotions, and didn't enable these psychopaths to suck us into their sinister schemes. It's often as simple as being aware, and just saying "NO".