What Is Demoralization and How It Is Related To Society and People - Essay Example

 What is demoralisation? How is it related to society and people? What or who generally causes demoralisation? These are some of the major questions that are sought to be answered here. Demoralisation is defined as “[weakening] the moral of [someone]” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary,” 2010, p. 1). This lends to the fact that when people are demoralised, their natural defenses are taken away. Demoralisation is basically when one individual puts another person down. That individual mocks, scorns, or otherwise makes the other person feel badly about themselves. This could be due to race, class, gender, or any other number of differences that divide people instead of bring them together. When a person is demoralised, their entire being is assaulted mentally. Demoralisation is a social problem. Mainly, demoralisation affects the society in which one lives, especially if one group is oppressing another group. For example, when soldiers in Iraq killed and raped native Iraqis and their women, respectively—in a spree of violence—this is demoralisation. This is a kind of institutionalized violence that is promulgated by the U.S. military culture. The American military thinks much less of killing people and demoralising people in a culture than they should. Life is not valued in American military culture. What is deplorable about this kind of behaviour is that it is tolerated within the ranks of any military. This is especially true of the U.S. military. Demoralisation is not just a social problem, it’s a moral problem as well. Basically, the moral fabric of a society is changed when a person or persons are demoralised. The basic tenet of human rights legislation is that all people have a right to be heard and be respected. Everyone should have the right to be treated equally and fairly. Everyone should have the same chances to succeed in life no matter where they are born or located in the world. Everyone deserves food, water, shelter, and equal access to a free or affordable education. As a human race, we should demand nothing less for our fellow human beings that these basic necessities. The difference between demoralisation and other forms of humiliation is that demoralisation can paralyze someone emotionally, mentally, physically, and spiritually. Demoralisation is a problem which severely limits the abilities of the person being demoralised. The person being demoralised may feel full of shame, have to undergo social isolation, and may experience different forms of being excluded from everyday activities. Demoralisation destroys the spirit of the person being demoralised. As it stands, the moral fabric of our world in already in jeopardy. Demoralisation is not only a moral ill because it denigrates the person. It is also a moral folly because it brings shame on the person being denigrated as well as the person doing the demoralisation. Demoralisation is a terrible thing to happen in our society as we know it today because we know the kinds of effects that this can have. People can turn violent. The basic tenets of decency would hold that people be treated with respect and dignity. However, in our current world with the state of things the way they are, people are not always, and in fact often are not, respectful. People can be demoralised in various ways. The ways that demoralisation is related to society and people is a key component of what makes this a negative happening. During World War II, over six million Jews, Gypsies, and Communists were put to death under the regime of Hitler. These people were demoralised in concentration camps all over Europe. The Croatian Ustase and the German Nazis (National Socialists) exemplify this kind of demoralisation. Both of these groups were complicit in the murder of many people. While it is not certain how many people were killed by the Ustase, there were several million people killed by the German Nazis in Nazi Germany. People were beaten, gassed, and basically murdered in the concentration camps. People were not highly regarded in Nazi Germany. Anyone who had a defect of some type went to the camps in Nazi Germany. The relational aspect of demoralisation is that these Nazis did not care for people. The Nazis hated people. The Nazis did not have any respect for life. They were just following orders to eliminate the lives of whoever did not fit their picture of who was an ideal human being, in the name of convenience. This is what is sad about the Holocaust. Everyone who was considered unwanted or unworthy was led to an untimely death. People like the Nazis should not have been able to cherry-pick who was worthy of living and who was not. That is unfair and a destructive practice. Demoralisation in Nazi Germany was a perfect example of the humiliation that can be brought upon humans. People had to hide Jews in their homes so that the Gestapo would not take them. Schoolchildren would look at their schoolmates in a different way if they were Jewish. Once Jews were declared illegal, children looked at their Jewish friends in a negative light. This kind of institutionalized discrimination was also evident from way before the Civil Rights movement, during the Civil Rights Movement, and up to the present day in the United States. Discrimination against African-Americans has existed since the United States’s inception and so far it has not gone away, although the rights of African-Americans have improved significantly since the end of slavery in 1865 with the Emancipation Proclamation. In American slavery, slaves suffered some of the worst denigration known to mankind in recent history. Slaves were beaten, raped, abused, tortured, and