Demonizing the Other

Demonizing the Other PDF Author: Robert S. Wistrich
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135852510
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 394

Get Book Here

Book Description
At the close of the twentieth century the stereotyping and demonization of 'others', whether on religious, nationalist, racist, or political grounds, has become a burning issue. Yet comparatively little attention has been paid to how and why we fabricate images of the 'other' as an enemy or 'demon' to be destroyed. This innovative book fills that gap through an interdisciplinary, cross-cultural approach that brings together a distinguished array of historians, anthropologists, psychologists, literary critics, and feminists. The historical sweep covers Greco-Roman Antiquity, the MIddle Ages, and the MOdern Era. Antisemitism receives special attention because of its longevity and centrality to the Holocaust, but it is analyzed here within the much broader framework of racism and xenophobia. The plurality of viewpoints expressed in this volume provide fascinating insights into what is common and what is unique to the many varieties of prejudice, stereotyping, demonization, and hatred.

Demonizing the Other

Demonizing the Other PDF Author: Robert S. Wistrich
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135852510
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 394

Get Book Here

Book Description
At the close of the twentieth century the stereotyping and demonization of 'others', whether on religious, nationalist, racist, or political grounds, has become a burning issue. Yet comparatively little attention has been paid to how and why we fabricate images of the 'other' as an enemy or 'demon' to be destroyed. This innovative book fills that gap through an interdisciplinary, cross-cultural approach that brings together a distinguished array of historians, anthropologists, psychologists, literary critics, and feminists. The historical sweep covers Greco-Roman Antiquity, the MIddle Ages, and the MOdern Era. Antisemitism receives special attention because of its longevity and centrality to the Holocaust, but it is analyzed here within the much broader framework of racism and xenophobia. The plurality of viewpoints expressed in this volume provide fascinating insights into what is common and what is unique to the many varieties of prejudice, stereotyping, demonization, and hatred.

The Colonial Art of Demonizing Others

The Colonial Art of Demonizing Others PDF Author: Esther Lezra
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317800842
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 169

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Colonial Art of Demonizing Others examines European mistranslations and misrepresentations of black freedom dreams and self-activity as monstrous in the period of modern imperial consolidation –roughly from 1750 to 1848. This book argues that Europe’s archives of self-understanding are haunted by the traces of Black radical resistance. Just as Europe’s economy came to depend upon the raw materials, markets, and labor it secured from the colonies, European culture came to be based on fantasies and phobias derived from the unruly and unmanageable aftershocks of colonial violence and counter-insurgency. Rather than assert that European nationalist and abolitionist discourses are on the side of emancipatory movements, the book shows the limits of the promise of that discourse, and the continuation of those limitations that makes the continued pursuit of that promise a questionable activity. This book does not wish to salvage the emancipatory promises of European discourse, but considers the more difficult and uncomfortable question of why emancipatory movements represented the struggles of anticolonial and radical blackness the way they did. The Colonial Art of Demonizing Others privileges the political reading not only of literary texts but also of historical documents and visual culture.

Demonizing the Jews

Demonizing the Jews PDF Author: Christopher J. Probst
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 025300098X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 271

Get Book Here

Book Description
The acquiescence of the German Protestant churches in Nazi oppression and murder of Jews is well documented. In this book, Christopher J. Probst demonstrates that a significant number of German theologians and clergy made use of the 16th-century writings by Martin Luther on Jews and Judaism to reinforce the racial anti-semitism and religious anti-Judaism already present among Protestants. Focusing on key figures, Probst's study makes clear that a significant number of pastors, bishops, and theologians of varying theological and political persuasions employed Luther's texts with considerable effectiveness in campaigning for the creation of a "de-Judaized" form of Christianity. Probst shows that even the church most critical of Luther's anti-Jewish writings reaffirmed the anti-semitic stereotyping that helped justify early Nazi measures against the Jews.

Demonising the Other

Demonising the Other PDF Author: Philip Whitehead
Publisher: Policy Press
ISBN: 1447343433
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 128

Get Book Here

Book Description
Throughout history there has always been an ‘other’, often based on culture, race, gender or class, that has been demonised by the majority. This attribution of negative features onto others affects everyone, but Whitehead challenges the idea that this is an inevitable fact of life. While looking at the historical criminalisation of the ‘other’ and the subsequent modernising transformations in criminal justice and penal policy, such as ‘Big Society’, Whitehead also questions if this is the most effective way to dismantle the conditions of existence responsible for ‘othering’. This important book not only looks for the origin of the ‘other’ but also offers insights for a resolution that benefits society as a whole rather than just the powerful few.

The Psychology of Demonization

The Psychology of Demonization PDF Author: Nahi Alon
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135599777
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 269

Get Book Here

Book Description
Throughout human history, the relationships of individuals and groups have been disrupted by what the authors sum up as "demonization," the attribution of basic destructive qualities to the other or to forces within the self. Demonization results in constant suspicion and blame, a systematic disregard of positive events, pressure to eradicate the putative negative persons or forces, and a growing readiness to engage in escalating conflict. Richly illustrated with 24 case stories, this book explores the psychological processes involved in demonization and their implications for the effort to effect change in relationships, psychotherapy, and beyond the office or clinic in the daily lives of families, organizations, and societies. Recent popular psychology--the authors argue--has tended to encourage demonization. An appropriate alternative to this view is known as the "tragic view": Suffering is inevitable in life; negative outcomes are a result of a confluence of factors over which one has only a very limited control; there is no possibility of reading into the hidden "demonic" layers of the other's mind; the other's actions, like our own, are multiply motivated; escalation is a tragic development rather than the result of an evil "master plan"; and finally, skills for promoting acceptance and reducing escalation are necessary for diminishing interpersonal suffering. The authors describe and illustrate a series of these skills both for psychotherapy and for personal use. Finally, they lay out an approach to consolation and acceptance, the neglect of which they attribute to the dominance of demonic views. The Psychology of Demonization: Promoting Acceptance and Reducing Conflict will be appreciated by all those professionally and personally concerned with the state of relationships.

