The Implication of Six Degrees of Separation to Human Rights Violation - Coursework Example

Name of Student Subject No. Name of Professor Date The Implication of Six Degrees of Separation to Human Rights Violation Human right is a universal right of the human race. Its violation affects society at every location in the world whether the result is for and against the benefit of people living in it. In particular, human rights violation in relation to terrorism has emerged as the most crucial issue that connects every society in the world. Thus, every government in the world tried to support for and against the move to arrest terrorism to protect human rights of their citizens to live peacefully in their respective societies. This interconnectivity is somewhat related to the concept of six degrees of separation discussed by Albert-Laszo Barabasi; hence this essay will proceed with to support the thesis that the manner in which governments across the world, particularly the United States, arrest acts of terrorism personally affects its respective citizens and their respective social networks. The concept of six degrees of separation stipulates that every person in a particular society or even in the world is interconnected with another person by just a distance of six networks of people (Barabasi, p. 21); hence the term six degrees of separation. With the emergence of the internet, this concept is eventually related to interconnectivity through the internet. The internet has reduced the distance of people across countries from each other given that social networks can be created through it even in the absence of physical connection. Thus, any events related to terrorism can easily be known to every person in the world through the use of the internet as well as other forms of communication available in recent times. Mark Bowden (2003) discussed in his article about types and extent of interrogation and its main objective of gathering important information to protect citizens of the world from further damage. However, issues for and against the form of interrogation used by authorities against captured terrorists were raised in relation to the protection of their human rights that should be practiced in a civilized world. This concern was countered by the argument presented by Bowden (2003 par. 127) that civilized interaction is evidently eradicated in the commission of activities of terrorism. Thus, dealing with terrorists in respect to their human rights will not be possible since these people are trained to withstand the normal process of interrogation. Authorities are compelled to improvise another form of interrogation that could be interpreted by some as a form of torture just to protect the human rights of innocent citizens of the world to live peacefully by gathering information from captured terrorist that could deter further acts of terrorism. The issue presented by Bowden about human rights in the context of the extent of interrogation of terrorists to deter further terrorist activities is connected to the idea presented by Bowden about interconnectivity of people through six degrees of separation. Its connection to each other will be tackled in relation to the positive and negative context of human rights violation of terrorism and interrogation. The effects of terrorism itself as seen in previous years made the world interconnected since acts of terrorism in Asia particularly has eventually affected the western countries such as Europe and the United States of America. The latter country has particularly suffered during the 9/11 terrorist attacks wherein the world have seen for itself how the U.S. has not been spared from the acts of terrorism. In fact, it is one of the worst terrorist acts in modern history of the world. Investigations revealed that the planning of this attack was conducted by terrorists from South East and Central Asia. This is a glaring proof of how interconnected each and every part of the world on the issue of terrorism just as what the character of Ousa said: “I am bound to everyone… Everyone is a new door opening up into other’s worlds” (Barabasi p. 21). Indeed, the 9/11 terrorist attack itself made the people of America experienced the devastating effect of terrorism previously experienced only by the people of Asia prior to the 9/11 attack. Violating the human rights of people from every parts of the world to live peacefully through acts of terrorism indirectly or directly affects the social circle of friends and family of every citizen in the world. One example to situate this argument is U.S. where many of its citizens are immigrants coming from different parts of the world even from countries where acts of terrorism originates. Whenever their respective country of origin become a victim of terrorist acts, it is possible that one of their relatives could have been a victim of such terrorist acts and they would eventually know it given the faster way that information travels through the internet. Just the thought of knowing that their country of origin where many of their relatives are living is subject of a terrorist act could result to emotional strain or worry even more if one of their relatives is directly a victim or casualty. Family relations from immigrant’s origin country are usually tight hence knowing that one of their close relatives is suffering from acts of terrorism they would naturally send help through financial means to alleviate financial strains such as hospitalization or assistance to the families of their terrorist victim relative. Thus, such interconnectivity through the Web or any form of communication is also important to facilitate such financial assistance which proved the claim that the web is actually smaller than what we can imagine (Barabasi p. 25). Racial stereotyping of terrorism is another implication of the concept of interconnectivity of six degrees of separation. As a result of terrorism, people who belong to certain race connected to terrorism can become a social outcast or suspect to be involved in terrorism. At a certain point, a person who knows this an individual for so long in his social network would begin to doubt such connection when he realized the racial connection or stereotyping of such person to the people who have been spreading terrorism. Skepticism towards the character of that person would emerge. Thus, in a university setting, a white American would look at his Afghan schoolmate suspiciously and stay away from him socially. Such is the effect of interconnectivity of terrorism to the social networks of people. Thus, the actions and laws that are either condoned by the United States, for example, in relation to acts of terrorism could personally affect its citizens. After all, what the government does will eventually be felt by its citizens. Pursuing terrorists and interrogating them to the point of violating their basic human rights just to extract salient information from them impact towards the securing the safety of innocent citizens that will be the target of further terrorist acts unless information will be extracted to deter such acts. Increasing number of terrorist acts scattered across the world to the same extent as the 9/11 attacks could make the world crumble which is basically within the concept of Barabasi’s interconnectivity (p.26) wherein adding more links, in this case the network of terrorism in the world, could shrink the world into a smaller place wherein it can easily be a target of terrorism acts. Thus, to deter the crumbling of the world at the palm of terrorism, any form of prevention to further such acts is crucial to saving innocent people around the world even if it means violating the human rights of captured terrorists. This concept of shrinking networks by adding more links could also be interpreted on the part of the innocent citizens of the world. As the network to pursue terrorists around the world increased, it will eventually shrink the network of terrorists or their supporters; hence eventually leading to captivity of many of them resulting to extraction of information that could save innocent people around the world from further harm. The practice of keeping in touch introduced by modern society (Barabasi p. 29) actually becomes a key factor in the fight against terrorism. Governments use this to strengthened intelligence networks against terrorism while ordinary citizens can use this to be informed of what areas to avoid to during travels and what acts to conform to avoid unnecessary panic in relation to terrorism. Such information gathered from the internet through social networks or news can be further shared to people physically close by to help educate them, ease their worries or warn them against terrorism. Such interconnectivity of the acts of governments or authorities to prevent further damage of terrorism even to the point of violating human rights of terrorists will impact ordinary people even if they do not realize that the authorities have committed such violations. Ordinary people are the ultimate recipient of such acts; to help them continue living peaceful lives and so as not to put their lives at risk again such as what happened during the 9/11 attacks. In conclusion, the thesis that human rights violation affects the respective citizens of the world in relation to terrorist acts should be reiterated. Terrorist acts around the world have affected citizens in every country. These people’s actions are affected by the policies implemented by various governments to prevent acts of terrorism. Example of this is the requirement for travelers to follow certain norm of actions and accessories to be brought when entering airports or traveling. Travelers, immigrations and airlines, to a certain point, profiled certain racial looks for questioning for potential terrorism suspects. In immediate social context, social relations in a school campus or neighborhood can be challenged when some groups would start using racial stereotyping in bullying or alienating people from their own groups. Thus, terrorism is not just limited to terrorists who are guided by their ideals to commit such acts. It has interconnectivity to the mindset of people, the laws of the government and to the actions followed by both the government and its citizens. Works Cited Barabasi, A. “Six Degrees of Separation”. Florida Atlantic University, Boston, New York Bowden, M. “The Dark Art of Interrogation” The Atlantic Magazine, October 2003. Internet. 20 January 2009 Read More