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cc

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>> It's my great pleasure to

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introduce my colleague, Claudia

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Card, who is a UW Alum.

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I'm not going to tell you

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exactly when she graduated, but

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she's one of ours.

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After having taken her

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undergraduate degree here, she

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went off to Harvard to earn her

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PhD.

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During the point at which she

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was completing her PhD she came

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back to her Alma Mater and began

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teaching for us, and has been

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doing for about 47 years.

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Not only is Professor Card a

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member of our department, she's

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also affiliated with the Jewish

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Studies program, the Women's

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Studies program, the Institute

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for Environmental Studies and

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the LGBTQ Studies program as

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well.

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She's the author of four books.

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She's edited six more.

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She's the author of over 90

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articles, many of which are

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reprinted in anthologies and

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translated into a variety of

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languages.

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Professor Card has delivered

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over 300 talks in her career.

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She's currently working on two

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books, an introduction to

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feminist philosophy, and a third

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in a trilogy on evil.

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This first two installments of

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which were published to great

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acclaim,  The Atrocity Paradigm,

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that was published by Oxford

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University Press in 2006 and

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Confronting Evils  published by

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Cambridge in 2010.

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Professor Card has earned a

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number of awards including the

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Distinguished Woman Philosopher

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of the Year in 1996, and the

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NEH, an ACLS award.

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She's been a resident fellow

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with the Institute for Research

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and Humanities here, as well as

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a senior fellow.

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And she's won the university's

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Hilldale Award, a kind of

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capstone career award for

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excellence in teaching service

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and research.

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She's been a past-president of

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the Central Division of the

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American Philosophical

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Association.

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And her work has been the

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subject of three volumes of

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collected essays by those who've

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been impressed by her impact

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within the field.

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Professor Card has been an

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influential mentor to

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generations of graduate students

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here at UW.

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She is renowned for her

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groundbreaking work in feminist

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philosophy, and in moral

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philosophy more generally.

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She's been quite generous with

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her time, giving dozens of

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public lectures.

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This is only the latest of

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which, and over 20 times she's

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been invited to talk on the

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radio and on television.

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I hope you'll join me

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enthusiastically in welcoming my

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colleague, Claudia Card, who

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will be talking this night about

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genocide and social death.

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[applause]

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>> Thank you, Russ, for that

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generous introduction.

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Genocide has become the

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paradigm atrocity of our time.

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Etymologically, the word

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"genocide" which was coined less

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than a century ago, should mean

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the killing of a tribe.

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But most victims of genocide

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today are not what we would

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naturally call tribes.

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For this reason, among others,

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not everyone understands

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genocide in the same way.

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The International Association of

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Genocide Scholars asks on its

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membership application form,

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what definition of genocide do

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you use in your work?

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Here are some questions commonly

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asked by those who think about

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genocide and those who may have

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obligations to respond to

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genocides.

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The basic philosophical question

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would naturally be, what is a

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genocide?

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Under that, widely discussed

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questions are, how does it

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differ from non-genocidal

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mass-murder, such as the

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Oklahoma City bombing or the

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Tokyo subway gassing, the

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bombings of 9/11, or even the

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Columbine High School massacre?

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Is mass murder even necessary

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for genocide?

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As a crime, is genocide

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redundant, given the already

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existing war crimes and crimes

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against humanity?

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That is, does it identify

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something new?

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Is genocide the worst crime, or

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the most evil, that you can

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imagine?

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Against what kinds of groups can

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genocide be committed?

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Could there, for example, be a

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gay genocide?

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Would femicide be a kind of

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genocide?

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What about people with

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disabilities?

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What about evil groups?

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What kinds of acts can be

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genocidal?

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What underlies the judgment that

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genocide is never justifiable or

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even excusable?

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I begin with the idea that

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genocide is the murder of a

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people or other significant

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community.

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My hypothesis is that social

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death is utterly central to the

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idea of murdering a people.

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Social death is a concept I

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borrow from historian Orlando

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Patterson's book,  Slavery and

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Social Death,  which was

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published in 1982.

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You'll see on your handout, on

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the back, there's a bibliography

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of works, some of which I will

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refer to, and others of which I

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have found helpful.

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Patterson used the concept of

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social death to describe the

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plight of slaves who were

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captured in Africa and survived

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the middle passage to the

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Americas.

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They were torn from their roots,

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chained together with others who

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spoke different languages.

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And in the New World they were

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robbed of the security of even

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their own family connections by

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the practice of selling off

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children, spouses, and other

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kin.

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In the Americas, Patterson

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argued, relationships among

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slaves had no social security,

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and so slaves, he

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concluded, were socially dead.

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Later generations of slaves who

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were born to a condition of

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social death were said by

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Patterson to be natally

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alienated, cut off from social

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ties in both directions, both to

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their ancestors and to their

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progeny.

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These are controversial

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hypotheses among historians of

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slavery in the Americas who take

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seriously the idea of a slave

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culture.

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To the extent that those critics

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are right about slave culture,

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genocides may offer clearer

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instances of social death than

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slavery offered, at least,

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slavery in the Americas.

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To understand social death,

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I start with the idea of social

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vitality, and then understand

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social death as a deprivation or

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loss of social vitality.

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By social vitality I understand

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the meanings, shapes, and

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contents given to the lives of

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individuals by social

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relationships, both personal and

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institutional, contemporary and

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intergenerational, that unite

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them into a people or other

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significant community.

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Social vitality takes many

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forms.

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Linguistic, educational,

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political, economic, artistic,

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and religious institutions all

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contribute, as do friendship and

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kinship networks.

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Major loss of social vitality is

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a loss of social identity, and

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consequently, a serious loss of

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meaning for your existence.

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Putting social death at the

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center takes the focus off body

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counts, and puts it instead on

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the kinds of relationships that

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give meaning to the lives of

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individuals.

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Social death, so understood, has

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degrees, and as we will see, it

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typically has stages.

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Sometimes, social vitality is

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recoverable or re-creatable in

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new forms.

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Often it is not.

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Social death sounds like

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something suffered by a group.

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It is.

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But what makes social death

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morally significant is that it

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is suffered by individuals,

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members of the group, in virtue

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of their group membership.

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It robs their lives of meaning,

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or robs them of the ability to

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give meaning to their lives, and

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in so doing, robs them of

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fundamental aspects of their

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humanity.

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The social death of individuals

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can have other sources than

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genocide; slavery, banishment,

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disfigurement, illness, even

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self-chosen isolation, becoming

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a hermit.

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But in most of these cases, one

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is not ordinarily cut off from a

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shared language, history,

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traditions, and so on.

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In genocide, social death is

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extreme.

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I take seriously Nietzsche's

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observation that only what has

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no history is definable, that

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is, in terms of necessary and

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sufficient conditions.

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And so, I want to leave the

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notion of being "utterly

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central" relatively undefined.

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But when I say that social death

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is utterly central, I mean at

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least that it is a salient

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characteristic of most paradigm

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instances.

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Also, that it is a useful

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concept for appreciating the

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kind of evil that genocide is.

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Social death enables us to

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distinguish genocide from other

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mass atrocities.

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It is useful for explaining in

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what sense genocide is a form of

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murder and how it differs from

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other murders.

292
00:09:25,966 --> 00:09:27,466
It helps for identifying the

293
00:09:27,466 --> 00:09:29,166
sorts of human groups that can

294
00:09:29,166 --> 00:09:31,533
be victims of genocide, which is

295
00:09:31,533 --> 00:09:32,833
a matter of some consequence in

296
00:09:32,833 --> 00:09:34,833
international law.

297
00:09:34,833 --> 00:09:36,033
It should be useful for

298
00:09:36,033 --> 00:09:37,133
identifying a

299
00:09:37,133 --> 00:09:38,400
genocide-in-progress, where

300
00:09:38,400 --> 00:09:39,900
intervention might interrupt it

301
00:09:39,900 --> 00:09:42,366
before it ran its course.

302
00:09:42,366 --> 00:09:43,933
It is a gross understatement to

303
00:09:43,933 --> 00:09:46,566
say genocide is wrong.

304
00:09:46,566 --> 00:09:48,600
Genocide is not just wrong.

305
00:09:48,600 --> 00:09:50,700
It is an evil, and not in the

306
00:09:50,700 --> 00:09:53,233
popular loose sense of "evil"

307
00:09:53,233 --> 00:09:55,233
that applies to anything bad or

308
00:09:55,233 --> 00:09:57,800
wrong but in that stricter,

309
00:09:57,800 --> 00:10:00,200
narrower, more specific sense in

310
00:10:00,200 --> 00:10:01,700
which "evil" is a very strong

311
00:10:01,700 --> 00:10:03,633
term of approbrium.