Extremism and the Psychology of Uncertainty

Extremism and the Psychology of Uncertainty PDF Author: Michael A. Hogg
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1444331280
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 324

Get Book Here

Book Description
Extremism and the Psychology of Uncertainty showcases cutting-edge scientific research on the extent to which uncertainty may lead to extremism. Contributions come from leading international scholars who focus on a wide variety of forms, facets and manifestations of extremist behavior. Systematically integrates and explores the growing diversity of social psychological perspectives on the uncertainty extremism relationship Showcases contemporary cutting edge scientific research from leading international scholars Offers a broad perspective on extremism and focuses on a wide variety of different forms, facets and manifestations Accessible to social and behavioral scientists, policy makers and those with a genuine interest in understanding the psychology of extremism

Demonizing Israel and the Jews

Demonizing Israel and the Jews PDF Author: Manfred Gerstenfeld
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781618163363
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 230

Get Book Here

Book Description
Today, well over 150 million Europeans embrace a satanic view of the State of Israel. They believe that Israel is exterminating the Palestinians, despite their major population growth in recent decades. This current widespread demonic view of Israel is a new mutation of the diabolical beliefs about Jews which many held in the Middle Ages, and those promoted more recently by the Nazis and their allies. This demonization has been exacerbated by the consequences of the massive and non-selective immigration into Western Europe from Muslim countries, where incitement against Jews and Israel is often fanatic and ongoing. This collection of 57 interviews with scholars, politicians, and the like, depicts how extensive and intense the hate-mongering is. In his opening essay, Gerstenfeld puts the facts and views presented in the book into context. Praise: "Gerstenfeld helps us all understand the world's oldest hatred." -Rabbi Marvin Hier Founder and Dean Simon Wiesenthal Center "An authoritative, up-to-date guide to the cultural-ideological war being waged against the democratic Jewish state." -Prof. Frederick Krantz Director, Canadian Institute Jewish Research "This superb collection of incisive interviews on the demonization of Israel and the Jews should be located on the bookshelves of every committed Jewish activist." -Isi Leibler Former Chairman Governing Board World Jewish Congress "Manfred Gerstenfeld's collection of interviews on anti-Semitism and its proxy, delegitimization of Israel, is brilliantly selected and encyclopedic in scope. His own essay tying the interviews together makes this required reading for those who want to understand where anti-Semitism is today." -Richard B. Stone Chairman Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations

Myth of Evil

Myth of Evil PDF Author: Phillip Cole
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 0748626859
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 265

Get Book Here

Book Description
A philosophical history of the concept of evil in western culture. 'Evil is something to be feared, and historically, we shall see, it is the enemy within who has been seen as representing the most intense evil of all - the enemy who looks just like us, talks like us, and is just like us.' The Myth of Evil explores a contradiction: the belief that human beings cannot commit acts of pure evil, that they cannot inflict harm for its own sake, and the evidence that pure 'evil' truly is a human capacity. Acts of horror are committed not by inhuman 'monsters', but by ordinary human beings. This contradiction is clearest in the apparently 'extreme' acts of war criminals, terrorists, serial murderers, sex offenders and children who kill. Phillip Cole delves deep into our two, cosily established approaches to evil. There is the traditional approach where evil is a force which creates monsters in human shape. And there is the 'enlightened' perspective where evil is the consequence of the actions of misguided or mentally deranged agents. Cole rejects both approaches. Satan may have played a role in its evolution, but evil is really a myth we have created about ourselves. And to understand it fully, we must acknowledge this. Drawing on the philosophical ideas of Nietzsche, Arendt, Kant, Mary Midgley and others, as well as theology, psychoanalysis, fictional representations and contemporary political events such as the global 'war on terror', Cole presents an account of evil that is thorough and thought-provoking, and which, more fundamentally, compels us to reassess our understanding of human nature.

Chavs

Chavs PDF Author: Owen Jones
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 1839760923
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 337

Get Book Here

Book Description
In modern Britain, the working class has become an object of fear and ridicule. From Little Britain’s Vicky Pollard to the demonization of Jade Goody, media and politicians alike dismiss as feckless, criminalized and ignorant a vast, underprivileged swathe of society whose members have become stereotyped by one, hate-filled word: chavs. In this acclaimed investigation, Owen Jones explores how the working class has gone from “salt of the earth” to “scum of the earth.” Exposing the ignorance and prejudice at the heart of the chav caricature, he portrays a far more complex reality. The chav stereotype, he argues, is used by governments as a convenient figleaf to avoid genuine engagement with social and economic problems and to justify widening inequality. Based on a wealth of original research, Chavs is a damning indictment of the media and political establishment and an illuminating, disturbing portrait of inequality and class hatred in modern Britain. This updated edition includes a new chapter exploring the causes and consequences of the UK riots in the summer of 2011.

The Great Satan Vs. the Mad Mullahs

The Great Satan Vs. the Mad Mullahs PDF Author: William O. Beeman
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226041476
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 319

Get Book Here

Book Description
Originally published: Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers, 2005. With new preface.