worse. It was not until the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954 that things changed. Schools in the United States were mandated to be integrated. Before integration, however, there was much demoralisation of Blacks in the American South. Blacks were not allowed to drink from water fountains labeled “White,” which were designated for Caucasians. Basically, Blacks were not allowed to do various things that white people could do. These laws which were enforced were called the Jim Crow laws. These laws restricted Black peoples’ movement. So, even after slavery, it is obvious that Black people were not entirely “free,” per se. They still had a lot of rules and regulations to follow which denigrated their spirits. Not being able to drink from the same fountain a white person did because of the color of one’s skin would probably make one feel pretty terrible about oneself. The same could be said for Jews in the Holocaust in relation to their Nazi counterparts. Although the Jews’ plight in the Holocaust is definitely different and totally separate apart from the African-American experience in slavery, it should be noted that Jews were basically discriminated against because of their religious and ethnic background. Of course, these are two totally different incidents. However, it is interesting to make comments about how these experiences were similar in nature in the sense that people were being discriminated against and therefore consequentially demoralised. Blacks were discriminated against and demoralised mainly because of their skin color. Most likely, Jews were probably discriminated against and demoralised because the Nazis didn’t understand (and didn’t want to understand) their faith background. One of the issues Nazi Germany had was that it had gone through a terrible depression after World War I. Germany was looking to regain power in the world. Its economy was bad. When Hitler came to power, he promised the Germans victory. Part of this victory would be in the Germans’ military might. Hitler focused on the Germans’ ability to organize and defeat their enemies. Hitler’s ability was in organization. He had a fantastic ability to do grassroots organization. He assembled a group called Hitler Youth in order to carry out the wishes of the Nazi regime. This was made up mostly of young people. Hitler had written a book called Mein Kampf (“My Struggle”) in which he outlined his strategies for success. One of the ideas in his book was that if people were told a big lie, they were more likely to believe big lies. Also, another principle Hitler held was that people would believe a lie the more often it was told to them. He also believed in never acceding to having done any type of wrong. Sometime during the war, but towards the end, Hitler killed himself by committing suicide in a bunker somewhere. Perhaps this is a proper ending for someone who was so highly vilified by the Jewish people. At any rate, Hitler’s policies definitely demoralised people and made them more vulnerable. He had destroyed a nation of people. Later, after the war, several people who were involved in Hitler’s administration were tried and sentenced in Israel. This seems a fitting end to the lives of people who caused so much hurt to the Jewish people. It is unconscionable that so many Jews were allowed to be demoralised in such a terrible manner. The Nazis made lampshades out of Jewish skin and made soap from their body parts. These were only a few examples of extreme humiliation the Jews suffered. Another program put in place was called Operation Tooth. People were marked with a black triangle if they were Gypsies. People were also marked or tattooed if they had gold in their teeth. Then, what the Germans would do is that they would specifically gas these people in order to get the gold from their teeth. Certainly, as one can imagine, this was a horrific practice and most definitely demoralised those people to the nth degree. Prisoners were treated horribly by the Germans. “One of the most shameful examples of German barbarity…was the way in which they treated…prisoners[, who] were kept in [camps] in the open air, on the bare ground in cold and rain, without boots, overcoats, or blankets; they were starved, inhumanly treated, beaten and murdered for the slightest disobedience…” (“German Crimes Against Soviet Prisoners-of-War in Poland,” 2010, p. 1). At first, the Germans were merely discriminatory; then, they turned to murder. “While thousands of Jews were murdered by the Nazis or died as a direct result of discriminatory measures instituted against Jews during the initial years of the Third Reich, the systematic murder of Jews did not begin until the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941” (“36 Questions About the Holocaust,” 2010, p. 1). Germans were famous for having possibly made objects out of human remains. “Buchenwald is famous throughout the world for the lamp shades allegedly made from human skin which were found by the American liberators in the former home of Ilse Koch, the wife of the first Commandant, SS Col. Karl Otto Koch…The making of human soap by the Germans was common knowledge…” (“Buchenwald Concentration Camp Atrocities,” 2010, p. 1). The objects were not limited to lampshades, however. The Germans also made soap out of their victims. “[The veracity of the soap issue is] a flashpoint between [H]olocaust revisionists and historians. Most researchers accept that the Nazis at least attempted to make soap from the remains of Holocaust victims, though whether they were able to carry out production on a large scale remains unproven either way” (“Nazi Soap Made from Holocaust Victims Gets You the Opposite of Clean,” 2010, p. 