312
00:10:03,633 --> 00:10:06,166
According to some, including my

313
00:10:06,166 --> 00:10:07,600
teacher, Emeritus Professor

314
00:10:07,600 --> 00:10:09,266
Marcus Singer, it is the

315
00:10:09,266 --> 00:10:10,933
strongest term of approbrium

316
00:10:10,933 --> 00:10:13,233
available to us.

317
00:10:13,233 --> 00:10:15,133
For the past decade and a half,

318
00:10:15,133 --> 00:10:16,633
I have focused my research and

319
00:10:16,633 --> 00:10:18,233
writing on evils and the concept

320
00:10:18,233 --> 00:10:19,500
of evil.

321
00:10:19,500 --> 00:10:21,166
In doing so, I have taken on two

322
00:10:21,166 --> 00:10:22,466
tasks.

323
00:10:22,466 --> 00:10:24,500
First, I try to distinguish

324
00:10:24,500 --> 00:10:26,533
evils from lesser wrongs and

325
00:10:26,533 --> 00:10:28,033
lesser bads.

326
00:10:28,033 --> 00:10:29,633
Evils, on my view, are not just

327
00:10:29,633 --> 00:10:31,400
worse, they are also more

328
00:10:31,400 --> 00:10:32,866
complex.

329
00:10:32,866 --> 00:10:34,766
The second kind of task has been

330
00:10:34,766 --> 00:10:36,633
to work through some tough moral

331
00:10:36,633 --> 00:10:39,000
and conceptual questions

332
00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:40,133
regarding particular evils,

333
00:10:40,133 --> 00:10:42,400
especially, torture, terrorism,

334
00:10:42,400 --> 00:10:44,400
and genocide.

335
00:10:44,400 --> 00:10:46,500
To give you a quick overview, I

336
00:10:46,500 --> 00:10:48,266
come to different conclusions

337
00:10:48,266 --> 00:10:49,866
regarding terrorism, torture,

338
00:10:49,866 --> 00:10:51,266
and genocide.

339
00:10:51,266 --> 00:10:53,000
In the case of terrorism, I

340
00:10:53,000 --> 00:10:54,433
found I had to allow the

341
00:10:54,433 --> 00:10:56,166
possibility that in some

342
00:10:56,166 --> 00:10:58,300
circumstances, in response to

343
00:10:58,300 --> 00:11:00,400
some atrocities, there are forms

344
00:11:00,400 --> 00:11:03,300
of terrorism that are not evils,

345
00:11:03,300 --> 00:11:05,833
even if they are wrong, but

346
00:11:05,833 --> 00:11:07,666
those forms do not include

347
00:11:07,666 --> 00:11:10,033
torture or genocide.

348
00:11:10,033 --> 00:11:11,466
And by the way, genocide tends

349
00:11:11,466 --> 00:11:13,166
to include both torture and

350
00:11:13,166 --> 00:11:14,933
terrorism.

351
00:11:14,933 --> 00:11:16,966
The reason I find some forms of

352
00:11:16,966 --> 00:11:19,133
terrorism not evils is not that

353
00:11:19,133 --> 00:11:20,800
they are not extremely harmful,

354
00:11:20,800 --> 00:11:22,733
obviously they are, but that

355
00:11:22,733 --> 00:11:25,366
they can be if not justifiable,

356
00:11:25,366 --> 00:11:28,366
then at least partly excusable.

357
00:11:28,366 --> 00:11:30,133
In the case of torture, I defend

358
00:11:30,133 --> 00:11:31,600
the view that torture is an evil

359
00:11:31,600 --> 00:11:33,133
that should never be on the

360
00:11:33,133 --> 00:11:34,933
table as a permissible option,

361
00:11:34,933 --> 00:11:37,166
whether for an individual or a

362
00:11:37,166 --> 00:11:38,566
government, whether for a

363
00:11:38,566 --> 00:11:40,666
particular act or as a policy,

364
00:11:40,666 --> 00:11:43,233
even though, like slavery,

365
00:11:43,233 --> 00:11:44,600
torture is not wrong by

366
00:11:44,600 --> 00:11:46,033
definition.

367
00:11:46,033 --> 00:11:47,733
We can construct logically

368
00:11:47,733 --> 00:11:49,166
possible cases in which all the

369
00:11:49,166 --> 00:11:51,766
alternatives appear worse.

370
00:11:51,766 --> 00:11:53,233
I appeal, rather, to the moral

371
00:11:53,233 --> 00:11:55,566
costs of torture as well as to

372
00:11:55,566 --> 00:11:57,266
empirical probabilities

373
00:11:57,266 --> 00:11:59,100
regarding what we can know and

374
00:11:59,100 --> 00:12:01,333
what we can control.

375
00:12:01,333 --> 00:12:02,966
Because neither torture nor

376
00:12:02,966 --> 00:12:04,233
terrorism is wrong by

377
00:12:04,233 --> 00:12:05,666
definition, there is room for

378
00:12:05,666 --> 00:12:06,733
argument about their

379
00:12:06,733 --> 00:12:09,600
justifiability or excusability.

380
00:12:09,600 --> 00:12:11,933
In contrast, if genocide is

381
00:12:11,933 --> 00:12:13,400
understood as the murder of a

382
00:12:13,400 --> 00:12:15,033
people, there is no room for

383
00:12:15,033 --> 00:12:16,266
argument regarding its

384
00:12:16,266 --> 00:12:17,900
justifiability.

385
00:12:17,900 --> 00:12:19,533
Murder is, by definition,

386
00:12:19,533 --> 00:12:20,866
wrongful.

387
00:12:20,866 --> 00:12:22,866
Homicide can be justified, in

388
00:12:22,866 --> 00:12:24,800
self-defense, for example,

389
00:12:24,800 --> 00:12:26,300
murder cannot.

390
00:12:26,300 --> 00:12:27,533
Killing in justifiable

391
00:12:27,533 --> 00:12:29,566
self-defense is not murder.

392
00:12:29,566 --> 00:12:31,500
In this respect, the philosopher

393
00:12:31,500 --> 00:12:33,000
who confronts the phenomena of

394
00:12:33,000 --> 00:12:34,566
genocide is in a position

395
00:12:34,566 --> 00:12:36,400
analogous to that of the

396
00:12:36,400 --> 00:12:37,833
philosopher who confronts the

397
00:12:37,833 --> 00:12:39,766
phenomena of rape.

398
00:12:39,766 --> 00:12:41,366
The question is not when, if

399
00:12:41,366 --> 00:12:43,266
ever, it is justified.

400
00:12:43,266 --> 00:12:45,366
The questions are, rather, how

401
00:12:45,366 --> 00:12:47,200
we are to recognize instances of

402
00:12:47,200 --> 00:12:49,333
it and how it might be morally

403
00:12:49,333 --> 00:12:51,933
justifiable to respond.

404
00:12:51,933 --> 00:12:53,300
And yet, it might seem an

405
00:12:53,300 --> 00:12:56,200
arbitrary stipulation, it seemed

406
00:12:56,200 --> 00:12:58,200
so to some of my first year FIG

407
00:12:58,200 --> 00:13:00,300
students a couple years ago, to

408
00:13:00,300 --> 00:13:02,266
say that genocide is wrong by

409
00:13:02,266 --> 00:13:03,666
definition.

410
00:13:03,666 --> 00:13:05,033
So I'll have more to say about

411
00:13:05,033 --> 00:13:07,133
that and in defense of my view

412
00:13:07,133 --> 00:13:09,033
that it is not an arbitrary

413
00:13:09,033 --> 00:13:10,566
stipulation.

414
00:13:10,566 --> 00:13:12,033
No scholars or politicians that

415
00:13:12,033 --> 00:13:13,800
I know of who have tried to

416
00:13:13,800 --> 00:13:15,966
define genocide have taken the

417
00:13:15,966 --> 00:13:17,433
view that it could ever be

418
00:13:17,433 --> 00:13:19,266
anything but wrong.

419
00:13:19,266 --> 00:13:21,600
The genocide convention of 1948

420
00:13:21,600 --> 00:13:23,733
took as its task the definition

421
00:13:23,733 --> 00:13:25,366
of a crime that had not

422
00:13:25,366 --> 00:13:27,366
previously been defined in

423
00:13:27,366 --> 00:13:29,133
international law.

424
00:13:29,133 --> 00:13:31,566
Still, it is a philosophically

425
00:13:31,566 --> 00:13:34,300
interesting question how, apart

426
00:13:34,300 --> 00:13:36,400
from size of the target,

427
00:13:36,400 --> 00:13:39,200
destroying an evil group differs

428
00:13:39,200 --> 00:13:41,266
from genocide.

