Seminar Three
Warfare, genocide and ethnic conflict
Human nature versus deviant individual behavior

Remains of genocide victims on display at the Nyamata Genocide Exhibit in Rwanda
Remains of genocide victims from the Rwanda massacres are on display in Murambi Genocide Exhibit, one of six memorial sites in Rwanda. Whitened by a coating of calcium salts, the remains of the 1,800 corpses of the 27,000 victims are placed on display in the old technical school to serve as a testament to the horrors of the genocide.
Photography by Dave Simpson

If you don't think it will go on and on, consider Jared Diamond's list of genocides from 1900 to 1950:

  • Tens of millions of American Indians killed by Spanish and English colonists of North, Central, and South America from the fifteenth through the nineteenth centuries
  • Over one million Armenians killed by Turks in 1915
  • Over ten million Jews killed by Nazis in Occupied Europe between 1939 and 1945
  • 8000 Tutsies killed per day for 100 days by extremist Hutus in Rwanda in 1994
  • Hundreds of thousands of Darfurians killed since 2003 in “the first genocide of the twenty-first century”

The New England Journal of Medicine called Darfur the “first genocide of the 21st century.” The killing in Sudan became so chaotic in 2007 that Arab tribes began fighting other Arab tribes and rebels began fighting rebels. Armed men who seemed to have no allegiances were attacking anyone who crossed their path. It appeared that in places the we-they become so arbitrary that almost anyone else could be considered they.

The ready availability of lethal weapons has not made violent behavior any easier to manage. An AK-47 is easy to learn to use; in half an hour a ten-year-old can learn the basics and have as much firepower as a Civil War regiment.

A screen capture of the controversial video game, Postal 2
A screen capture from the controversial 2003 video game, Postal 2, provides a brief glimpse into the virtual world of violence many children experience, all in the name of entertainment. Using demeaning stereotypes and explicit violence, the game reinforces the worst aspects of human nature.
Running with Scissors, Inc.
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NOTES
Simpson, Dave. Remains of genocide victims from the Rwanda massacres are on display in Murambi Genocide Exhibit, one of six memorial sites in Rwanda. Whitened by a coating of calcium salts, the remains of the 1,800 corpses of the 27,000 victims are placed on display in the old technical school to remind the public of the horrors of the genocide. Photograph. 18 April 2003.
Diamond, Jared. Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee: How Our Animal Heritage Affects The Way We Live. Radius, 2000. ISBN 978-0-091-77770-8.
Fowler, Jerry. “Beyond Humanitarian Bandages—Confronting Genocide in Sudan.” The New England Journal of Medicine (16 December 2004) 351 (25), 2574–2576.
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