1). What or who generally causes demoralisation? Basically, people who have very bad consciences usually cause demoralisation. What precipitates demoralisation specifically, however? This is unsure. What is clear, however, is that there is a certain moral fibre that is lacking in people who do commit crimes such as the demoralising acts committed by the Nazis. One stares into the eyes of the photos of some of these commanders and one thinks, “So these are the eyes of a murderer.” On one hand, these peoples’ eyes look so normal. How could they be murderers? One has to realize that humans are capable of doing several horrible things to each other. Once we realize the potential and the capability of committing such crimes against humanity, it is that much more important to guard against such things happening in any environment in which one is situated. Whatever causes moral laxity in a person will most likely be the cause of their beginning to treat a person without respect. That is the nascent stage of demoralisation. One must remember that we are all subject to the possibility of becoming the oppressors. With that in mind, it is important to remember that we need to monitor ourselves, lest we become the demoraliser. If anything, we should guard against becoming the oppressor. The oppressed have many struggles, but it is better to be oppressed than be on the side of the oppressor. At least the oppressed has some moral ground on which to stand. The oppressor is really left with no rationale as to how he or she can justify his or her behavior. Demoralisation is a horrible experience, whoever is on the receiving end of the humiliation. To be demoralised is to be disrespected in the eyes of another human being, and it is not a good feeling. Demoralisation brings down a person’s spirit. It wreaks havoc on a person’s morale. How demoralisation relates to people and society is complicated. In Nazi Germany of World War II, demoralisation was part of the signs of the times. Perhaps no one could have predicted how much cruelty could have been shown to people in the Nazi regime. However, the most predictive behavior of such cruelties are evidenced in the discriminatory laws against Jews in the days, weeks, months, and years before the concentration camps were put into full working force. Demoralisation is one of the worst feelings a human being can have. One may feel lost, uncared for, rejected, and downtrodden. The causes of demoralisation are brought both by people. They are also determined by circumstances. For example, in Nazi Germany, the demoralisation was caused by the institution of the government. Government played a large role in the demoralisation of the Jewish people, but it also required people who were complicit in order to carry out the orders for extermination of the Jewish people. However, what is important to note is that people were at the base level supporting the government in their assertions that Jews were worthy of being exterminated. This was a terrible precept. It was this skewed way of thinking that led people to believe that the laws of the land which allowed systematic murder was acceptable. This was not indeed acceptable. Obviously, it is important that the level of seriousness of this type of demoralisation is taken into account. Never should we forget the level of moral baseness at which the Germans found themselves after having murdered these innocent people who had committed no crimes. These people were Jewish. They were killed based on discriminatory practices. Because the German government didn’t like the Jews, it eliminated them in the name of convenience. Thus, that is why it is so important to question government practices, especially any practices that openly practice discrimination. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., stated, “An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” How true this is. One cannot have true justice and liberty if one does not realize the importance of eliminating demoralising practices from one’s institutions of higher learning and organizations of business, in both business, public, and private sectors. Demoralisation is a topic that few want to breach. However, it is a discussion which must be had. There are many ways people can demoralise others. It is hoped that, over time, people will learn to be more respectful of each other and the ways in which they can improve relations with each other. Demoralisation can occur and take shape in many forms. However, it is important to know a few key aspects of demoralisation. First of all, demoralisation in social theory basically means that someone’s morale is being brought low. This is due to disparaging remarks or other forms of abuse, emotional or physical. How people or society relate to demoralisation is a curious topic. Since people are the ones that cause demoralisation, this is paramount to understand. Finally, we realize that demoralisation can be caused by people or institutions. REFERENCES 36 Questions about the Holocaust. (2010). [Online Article]. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/36quest1.html Buchenwald concentration camp atrocities. (2010). [Online Article]. http://www.scrapbookpages.com/Buchenwald/Atrocities.html German crimes against Soviet prisoners-of-war in Poland. (2010). [Online Article]. http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/gcpol7.htm Merriam-Webster online dictionary. (2010). [Online Article]. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/demoralization Nazi soap made from Holocaust victims gets you the opposite of clean. (2010). [Online Article]. http://blogs.howstuffworks.com/2010/03/29/nazi-soap-made-from-holocaust-victims-gets-you-the-opposite-of-clean/ Read More