429
00:13:41,266 --> 00:13:42,933
Consider, for example, the

430
00:13:42,933 --> 00:13:45,233
organization known in the 1940s

431
00:13:45,233 --> 00:13:47,066
as "Murder, Inc."

432
00:13:47,066 --> 00:13:49,300
and later as "the Syndicate"

433
00:13:49,300 --> 00:13:51,066
and "the Mob."

434
00:13:51,066 --> 00:13:52,733
This organization was described

435
00:13:52,733 --> 00:13:54,233
by authors of the book

436
00:13:54,233 --> 00:13:57,033
Murder, Inc.  as a "fantastic

437
00:13:57,033 --> 00:13:58,833
ring of killers and

438
00:13:58,833 --> 00:14:00,966
extortionists" that constituted

439
00:14:00,966 --> 00:14:03,300
organized crime in the United

440
00:14:03,300 --> 00:14:04,700
States.

441
00:14:04,700 --> 00:14:05,900
They report that in one

442
00:14:05,900 --> 00:14:07,233
decade, Murder, Inc. was

443
00:14:07,233 --> 00:14:09,533
responsible for a thousand

444
00:14:09,533 --> 00:14:10,633
murders "from New England to

445
00:14:10,633 --> 00:14:11,900
California."

446
00:14:11,900 --> 00:14:13,166
If you think this group was too

447
00:14:13,166 --> 00:14:14,733
small or too thin to constitute

448
00:14:14,733 --> 00:14:16,766
a people, then, consider the Ku

449
00:14:16,766 --> 00:14:18,466
Klux Klan, a group much larger

450
00:14:18,466 --> 00:14:20,066
and more complex in its

451
00:14:20,066 --> 00:14:21,900
activities.

452
00:14:21,900 --> 00:14:23,900
When sociologist Kathy Blee

453
00:14:23,900 --> 00:14:25,900
interviewed women in Indiana who

454
00:14:25,900 --> 00:14:27,333
had been members of the Klan in

455
00:14:27,333 --> 00:14:29,500
the 1920s, they described it

456
00:14:29,500 --> 00:14:31,166
nostalgically as a way to

457
00:14:31,166 --> 00:14:33,033
socialize with like-minded

458
00:14:33,033 --> 00:14:34,566
others.

459
00:14:34,566 --> 00:14:36,866
Or, consider the Nazi Party.

460
00:14:36,866 --> 00:14:39,066
One reason I cite Murder, Inc.

461
00:14:39,066 --> 00:14:40,766
and the Klan is that I don't

462
00:14:40,766 --> 00:14:44,000
like to always be citing Nazis.

463
00:14:44,000 --> 00:14:45,266
[laughter]

464
00:14:45,266 --> 00:14:46,533
It seems more appropriate for

465
00:14:46,533 --> 00:14:48,233
me, as an American, to mention

466
00:14:48,233 --> 00:14:51,266
homegrown evil organizations.

467
00:14:51,266 --> 00:14:52,733
The vitality contributed to the

468
00:14:52,733 --> 00:14:54,033
lives of members of these

469
00:14:54,033 --> 00:14:55,800
organizations was easily as

470
00:14:55,800 --> 00:14:57,966
important to their lives as the

471
00:14:57,966 --> 00:14:59,666
vitality contributed by a

472
00:14:59,666 --> 00:15:02,533
national or religious culture.

473
00:15:02,533 --> 00:15:04,233
Many mass atrocities are

474
00:15:04,233 --> 00:15:05,966
recognized as genocides even

475
00:15:05,966 --> 00:15:07,533
though it is not clear that

476
00:15:07,533 --> 00:15:09,766
their victims are, strictly

477
00:15:09,766 --> 00:15:10,833
speaking, a people.

478
00:15:10,833 --> 00:15:12,300
The Cambodian genocide, for

479
00:15:12,300 --> 00:15:13,933
example, in which both

480
00:15:13,933 --> 00:15:15,866
perpetrators and victims

481
00:15:15,866 --> 00:15:19,133
belonged to the same people.

482
00:15:19,133 --> 00:15:20,566
On the view that social death is

483
00:15:20,566 --> 00:15:22,000
central to genocide, it should

484
00:15:22,000 --> 00:15:23,833
be natural to ask whether it

485
00:15:23,833 --> 00:15:25,500
would be committing genocide to

486
00:15:25,500 --> 00:15:27,533
destroy an  evil  group that gave

487
00:15:27,533 --> 00:15:28,933
meaning to the lives of its

488
00:15:28,933 --> 00:15:30,400
members.

489
00:15:30,400 --> 00:15:32,433
If it were, we could no longer

490
00:15:32,433 --> 00:15:33,666
define "genocide" as the 
" murder

491
00:15:33,666 --> 00:15:35,666
of a people" but would have to

492
00:15:35,666 --> 00:15:37,300
allow the possibility of

493
00:15:37,300 --> 00:15:39,633
justified genocides.

494
00:15:39,633 --> 00:15:41,233
I regard this as

495
00:15:41,233 --> 00:15:42,966
"the Murder, Inc. problem,"

496
00:15:42,966 --> 00:15:45,400
and I will return to it.

497
00:15:45,400 --> 00:15:46,933
To show that genocide is always

498
00:15:46,933 --> 00:15:48,800
an evil, it is necessary first

499
00:15:48,800 --> 00:15:50,966
to say something about what

500
00:15:50,966 --> 00:15:53,300
conception of evil is in play

501
00:15:53,300 --> 00:15:57,033
here, and I turn to that next.

502
00:15:57,033 --> 00:16:01,200
Mine, of course.

503
00:16:01,200 --> 00:16:03,066
In my first evil book,

504
00:16:03,066 --> 00:16:05,000
The Atrocity Paradigm,

505
00:16:05,000 --> 00:16:06,200
I developed a theory of evil

506
00:16:06,200 --> 00:16:07,533
that takes large-scale mass

507
00:16:07,533 --> 00:16:09,933
atrocities as paradigms.

508
00:16:09,933 --> 00:16:11,800
By a "paradigm," I mean an

509
00:16:11,800 --> 00:16:14,266
uncontroversial instance,

510
00:16:14,266 --> 00:16:15,700
something that is

511
00:16:15,700 --> 00:16:17,633
uncontroversially an evil.

512
00:16:17,633 --> 00:16:19,233
If large-scale mass atrocities

513
00:16:19,233 --> 00:16:20,600
are not evils, I cannot imagine

514
00:16:20,600 --> 00:16:22,300
what would be.

515
00:16:22,300 --> 00:16:24,166
My approach is secular.

516
00:16:24,166 --> 00:16:25,433
I do not presuppose a

517
00:16:25,433 --> 00:16:27,300
theological context, although my

518
00:16:27,300 --> 00:16:29,100
approach is compatible with most

519
00:16:29,100 --> 00:16:31,433
aspects of the theological

520
00:16:31,433 --> 00:16:34,333
problem of evil, which ponders

521
00:16:34,333 --> 00:16:36,300
how an omnipotent and perfectly

522
00:16:36,300 --> 00:16:38,033
good creator could create a

523
00:16:38,033 --> 00:16:40,366
world as flawed by evils as

524
00:16:40,366 --> 00:16:43,000
ours.

525
00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:46,200
My initial definition was that

526
00:16:46,200 --> 00:16:47,600
evils are, "reasonably

527
00:16:47,600 --> 00:16:49,066
foreseeable intolerable harms,

528
00:16:49,066 --> 00:16:50,366
produced, maintained,

529
00:16:50,366 --> 00:16:52,833
aggravated, supported, and so on

530
00:16:52,833 --> 00:16:54,866
by culpable wrongdoing."

531
00:16:54,866 --> 00:16:57,300
I changed "culpable wrongdoing"

532
00:16:57,300 --> 00:16:59,233
to "inexcusable wrongs" in my

533
00:16:59,233 --> 00:17:02,333
second evil book, that is,

534
00:17:02,333 --> 00:17:04,900
Confronting Evils: Terrorism,

535
00:17:04,900 --> 00:17:06,366
Torture, and Genocide .

536
00:17:06,366 --> 00:17:07,700
The resulting revised definition

537
00:17:07,700 --> 00:17:09,833
is that evils are reasonably

538
00:17:09,833 --> 00:17:14,233
foreseeable intolerable harms,

539
00:17:14,233 --> 00:17:15,333
produced, maintained,

540
00:17:15,333 --> 00:17:17,333
aggravated, supported, and so on

541
00:17:17,333 --> 00:17:19,900
by inexcusable wrongs.

