Genocide

Human nature: Who participates in genocide, and why? What does the commonality of genocide lead you to believe about humanity?

A genocide is defined as a systematic killing of a racial or cultural group. Those who participate in such an act are undoubtedly considered evil. Now, participation in this requires two separate parts, the thinking/planning, and the physical part.

The brains of the operation plan to commit such an act because they believe that the extermination of another group of people would benefit the world. They don't see that group as humans, in fact they probably hate the selected group with a deep passion. In order to plan to commit a mass murdering, it requires a lot of intellect, that of a military general or along those lines. Not only does the person have to plot out ever single detail of the plan, such as movement and possible rebellion, I believe the hardest part would be gaining enough followers to act out the plan. This is truly a difficult task to accomplish because there would have to be a massive amount of followers in order to act this out. The genius of the leader shows during this stage when they brainwash others into believing in such a horrific set of ideas.

Now, for the people who follow the leader, they could arguably be just as evil as the one planning it. Not only will they commit cold-blooded murders, claiming numerous innocent lives, but the fact that they don't believe that they are committing some sort of crime is the real horrendous part. I can't grasp the concept of how they would begin to believe that killing other human beings in such a way would be considered "normal".

This sort of behavior can be compared with that of stepping on an ant. For example, if you are walking outside and you noticed the fact that you have squished an ant, chances are you wouldn't feel emotional pain or remorse about it. You would just move on with your life, as if nothing happened. This is because of the fact that you don't see yourself on the same level as an ant. Now for the ones who physically commit genocide, they see the targeted group of humans as the ant, nothing more and maybe even less.

For example, Hitler thought himself and the Aryans as superior to all other races and hence felt it was their right to commit such atrocities. He convinced the rest of Germany that the Jews were evil, lazy, etc., which made it easier to pave the way for the Holocaust.

This commonality of genocide leads me to believe that us as human beings are naturally violent. Countless innocent lives have been claimed due to wars. I also believe that today's society has actually encouraged or increased classification amongst humans. There's all different types of classifications everywhere you look and it begins at an early age.  

Also, the general society lacks diversity, something that could help prevent genocide from happening. Any society is capable of committing genocide and that is why education in other cultures should be essential. Instead of leading people to believe in negative stereotypes and common myths about a certain group, they can become educated instead and have more of an insight on that particular group instead of just jumping into conclusions.

I do give the general population credit because among most people there is a great reluctance to commit atrocities; atrocities that contradict values taught from family, religion, and perhaps even instinct. Nevertheless, most people can be conditioned in such a way that, under certain circumstances, the perpetration of extreme violence becomes possible. For example, the Iraq war. Simply because the United States is at war with them currently, it automatically gives the people a reason to view Middle Easterners as 'the enemy'. Another thought, one reason it would become easier for people to commit genocide is physical distance. With the development of better technology and weaponry there is no longer a need for face to face combat. For example, the atom bombs dropped in Japan were a lot easier to issue compared to ordering troops to go over and kill them. 

In conclusion, genocide is not something that occurs instantly, but rather the cause of genocide can be found in leaders who manipulate key factors in order to create the requisite and social conditions for such mass killings.

Confusion.

I took a 'nap' at 9:30 and it turns out I woke up at 6AM. So that's the reason for a  late post.
So this past week I've been getting very little sleep due to the lack of finishing homework earlier in the day. As a result I've been kinda of in a zombie like state at school for the past 3 days. So for tuesday and wednesday I got a total of about a little over 6 hours of sleep. That's less than what the average person should get in a day. So even with my lack of sleep somehow I still don't manage to finish all of my homework for all my classes. So as a result my grades are yet, still dropping.
So, a couple things that have happened to me because of my sleep deprivation. I woke up twice from 'naps' and had no memory of anything that happened before my nap. For example, I think it was last weekend I woke up at around 8AM and I remember the first thought in my head was, "How am I in my bed?". So I slowly get up and try to retrace my steps, but nothing comes up. It's a weird feeling losing a bit of your memory like that, it makes me kind of scared. So, I still don't know what happened that day and the same thing just kind of happened to me last night. I woke up to my alarm going off at 6AM and so I slowly drift out of my sleep and come back into reality. I check my phone and I notice that I received two phone calls, one that was 7mins long and the other one was 2 mins long. Now I have no idea what happened during those 9 minutes. If it wasn't for my phone I wouldn't have even known that I was on the phone last night.
Could this be a cause of not getting enough sleep? Slight memory loss? Maybe it's from exhaustion? I've heard from others that they're too tired to think, or people sort of mumble and rant on and on when they're tired. Either way, this is a bad habit of mine that needs to stop.
I keep telling myself after school to go home and finish my homework so that I could have worry-free time to do other activities, but that never is the case. I need more self discipline, this is my resolution.

Wishing.

 So there's this Calvin and Hobbes strip that I remembered a couple days ago that goes like this:

Calvin: "If you could have anything in the world right now, what would it be?"
Hobbes: "..Hmm..."
Calvin: "Anything at all! Whatever you want!"
Hobbes: "A sandwich."
Calvin: "A sandwich?!? What kind of stupid wish is that?! Talk about a failure of imagination! I'd ask for a trillion billion dollars, my own space shuttle, and a private continent!"
Hobbes (later, fixing a sandwich): "I got my wish."

The point is, Hobbes is being a realistic person because in the end his wish came true, while Calvin's desires are on a much larger scale. The message that I get out of this is that people generally tend to focus on the big picture instead of the little steps in reaching that goal.  I mean it's good to wish for bigger things, but the more extravagant the situations get, the chances of them becoming reality get slimmer.

In Hobbes' case he wished for a more realistic thing and it came true. I believe that if you set goals for yourself that you know you can accomplish in the short term, it'll set you up for reaching your long term goals. Calvin on the other hand just wishes for things that most likely won't come true and sets himself up for failure.Oftentimes people tend to solely focus on the big goals and don't realize how to achieve them. Like the famous saying goes, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."- Confucius.

It's not just that people wish for big things, but they try to find every opportunity to make these wishes, 11:11, shooting stars, birthdays, etc. For example, if someone wishes for happiness at every chance that they get, the chances are they won't ever be happy. Happiness is not something that can just be obtained instantly, the person has to realize what makes them happy and take little steps towards happiness.