The Ravaging Effects of Genocide - Essay Example

College The Ravaging Effects of Genocide “Worse than war” is a thrilling documentary based on Daniel Goldhagen’s 2009 book with thesame title. The documentary essentially delves deep in areas that have late-faced mass genocides and ethnic cleansing atrocities to establish the causes and offer a few recommendations on how such atrocities may be prevented in future. Goldhagen undertakes a detailed study of areas where mass genocides were reported in the near past, which include Bosnia, Rwanda, and Guatemala, and even Germany where Hitler massacred millions of Jews. The actor talks directly to the survivors and those who were directly or indirectly involved and brings out an objective narration of chilling events that characterized these genocides. Despite the beautiful landscapes that the documentary dots the chilling events with, Goldhagen offers a concise narration of the events behind these genocides and helps in bringing out the serious atrocities. Besides this narration, the documentary brings out deeper implications of these wars with much deeper effects on victims than just the actual act of war, a view that is in most cases not brought to the international focus. As the title illustrates, most of these genocides were not just usual wars but were strategically planned and orchestrated towards weakening a certain side politically, socially, or economically, to offer the perpetrators a leeway to dominate their victims for many years into the future. For instance, the documentary takes viewers to the harrowing stories of Burundi and Rwanda survivors, revealing the real motive of the genocide. The genocide targeted the Hutu to seriously weaken their power in ensuring the Tutsis have unmatched powers to dominate the country’s politics. The slaughter was not motivated by anything else other than to lessen the powers of Hutus, in addition to eliminating the political elites who were a threat to the prevailing political dynamics. The Hutu survivors narrated how the Tutsis killed or forced their elite tribesmen into exile. One of the respondents noted that the Tutsis wanted to kill their clan because his clan was more educated and thus perceived as a threat to the power hungry Tutsi cliques. This explains the arrest of most victims in government offices or other powerful offices, killed or incapacitated to weaken the voice of the Hutu. In other words, the documentary brings out the point that when the elite in the society is eliminated, the poor have no powers, leaving the perpetrators with an easy way to pursue their agendas with little or no criticism. In Germany, as the documentary narrates, Hitler alongside with the Nazis killed or incarcerated most of the German elites inclined to the communists or socialist movements, which offered an excellent opportunity for the Nazis to have a total grasp of the country in 1933. After conquering Poland, similar to the Rwandese case, most of the elites in Poland were massively slaughtered, which reduced the resistance of the people towards the German policies to occupy and execute their power in Poland. Genocide is a perfect tool to consolidate power and silence any possible critiques in a regime, offering them the right environment to propagate their ideologies unopposed. Another powerful tool used in these genocides is to socially destabilize the perceived enemies by annihilating the masses from their homes and ancestral lands, which later offers some political expediency as the victims would not have the time to vote or be involved in the political affairs of the country. This was achieved in Indonesia where the mass followers of a communist party were forced into camps. Despite such annihilation, such genocides as happened in Indonesia have religious implications, which permanently alter the life of the victims long after the war. In Indonesia, as the documentary illustrates, the Muslim majority who perpetrated the genocide forced most of the non-muslins to convert into Muslim religion, which changed the victims’ social, political and cultural ideologies, while others converted to Christianity, depending on their localities. The wars in these cases are portrayed as powerful tools to change the social and cultural inclinations of individuals, which permanently disorientates such people. Another example is portrayed in the way genocides permit the perpetrators to forcefully covet the belongings of the wealthier and socially advanced victims, as happened in Serbia. The Serbs massacred their Bosnia Muslim brothers and expelled them from Serbia after which they forcefully coveted the victims’ homes, belongings, and took advantage of their places and economic process in a well-coordinated and planned manner. Therefore, the point that comes out from the documentary is that genocide can be a powerful tool used by the weak and the poor in the society or those who feel less privileged to eliminate their more successful neighbors and acquire their wealth. Genocides are a tool used by eliminationist perpetrators to alter the social composition and structure of the society. The greater effects of these wars are that the society becomes irrevocably changed, while the distinct social structures become shuffled. For instance, there were cases of perpetrators exploiting the victims’ labor in different ways. In Rwanda, there are pictures of young children in labor to feed themselves and their families after the war, with the direct beneficiaries of such labor being the perpetrators. Moreover, the Germans did the same to the Jews who had worked hard to consolidate wealth, which was coveted by the Germans. The eliminationist ideology in these cases is deeper and goes beyond any religious or social backgrounds with even religious groups being behind such atrocities. Many of the genocides, as the documentary illustrates, had a blessing from leading religious figures who used their positions to lure their victims to death as happened in Croatia, Bosnia or Rwanda. In other words, the distinct boundaries in a society during genocides are eliminated with the elimitionist ideologies taking lead of other concerns, notwithstanding the role that religion was supposed to play in such cases. Destruction of social structures is manifested in the destruction of cultural institutions, schools, places of worship and even educative materials such as books or newspapers, which destroys the necessary infrastructure in a society, which are a sign of a well thriving ethnic culture A significant point that comes out from the documentary is that genocides are not spontaneous, but well planned and orchestrated events based on rational decisions to achieve political, social or economic gain. In genocides, the perpetrators have a high rate of confidence as perceived from the execution of such genocides, with a general feeling that such massacres may not be of any consequences. Those who initiate such genocides are people in power who gain expediency through such mass killings. Moreover, the documentary criticizes the response of the United Nations in such cases and presents the body as being ineffective in dealing with such genocide cases. The UN intervenes too late when the damage has already been done, as was the case in Rwanda. The solution as Goldhagen suggests is to have a rapid military intervention away from the UN framework, which would have the mandate to deal with such cases as they occur. However, Goldhagen’s suggestion is more of wishful thinking, as he does not elaborate how such a force may be constituted, or how it has to operate and respond swiftly whenever such genocide cases occur. The suggestion to put bounties on the heads of the genocide perpetrators is also a tall order to execute. Though today there is an International Crimes Court based in Hague, such has not deterred genocide cases, as most perpetrators will certainly walk free. For instance, despite the mass genocides in Bosnia, only a few individuals were indicted by the international court. The documentary “Worse than war” by Goldhagen delves deep into the major genocides that have occurred in the 20th century and even after to bring out the far reaching effects of genocides that are experienced permanently by the victims. The point that comes out most is that genocides alter the social structures in a country and is a perfect tool to gain political, social and economic expediency. Moreover, the documentary conveys the point that these wars are not spontaneous, but are well planned towards achieving any of the above objectives. The title is significant in that unlike other wars, genocides have permanent terrifying and painful effects on the victims and are mainly aimed at destroying prevailing social structures in the society. The documentary is thus a revelation to understand how genocide occurs, though the recommendations given to prevent genocides may not be effective in deterring such cases from reoccurring. Work cited Goldhagen, J. Daniel (perf.) and DeWitt, Mike (dir.). Worse Than War. JTN Productions, 2009. Film. Read More