542
00:17:19,900 --> 00:17:21,500
So understood, evils have two

543
00:17:21,500 --> 00:17:24,100
basic, irreducibly distinct

544
00:17:24,100 --> 00:17:26,533
component, an agency component

545
00:17:26,533 --> 00:17:28,666
and a harm component, connected

546
00:17:28,666 --> 00:17:30,533
by reasonably foreseeable

547
00:17:30,533 --> 00:17:32,066
causality.

548
00:17:32,066 --> 00:17:33,700
Notice that I take the noun

549
00:17:33,700 --> 00:17:35,833
"evils," plural, as the basic

550
00:17:35,833 --> 00:17:37,633
concept.

551
00:17:37,633 --> 00:17:39,333
I am not interested in the idea

552
00:17:39,333 --> 00:17:41,033
of evil as a mysterious or

553
00:17:41,033 --> 00:17:43,200
metaphysical force.

554
00:17:43,200 --> 00:17:45,166
I treat adjectival uses of

555
00:17:45,166 --> 00:17:46,533
"evil" as derivative from the

556
00:17:46,533 --> 00:17:48,166
noun use.

557
00:17:48,166 --> 00:17:50,133
An evil intention, for example,

558
00:17:50,133 --> 00:17:52,800
is an intention, without excuse,

559
00:17:52,800 --> 00:17:54,133
to do reasonably foreseeable

560
00:17:54,133 --> 00:17:55,933
intolerable harm.

561
00:17:55,933 --> 00:17:57,400
An evil practice is one that

562
00:17:57,400 --> 00:17:59,133
inexcusably does reasonably

563
00:17:59,133 --> 00:18:01,466
foreseeable intolerable harm.

564
00:18:01,466 --> 00:18:04,833
A practice that is inexcusable

565
00:18:04,833 --> 00:18:06,600
today might have been excusable

566
00:18:06,600 --> 00:18:09,533
in the past, not then an evil

567
00:18:09,533 --> 00:18:11,266
but an evil today.

568
00:18:11,266 --> 00:18:13,700
Perhaps some forms of slavery

569
00:18:13,700 --> 00:18:15,366
My motivating interest is in

570
00:18:15,366 --> 00:18:17,200
identifying deeds, practices,

571
00:18:17,200 --> 00:18:19,366
and institutions that are evils,

572
00:18:19,366 --> 00:18:21,633
not in labeling perpetrators,

573
00:18:21,633 --> 00:18:23,066
even though I think that can

574
00:18:23,066 --> 00:18:24,900
sometimes be done.

575
00:18:24,900 --> 00:18:26,400
I want to highlight more the

576
00:18:26,400 --> 00:18:27,933
plight of victims and resist

577
00:18:27,933 --> 00:18:29,833
becoming immersed in perpetrator

578
00:18:29,833 --> 00:18:31,633
psychology.

579
00:18:31,633 --> 00:18:33,366
This is an ethical conception of

580
00:18:33,366 --> 00:18:35,200
evils in that it presupposes the

581
00:18:35,200 --> 00:18:37,466
idea of moral wrongs.

582
00:18:37,466 --> 00:18:39,433
Atrocities do not include

583
00:18:39,433 --> 00:18:41,600
natural catastrophes, although

584
00:18:41,600 --> 00:18:43,166
natural catastrophes can be just

585
00:18:43,166 --> 00:18:44,800
as harmful.

586
00:18:44,800 --> 00:18:46,166
I will not try to define

587
00:18:46,166 --> 00:18:47,333
"wrongs."

588
00:18:47,333 --> 00:18:49,000
But my definition of evils is

589
00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:50,266
compatible with many

590
00:18:50,266 --> 00:18:52,266
non-utilitarian theories of the

591
00:18:52,266 --> 00:18:53,766
distinction between right and

592
00:18:53,766 --> 00:18:55,200
wrong.

593
00:18:55,200 --> 00:18:57,200
Key concepts that require

594
00:18:57,200 --> 00:18:58,233
clarification then are

595
00:18:58,233 --> 00:19:00,266
"intolerable" in the

596
00:19:00,266 --> 00:19:02,066
"intolerable harm," and

597
00:19:02,066 --> 00:19:03,900
"inexcusable" in "inexcusable

598
00:19:03,900 --> 00:19:07,666
wrongs."

599
00:19:07,666 --> 00:19:10,233
To show that social death is

600
00:19:10,233 --> 00:19:12,466
necessarily evil I need to

601
00:19:12,466 --> 00:19:14,433
to show that it's intolerably

602
00:19:14,433 --> 00:19:15,966
harmful.

603
00:19:15,966 --> 00:19:17,366
I take it that's obvious, so I'm

604
00:19:17,366 --> 00:19:18,633
not going to spend any time on

605
00:19:18,633 --> 00:19:20,033
that.

606
00:19:20,033 --> 00:19:21,400
That it's always wrong.

607
00:19:21,400 --> 00:19:22,666
There's where I'm going to focus

608
00:19:22,666 --> 00:19:23,900
my attention.

609
00:19:23,900 --> 00:19:25,166
And that there's no excuse for

610
00:19:25,166 --> 00:19:26,200
it.

611
00:19:26,200 --> 00:19:27,466
To show that there's no excuse

612
00:19:27,466 --> 00:19:29,000
for it would require me to get

613
00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:31,433
into perpetrator psychology in a

614
00:19:31,433 --> 00:19:32,766
way that I don't want to do

615
00:19:32,766 --> 00:19:34,766
tonight.

616
00:19:38,500 --> 00:19:42,433
By intolerable harms what I

617
00:19:42,433 --> 00:19:46,333
mean is substantial deprivations

618
00:19:46,333 --> 00:19:47,900
of basics that are ordinarily

619
00:19:47,900 --> 00:19:49,800
necessary for a life or a

620
00:19:49,800 --> 00:19:51,733
death to be decent.

621
00:19:51,733 --> 00:19:53,133
That is, decent for the person

622
00:19:53,133 --> 00:19:54,400
whose life or death

623
00:19:54,400 --> 00:19:55,100
it is.

624
00:19:55,100 --> 00:19:56,500
Such basics, in the case of a

625
00:19:56,500 --> 00:19:59,700
life include such things as

626
00:19:59,700 --> 00:20:01,566
access to non-toxic air, water,

627
00:20:01,566 --> 00:20:03,600
and food, the ability to move

628
00:20:03,600 --> 00:20:06,033
your limbs, to sit, stand, or

629
00:20:06,033 --> 00:20:07,433
lie down, to make choices and

630
00:20:07,433 --> 00:20:09,166
act on some of them, to have

631
00:20:09,166 --> 00:20:11,000
affective bonds with others and

632
00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:13,166
interaction with some of them,

633
00:20:13,166 --> 00:20:15,066
to be free from severe and

634
00:20:15,066 --> 00:20:17,200
unremitting pain or humiliation,

635
00:20:17,200 --> 00:20:18,266
and so on.

636
00:20:18,266 --> 00:20:19,766
These are things that cut across

637
00:20:19,766 --> 00:20:21,366
cultural differences and stem

638
00:20:21,366 --> 00:20:23,433
from our common needs, not only

639
00:20:23,433 --> 00:20:26,133
as members of a species but

640
00:20:26,133 --> 00:20:27,933
as mammals.

641
00:20:27,933 --> 00:20:29,900
How much deprivation?

642
00:20:29,900 --> 00:20:31,600
Enough to make a life or death

643
00:20:31,600 --> 00:20:33,633
indecent, and so intolerable,

644
00:20:33,633 --> 00:20:35,166
for the person whose life or

645
00:20:35,166 --> 00:20:36,700
death it is.

646
00:20:36,700 --> 00:20:38,433
What makes a harm intolerable is

647
00:20:38,433 --> 00:20:39,866
not primarily a matter of

648
00:20:39,866 --> 00:20:41,600
subjective preference, even if

649
00:20:41,600 --> 00:20:43,133
subjective preference is not

650
00:20:43,133 --> 00:20:45,066
totally eliminable.

651
00:20:45,066 --> 00:20:46,966
This is a normative conception

652
00:20:46,966 --> 00:20:48,933
of the intolerable, not what

653
00:20:48,933 --> 00:20:50,533
you cannot in fact tolerate but

654
00:20:50,533 --> 00:20:51,800
more like what you shouldn't

655
00:20:51,800 --> 00:20:53,033
have to.

656
00:20:53,033 --> 00:20:54,500
Millions tolerate the

657
00:20:54,500 --> 00:20:56,866
intolerable daily.

658
00:20:56,866 --> 00:20:59,866
Next, let's consider inexcusable

659
00:20:59,866 --> 00:21:01,466
wrongs.

660
00:21:01,466 --> 00:21:02,933
Wrongs can be inexcusable in

661
00:21:02,933 --> 00:21:05,166
either of two ways, and evils

662
00:21:05,166 --> 00:21:07,166
are inexcusable in both.

663
00:21:07,166 --> 00:21:08,800
First, what I call a

664
00:21:08,800 --> 00:21:11,033
metaphysical excuse exists when

665
00:21:11,033 --> 00:21:12,433
you act under diminished

666
00:21:12,433 --> 00:21:14,633
capacity, such as physical

667
00:21:14,633 --> 00:21:17,833
disability or mental illness.

668
00:21:17,833 --> 00:21:19,366
Second, what I call a moral

669
00:21:19,366 --> 00:21:21,533
excuse exists when you have a

670
00:21:21,533 --> 00:21:23,766
partial moral justification.

671
00:21:23,766 --> 00:21:25,433
There is some excuse, morally

672
00:21:25,433 --> 00:21:27,300
speaking, when you have some

673
00:21:27,300 --> 00:21:28,600
good moral reason for what you

674
00:21:28,600 --> 00:21:30,700
did, even though that reason is

675
00:21:30,700 --> 00:21:32,900
not good enough to justify your

676
00:21:32,900 --> 00:21:35,166
deed on the whole.

677
00:21:35,166 --> 00:21:36,666
What is justified, of course,

678
00:21:36,666 --> 00:21:38,266
needs no excuse.

679
00:21:38,266 --> 00:21:39,733
There is usually some reason for

680
00:21:39,733 --> 00:21:41,033
any deed.

681
00:21:41,033 --> 00:21:42,400
But not every reason carries

682
00:21:42,400 --> 00:21:43,600
moral weight.

683
00:21:43,600 --> 00:21:45,066
When it does not, if the deed is

684
00:21:45,066 --> 00:21:46,400
wrong, there is no  moral  excuse

685
00:21:46,400 --> 00:21:47,666
for it.

686
00:21:47,666 --> 00:21:49,000
Evils, on my view, are

687
00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:50,933
inexcusable both metaphysically

688
00:21:50,933 --> 00:21:52,500
and morally.

689
00:21:52,500 --> 00:21:54,000
Perhaps it is too strong to say

690
00:21:54,000 --> 00:21:56,133
there is absolutely no moral or

691
00:21:56,133 --> 00:21:58,633
metaphysical excuse for an evil.

692
00:21:58,633 --> 00:22:00,800
It may be more plausible to say

693
00:22:00,800 --> 00:22:02,200
there is nothing approaching a

694
00:22:02,200 --> 00:22:03,933
very good moral reason, allowing

695
00:22:03,933 --> 00:22:06,333
that there may be trivial ones,

696
00:22:06,333 --> 00:22:08,166
and there is no significantly

697
00:22:08,166 --> 00:22:10,133
diminished capacity to act,

698
00:22:10,133 --> 00:22:11,666
allowing for the possibility of

699
00:22:11,666 --> 00:22:13,500
some degree of difficulty.

700
00:22:13,500 --> 00:22:15,300
Those are basically friendly

701
00:22:15,300 --> 00:22:16,800
amendments.

702
00:22:16,800 --> 00:22:18,400
Further, as I understand a moral

703
00:22:18,400 --> 00:22:20,100
reason, a reason that carries

704
00:22:20,100 --> 00:22:21,633
some moral weight for some deeds

705
00:22:21,633 --> 00:22:23,566
may carry none at all for

706
00:22:23,566 --> 00:22:25,933
other deed.

707
00:22:25,933 --> 00:22:27,300
For example, the fact that

708
00:22:27,300 --> 00:22:28,600
someone's feelings would be hurt

709
00:22:28,600 --> 00:22:29,866
if you did or didn't do

710
00:22:29,866 --> 00:22:31,633
something carries some moral

711
00:22:31,633 --> 00:22:33,900
weight as a reason to not always

712
00:22:33,900 --> 00:22:36,233
speak frankly, but carries no

713
00:22:36,233 --> 00:22:38,500
moral weight at all as a reason

714
00:22:38,500 --> 00:22:40,900
to kill someone.

715
00:22:40,900 --> 00:22:43,833
The etymology of "genocide"

716
00:22:43,833 --> 00:22:45,433
leaves open the question whether

717
00:22:45,433 --> 00:22:48,133
it is necessarily an evil.

718
00:22:48,133 --> 00:22:50,000
The word "genocide," as I

719
00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:51,533
mentioned, is of relatively

720
00:22:51,533 --> 00:22:52,700
recent origin.

721
00:22:52,700 --> 00:22:54,200
It was not a crime charged at

722
00:22:54,200 --> 00:22:56,733
Nuremberg in 1945.

723
00:22:56,733 --> 00:22:58,233
But scholars tend to agree that

724
00:22:58,233 --> 00:22:59,833
the practice is ancient,

725
00:22:59,833 --> 00:23:01,500
extending at least back to the

726
00:23:01,500 --> 00:23:03,933
5th century destruction of the

727
00:23:03,933 --> 00:23:06,166
people of the island of Melos by

728
00:23:06,166 --> 00:23:07,833
the Athenians.

729
00:23:07,833 --> 00:23:09,533
Archeological evidence suggests

730
00:23:09,533 --> 00:23:11,466
that it goes probably further

731
00:23:11,466 --> 00:23:13,900
back than recorded history.

732
00:23:13,900 --> 00:23:15,066
By the way, although the

733
00:23:15,066 --> 00:23:15,966
destruction of the people of the

734
00:23:15,966 --> 00:23:17,700
island of Melos is generally

735
00:23:17,700 --> 00:23:20,266
regarded as a genocide, the

736
00:23:20,266 --> 00:23:22,433
Athenians did not kill everyone.

737
00:23:22,433 --> 00:23:23,666
They killed the men, and

738
00:23:23,666 --> 00:23:25,966
enslaved women and children

739
00:23:25,966 --> 00:23:27,500
which was a common practice at

740
00:23:27,500 --> 00:23:28,900
the time.

741
00:23:28,900 --> 00:23:30,166
The result was that the people

742
00:23:30,166 --> 00:23:31,766
of the island was destroyed as a

743
00:23:31,766 --> 00:23:33,733
people.

744
00:23:33,733 --> 00:23:35,533
The hybrid term "genocide"

745
00:23:35,533 --> 00:23:37,933
was coined by Raphael Lemkin

746
00:23:37,933 --> 00:23:39,833
who was a Polish Jewish attorney

747
00:23:39,833 --> 00:23:41,266
who came to the United States

748
00:23:41,266 --> 00:23:43,100
as a refugee from Hitler.

749
00:23:43,100 --> 00:23:45,333
He combined the Greek "genos"

750
00:23:45,333 --> 00:23:47,733
which meant tribe or race,

751
00:23:47,733 --> 00:23:50,233
with the Latin "cide," killing,

752
00:23:50,233 --> 00:23:52,233
to form the hybrid "genocide,"

753
00:23:52,233 --> 00:23:53,400
the "killing, or cutting down,

754
00:23:53,400 --> 00:23:54,666
of a people."

755
00:23:54,666 --> 00:23:55,833
Genocide is one of those

756
00:23:55,833 --> 00:23:58,466
Greek/Latin hybrid concepts,

757
00:23:58,466 --> 00:24:00,333
like homosexual, where "homo"

758
00:24:00,333 --> 00:24:02,266
means "same," as in Greek, not

759
00:24:02,266 --> 00:24:04,133
"man," as in Latin;

760
00:24:04,133 --> 00:24:05,800
anthropocentric, human centered,

761
00:24:05,800 --> 00:24:07,433
is another.

762
00:24:07,433 --> 00:24:09,066
The Latin "cide" is from a verb

763
00:24:09,066 --> 00:24:10,466
that meant "to cut down."

764
00:24:10,466 --> 00:24:11,766
It could be applied cutting

765
00:24:11,766 --> 00:24:13,933
down trees but was also used to

766
00:24:13,933 --> 00:24:15,133
mean "to kill."

767
00:24:15,133 --> 00:24:17,500
I have to thank to my colleagues

768
00:24:17,500 --> 00:24:19,266
who read Latin for this bit of

769
00:24:19,266 --> 00:24:20,866
information, Steve Nadler and

770
00:24:20,866 --> 00:24:22,566
Paula Gottlieb.

771
00:24:22,566 --> 00:24:23,866
And so, etymology seems to leave

772
00:24:23,866 --> 00:24:25,166
open the question of

773
00:24:25,166 --> 00:24:26,900
justifiability, which means that

774
00:24:26,900 --> 00:24:29,233
more needs to be said to justify

775
00:24:29,233 --> 00:24:31,466
understanding genocide as not

776
00:24:31,466 --> 00:24:33,166
just a kind of destruction but

777
00:24:33,166 --> 00:24:34,833
as a kind of murder.

778
00:24:34,833 --> 00:24:36,333
Knowing something of the history

779
00:24:36,333 --> 00:24:37,866
of Lemkin's coinage of this

780
00:24:37,866 --> 00:24:39,733
concept is helpful.

781
00:24:39,733 --> 00:24:41,333
Lemkin began agitating for an

782
00:24:41,333 --> 00:24:43,833
international recognition of the

783
00:24:43,833 --> 00:24:46,833
crime of genocide in the 1930s.

784
00:24:46,833 --> 00:24:48,200
His paradigm was the Turks'

785
00:24:48,200 --> 00:24:49,566
slaughter of the Armenian

786
00:24:49,566 --> 00:24:52,200
Christians in 1915, under cover

787
00:24:52,200 --> 00:24:55,866
of WWI and led by Talat Pasha,

788
00:24:55,866 --> 00:24:57,566
one of the leaders of the

789
00:24:57,566 --> 00:24:59,633
Committee of Union and Progress

790
00:24:59,633 --> 00:25:00,900
that controlled the Ottoman

791
00:25:00,900 --> 00:25:02,233
Empire during the First

792
00:25:02,233 --> 00:25:04,233
World War.

793
00:25:04,233 --> 00:25:05,800
The slaughter of the Armenians

794
00:25:05,800 --> 00:25:08,533
was also a paradigm for Hitler,

795
00:25:08,533 --> 00:25:09,900
who asked, "Who today speaks of

796
00:25:09,900 --> 00:25:11,900
the Armenians?"

797
00:25:11,900 --> 00:25:13,466
To this day, Turkey denies

798
00:25:13,466 --> 00:25:14,733
that the slaughter of the

799
00:25:14,733 --> 00:25:16,633
Armenians was a genocide, and

800
00:25:16,633 --> 00:25:18,066
the United States officially

801
00:25:18,066 --> 00:25:20,100
agrees, presumably to maintain

802
00:25:20,100 --> 00:25:22,633
good relations with Turkey.

803
00:25:22,633 --> 00:25:23,800
But there appears to be

804
00:25:23,800 --> 00:25:25,100
consensus among genocide

805
00:25:25,100 --> 00:25:27,800
scholars that it was.

806
00:25:27,800 --> 00:25:29,733
Lemkin's issue was this: Piracy

807
00:25:29,733 --> 00:25:31,700
was a crime under international

808
00:25:31,700 --> 00:25:33,933
law, but there was no crime for

809
00:25:33,933 --> 00:25:35,433
which Talat Pasha could be

810
00:25:35,433 --> 00:25:37,533
prosecuted under international

811
00:25:37,533 --> 00:25:40,200
law for master-minding the

812
00:25:40,200 --> 00:25:42,200
slaughter of the Armenians.

813
00:25:42,200 --> 00:25:44,533
This struck Lemkin as absurd;

814
00:25:44,533 --> 00:25:45,866
surely, the extermination of a

815
00:25:45,866 --> 00:25:47,333
people is worse than an act of

816
00:25:47,333 --> 00:25:49,566
piracy.

817
00:25:49,566 --> 00:25:51,000
Eventually, Talat Pasha was

818
00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:52,700
assassinated by a young Armenian

819
00:25:52,700 --> 00:25:55,733
survivor, Soghomon Tehlirian who

820
00:25:55,733 --> 00:25:57,500
was then tried and acquitted on

821
00:25:57,500 --> 00:25:59,800
grounds that we would call today

822
00:25:59,800 --> 00:26:02,500
"temporary insanity."

823
00:26:02,500 --> 00:26:04,466
Again, Lemkin was outraged.

824
00:26:04,466 --> 00:26:08,766
This time he was outraged that

825
00:26:08,766 --> 00:26:11,000
it could be a prosecutable crime

826
00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:12,700
for Tehlirian to assassinate

827
00:26:12,700 --> 00:26:14,766
Talat Pasha but not a crime for

828
00:26:14,766 --> 00:26:16,100
Talat Pasha to have the

829
00:26:16,100 --> 00:26:18,300
Armenians slaughtered, and that

830
00:26:18,300 --> 00:26:20,300
the only way to hold Talat Pasha

831
00:26:20,300 --> 00:26:23,000
accountable was assassination,

832
00:26:23,000 --> 00:26:24,733
rather than due process of law.

833
00:26:24,733 --> 00:26:27,633
And so Lemkin agitated for years

834
00:26:27,633 --> 00:26:29,100
for an international convention

835
00:26:29,100 --> 00:26:31,400
to define the crime of genocide.

836
00:26:31,400 --> 00:26:33,400
It took place in 1948.

837
00:26:38,133 --> 00:26:39,400
The 1948 Genocide Convention

838
00:26:39,400 --> 00:26:41,166
was accepted by the U.N. the

839
00:26:41,166 --> 00:26:42,933
same month as the International

840
00:26:42,933 --> 00:26:45,233
Declaration of Human Rights.

841
00:26:45,233 --> 00:26:47,000
Its definition is the most

842
00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:49,166
widely cited.

843
00:26:49,166 --> 00:26:51,933
"Genocide means any of the

844
00:26:51,933 --> 00:26:54,000
following acts committed with

845
00:26:54,000 --> 00:26:56,366
the intent to destroy, in whole

846
00:26:56,366 --> 00:26:59,200
or in part, a nation, ethnical,

847
00:26:59,200 --> 00:27:01,133
racial, or religious group, as

848
00:27:01,133 --> 00:27:02,533
such--

849
00:27:02,533 --> 00:27:06,733
And here are the following acts;

850
00:27:06,733 --> 00:27:09,066
killing members of the group,

851
00:27:09,066 --> 00:27:10,833
causing serious bodily or mental

852
00:27:10,833 --> 00:27:12,700
harm to members of the group,

853
00:27:12,700 --> 00:27:14,100
deliberately inflicting on the

854
00:27:14,100 --> 00:27:15,866
group conditions of life

855
00:27:15,866 --> 00:27:17,300
calculated to bring about its

856
00:27:17,300 --> 00:27:19,033
physical destruction in whole or

857
00:27:19,033 --> 00:27:21,666
in part, imposing measures

858
00:27:21,666 --> 00:27:23,466
intended to prevent births

859
00:27:23,466 --> 00:27:25,033
within the group, and forcibly

860
00:27:25,033 --> 00:27:26,433
transferring children of the

861
00:27:26,433 --> 00:27:28,633
group to another group."

862
00:27:28,633 --> 00:27:30,666
Not until the 1990s was this

863
00:27:30,666 --> 00:27:33,400
Convention actually enforced.

864
00:27:33,400 --> 00:27:34,700
The United States did not ratify

865
00:27:34,700 --> 00:27:37,300
it until the late 1980s under

866
00:27:37,300 --> 00:27:38,966
President Reagan.

867
00:27:38,966 --> 00:27:40,366
Wisconsin Senator William

868
00:27:40,366 --> 00:27:42,433
Proxmire had made a speech to

869
00:27:42,433 --> 00:27:44,200
the Senate every day for 19

870
00:27:44,200 --> 00:27:48,300
years urging its ratification.

871
00:27:48,300 --> 00:27:49,500
Every clause of the U.N.

872
00:27:49,500 --> 00:27:50,966
definition has been

873
00:27:50,966 --> 00:27:53,233
controversial: the scope and

874
00:27:53,233 --> 00:27:55,233
content of "intent," the meaning

875
00:27:55,233 --> 00:27:58,333
of "in whole or in part," and

876
00:27:58,333 --> 00:27:59,533
the scope of the whole

877
00:27:59,533 --> 00:28:01,700
definition: is it too narrow

878
00:28:01,700 --> 00:28:03,233
because it names only four kinds

879
00:28:03,233 --> 00:28:05,366
of groups and only five kinds of

880
00:28:05,366 --> 00:28:06,900
activity?

881
00:28:06,900 --> 00:28:08,033
Does it threaten to be too

882
00:28:08,033 --> 00:28:09,233
broad, because of the

883
00:28:09,233 --> 00:28:11,333
non-homicidal acts it includes

884
00:28:11,333 --> 00:28:13,133
as apparently sufficient when

885
00:28:13,133 --> 00:28:14,233
coupled with the right sort of

886
00:28:14,233 --> 00:28:15,933
intent?

887
00:28:15,933 --> 00:28:17,733
Let's start with intent.

888
00:28:17,733 --> 00:28:19,933
If intent is understood narrowly

889
00:28:19,933 --> 00:28:22,066
to mean aim, then the

890
00:28:22,066 --> 00:28:23,733
destruction of a people as a

891
00:28:23,733 --> 00:28:25,166
reasonably foreseeable

892
00:28:25,166 --> 00:28:27,000
consequence that was neither an

893
00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:29,433
aim nor a means to an aim would

894
00:28:29,433 --> 00:28:32,200
not count, on this definition,

895
00:28:32,200 --> 00:28:33,633
as genocide.

896
00:28:33,633 --> 00:28:35,200
It would be merely

897
00:28:35,200 --> 00:28:36,900
"collateral damage".

898
00:28:36,900 --> 00:28:38,466
And so, for example, the deaths

899
00:28:38,466 --> 00:28:40,366
of millions of Native Americans

900
00:28:40,366 --> 00:28:41,833
from diseases brought over by

901
00:28:41,833 --> 00:28:43,700
Europeans would not count as

902
00:28:43,700 --> 00:28:45,600
genocides except where those

903
00:28:45,600 --> 00:28:47,633
deaths were aimed at.

904
00:28:47,633 --> 00:28:49,800
Using this narrow understanding

905
00:28:49,800 --> 00:28:52,500
of "intent," Hugo Adam Bedau

906
00:28:52,500 --> 00:28:53,833
who is known for his campaign

907
00:28:53,833 --> 00:28:55,833
against the death penalty wrote

908
00:28:55,833 --> 00:28:57,100
an essay defending the United

909
00:28:57,100 --> 00:28:58,900
States in Vietnam against the

910
00:28:58,900 --> 00:29:01,433
charge of genocide raised by the

911
00:29:01,433 --> 00:29:03,500
Jean-Paul Sartre/Bertrand

912
00:29:03,500 --> 00:29:05,333
Russell genocide convention that

913
00:29:05,333 --> 00:29:06,500
was held-- I'll bet you didn't

914
00:29:06,500 --> 00:29:07,966
know about that.

915
00:29:07,966 --> 00:29:09,366
That was held in 1967 in

916
00:29:09,366 --> 00:29:12,033
Stockholm and Copenhagen.

917
00:29:12,033 --> 00:29:14,066
But if we understand more

918
00:29:14,066 --> 00:29:16,600
broadly as part of one's intent

919
00:29:16,600 --> 00:29:18,100
the reasonably foreseeable

920
00:29:18,100 --> 00:29:19,666
consequences that one is

921
00:29:19,666 --> 00:29:21,133
prepared to accept as the price

922
00:29:21,133 --> 00:29:23,500
of attaining one's aim, even

923
00:29:23,500 --> 00:29:25,000
though they are not instrumental

924
00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:27,066
toward its attainment, then

925
00:29:27,066 --> 00:29:28,733
maybe the case of at least some

926
00:29:28,733 --> 00:29:30,566
of the Native American nations

927
00:29:30,566 --> 00:29:32,266
that died from European diseases

928
00:29:32,266 --> 00:29:34,033
is not so clear.

929
00:29:34,033 --> 00:29:35,600
On this broader understanding of

930
00:29:35,600 --> 00:29:38,100
intent, it has been argued that

931
00:29:38,100 --> 00:29:40,866
Josef Stalin's economic policies

932
00:29:40,866 --> 00:29:42,633
that resulted in the starvation

933
00:29:42,633 --> 00:29:43,966
of millions of Ukrainian

934
00:29:43,966 --> 00:29:47,400
peasants in 1932-33 were

935
00:29:47,400 --> 00:29:49,100
genocidal, because those

936
00:29:49,100 --> 00:29:50,600
consequences were utterly

937
00:29:50,600 --> 00:29:52,266
foreseeable by those who were

938
00:29:52,266 --> 00:29:53,700
responsible.

939
00:29:53,700 --> 00:29:55,400
It was not a means but a price

940
00:29:55,400 --> 00:29:57,500
that Stalin was willing to pay

941
00:29:57,500 --> 00:29:59,600
to achieve his aims.

942
00:29:59,600 --> 00:30:01,333
I'll save, for the moment, the

943
00:30:01,333 --> 00:30:02,933
questions regarding "in whole or

944
00:30:02,933 --> 00:30:04,466
in part," because addressing

945
00:30:04,466 --> 00:30:06,100
those questions will lead me to

946
00:30:06,100 --> 00:30:07,700
Lemkin's alternative definition

947
00:30:07,700 --> 00:30:10,366
of genocide.

948
00:30:10,366 --> 00:30:12,433
Regarding the scope of the U.N.

949
00:30:12,433 --> 00:30:13,866
definition, the question of

950
00:30:13,866 --> 00:30:15,500
narrowness has been raised both

951
00:30:15,500 --> 00:30:17,000
in regard to the acts and in

952
00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:19,600
regard to the groups enumerated.

953
00:30:19,600 --> 00:30:21,400
In regard to acts, some have

954
00:30:21,400 --> 00:30:23,500
asked why only these and not

955
00:30:23,500 --> 00:30:26,533
others, such as forcible

956
00:30:26,533 --> 00:30:28,600
expulsion or rape aimed at

957
00:30:28,600 --> 00:30:31,166
enforced pregnancy?

958
00:30:31,166 --> 00:30:32,433
But the U.N. definition, as

959
00:30:32,433 --> 00:30:34,500
stated, does not preclude a

960
00:30:34,500 --> 00:30:35,733
continuation of the list of

961
00:30:35,733 --> 00:30:36,733
acts.

962
00:30:36,733 --> 00:30:37,733
It doesn't say these are the

963
00:30:37,733 --> 00:30:39,000
only ones.

964
00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:40,600
Since the 1990s wars in the

965
00:30:40,600 --> 00:30:42,466
former Yugoslavia, it has come

966
00:30:42,466 --> 00:30:44,200
to be widely understood that

967
00:30:44,200 --> 00:30:46,633
mass rape can be among acts

968
00:30:46,633 --> 00:30:48,766
constitutive of genocide.

969
00:30:48,766 --> 00:30:50,300
That war also raises the

970
00:30:50,300 --> 00:30:52,200
question of mass expulsion,

971
00:30:52,200 --> 00:30:53,433
which should get us to think

972
00:30:53,433 --> 00:30:54,900
about whether Spain's expulsions

973
00:30:54,900 --> 00:30:57,000
of the Jews in the late 15th

974
00:30:57,000 --> 00:30:58,733
century and of the Moriscos in

975
00:30:58,733 --> 00:31:01,033
the 17th century were instances

976
00:31:01,033 --> 00:31:03,100
of genocide.

977
00:31:03,100 --> 00:31:05,266
Depending on how it is done,

978
00:31:05,266 --> 00:31:06,800
mass expulsion has the potential

979
00:31:06,800 --> 00:31:09,033
to become genocidal.

980
00:31:09,033 --> 00:31:10,400
Expulsion of the Armenian

981
00:31:10,400 --> 00:31:12,000
Christians could be argued to be

982
00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:14,066
genocidal not only because of

983
00:31:14,066 --> 00:31:16,133
the shootings but because of the

984
00:31:16,133 --> 00:31:17,766
well-known harsh environmental

985
00:31:17,766 --> 00:31:19,500
conditions under which the

986
00:31:19,500 --> 00:31:22,900
Armenians were forced to flee.

987
00:31:22,900 --> 00:31:24,966
In regard to groups named, many

988
00:31:24,966 --> 00:31:26,400
have asked, why limit possible

989
00:31:26,400 --> 00:31:28,833
targets of genocide to

990
00:31:28,833 --> 00:31:31,400
"national, ethnical, racial, or

991
00:31:31,400 --> 00:31:32,933
religious" groups?

992
00:31:32,933 --> 00:31:34,000
Why not include political

993
00:31:34,000 --> 00:31:35,666
groups?

994
00:31:35,666 --> 00:31:36,966
And what about targeting the

995
00:31:36,966 --> 00:31:38,000
disabled?

996
00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:39,033
What about gays?

997
00:31:39,033 --> 00:31:39,866
females?

998
00:31:39,866 --> 00:31:40,933
evil groups?

999
00:31:40,933 --> 00:31:42,233
Whether to include political

1000
00:31:42,233 --> 00:31:43,500
groups was controversial during

1001
00:31:43,500 --> 00:31:45,233
the convention.

1002
00:31:45,233 --> 00:31:46,666
Political commitments are as

1003
00:31:46,666 --> 00:31:48,066
important and definitive for

1004
00:31:48,066 --> 00:31:49,500
some people as religious

1005
00:31:49,500 --> 00:31:51,900
commitments are for others.

1006
00:31:51,900 --> 00:31:53,333
Political communities as well as

1007
00:31:53,333 --> 00:31:54,800
religious communities give

1008
00:31:54,800 --> 00:31:56,000
meaning and shape to the lives

1009
00:31:56,000 --> 00:31:57,466
of their members.

1010
00:31:57,466 --> 00:31:58,900
Some have argued that the

1011
00:31:58,900 --> 00:32:00,366
definition should include only

1012
00:32:00,366 --> 00:32:02,466
groups into which you are born,

1013
00:32:02,466 --> 00:32:04,500
about which you have no choice.

1014
00:32:04,500 --> 00:32:06,266
But that is not necessarily true

1015
00:32:06,266 --> 00:32:08,233
of religious groups and national

1016
00:32:08,233 --> 00:32:09,966
groups.

1017
00:32:09,966 --> 00:32:11,166
Some prefer the term

1018
00:32:11,166 --> 00:32:13,366
"politicide" for elimination of

1019
00:32:13,366 --> 00:32:16,966
political groups, even if the

1020
00:32:16,966 --> 00:32:18,566
elimination is massively

1021
00:32:18,566 --> 00:32:20,266
homicidal, and "ethnicide" for

1022
00:32:20,266 --> 00:32:21,633
cultural genocides that are not

1023
00:32:21,633 --> 00:32:23,633
massively homicidal.

1024
00:32:23,633 --> 00:32:26,033
A commonly cited example of

1025
00:32:26,033 --> 00:32:27,800
"politicide" is Josef Stalin's

1026
00:32:27,800 --> 00:32:30,766
purges of his perceived

1027
00:32:30,766 --> 00:32:32,566
political opponents.

1028
00:32:32,566 --> 00:32:34,033
A commonly cited example of

1029
00:32:34,033 --> 00:32:35,600
cultural genocide is the

1030
00:32:35,600 --> 00:32:37,333
transportation and reeducation

1031
00:32:37,333 --> 00:32:38,966
of children, as was done to

1032
00:32:38,966 --> 00:32:40,333
Native American children in this

1033
00:32:40,333 --> 00:32:42,266
country, and to mixed race

1034
00:32:42,266 --> 00:32:44,333
children in Australia.

1035
00:32:44,333 --> 00:32:45,800
The apparent objective in each

1036
00:32:45,800 --> 00:32:47,766
case was assimilation into a

1037
00:32:47,766 --> 00:32:49,400
cultural group other than their

1038
00:32:49,400 --> 00:32:51,500
culture of origin, and the

1039
00:32:51,500 --> 00:32:53,566
policies included such measures

1040
00:32:53,566 --> 00:32:54,933
as forbidding the children to

1041
00:32:54,933 --> 00:32:56,733
use their native language or

1042
00:32:56,733 --> 00:32:58,333
communicate with their families

1043
00:32:58,333 --> 00:33:00,133
of origin.

1044
00:33:00,133 --> 00:33:01,366
Those who favored including

1045
00:33:01,366 --> 00:33:03,133
"politicides" in the definition

1046
00:33:03,133 --> 00:33:04,866
lost at the 1948 convention

1047
00:33:04,866 --> 00:33:06,733
whereas those who favored

1048
00:33:06,733 --> 00:33:08,800
including forced cultural

1049
00:33:08,800 --> 00:33:11,666
assimilations won their point.

1050
00:33:11,666 --> 00:33:13,133
That inclusion means that, on

1051
00:33:13,133 --> 00:33:14,933
this definition, a genocide need

1052
00:33:14,933 --> 00:33:16,933
not be massively homicidal.

1053
00:33:20,933 --> 00:33:22,366
A philosophically interesting

1054
00:33:22,366 --> 00:33:23,666
question that the convention

1055
00:33:23,666 --> 00:33:25,733
apparently did not consider is

1056
00:33:25,733 --> 00:33:28,333
the Murder, Inc. problem.

1057
00:33:28,333 --> 00:33:30,800
What about evil groups?

1058
00:33:30,800 --> 00:33:32,233
If a group is so evil that its

1059
00:33:32,233 --> 00:33:33,433
destruction appears to be

1060
00:33:33,433 --> 00:33:35,100
justified, why should that

1061
00:33:35,100 --> 00:33:36,633
destruction not count as a

1062
00:33:36,633 --> 00:33:38,133
genocide?

1063
00:33:38,133 --> 00:33:39,400
When the Southern Poverty Law

1064
00:33:39,400 --> 00:33:40,933
Center destroys white

1065
00:33:40,933 --> 00:33:42,300
supremacist groups by

1066
00:33:42,300 --> 00:33:44,666
bankrupting them, why is it not

1067
00:33:44,666 --> 00:33:46,300
committing genocide?

1068
00:33:46,300 --> 00:33:48,133
Why was de-Nazification not a

1069
00:33:48,133 --> 00:33:50,333
genocidal process?

1070
00:33:50,333 --> 00:33:51,900
Dismantling of those groups

1071
00:33:51,900 --> 00:33:54,166
might sound like condition "c"

1072
00:33:54,166 --> 00:33:55,633
of the U.N. definition:

1073
00:33:55,633 --> 00:33:57,233
deliberately imposing conditions

1074
00:33:57,233 --> 00:33:59,133
of life calculated to bring

1075
00:33:59,133 --> 00:34:02,933
about the group's destruction.

1076
00:34:02,933 --> 00:34:05,500
A first response is that these

1077
00:34:05,500 --> 00:34:07,166
ways of destroying evil

1078
00:34:07,166 --> 00:34:08,900
organizations still respected

1079
00:34:08,900 --> 00:34:10,533
the human rights of the members

1080
00:34:10,533 --> 00:34:12,200
of those organizations.

1081
00:34:12,200 --> 00:34:13,600
Genocides do not.

1082
00:34:13,600 --> 00:34:15,500
And that is true.

1083
00:34:15,500 --> 00:34:17,700
A second response might be that,

1084
00:34:17,700 --> 00:34:19,266
aside from the truth or falsity

1085
00:34:19,266 --> 00:34:21,000
of things attributed to members

1086
00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:23,366
of a people, a people cannot be

1087
00:34:23,366 --> 00:34:26,066
evil because a people is not

1088
00:34:26,066 --> 00:34:27,500
the kind of group that can act

1089
00:34:27,500 --> 00:34:29,600
and so cannot be guilty of

1090
00:34:29,600 --> 00:34:31,766
inexcusable wrongs.

1091
00:34:31,766 --> 00:34:33,733
I think that is also true.

1092
00:34:33,733 --> 00:34:35,166
And yet, some targets of

1093
00:34:35,166 --> 00:34:36,633
genocide have been groups that

1094
00:34:36,633 --> 00:34:38,766
can act: the ancient city of

1095
00:34:38,766 --> 00:34:41,100
Carthage, for example, and the

1096
00:34:41,100 --> 00:34:42,500
inhabitants of the island of

1097
00:34:42,500 --> 00:34:44,700
Melos who refused to pay tribute

1098
00:34:44,700 --> 00:34:47,266
to the Athenians.

1099
00:34:47,266 --> 00:34:48,800
Here is another way to think

1100
00:34:48,800 --> 00:34:50,000
about what distinguishes the

1101
00:34:50,000 --> 00:34:51,600
destruction of evil groups from

1102
00:34:51,600 --> 00:34:53,233
genocides.

1103
00:34:53,233 --> 00:34:54,633
It is not just that these groups

1104
00:34:54,633 --> 00:34:55,933
are too small or too thin to

1105
00:34:55,933 --> 00:34:57,366
constitute a people, although

1106
00:34:57,366 --> 00:34:58,866
they are.

1107
00:34:58,866 --> 00:35:00,600
Some peoples are larger and

1108
00:35:00,600 --> 00:35:02,533
richer, more layered, than

1109
00:35:02,533 --> 00:35:03,933
others.

1110
00:35:03,933 --> 00:35:05,333
Sometimes the "tribe" targeted

1111
00:35:05,333 --> 00:35:06,966
by a genocide is better thought

1112
00:35:06,966 --> 00:35:09,133
of simply as a community that

1113
00:35:09,133 --> 00:35:10,900
significantly gives meaning and

1114
00:35:10,900 --> 00:35:13,333
identity to its members.

1115
00:35:13,333 --> 00:35:14,666
We might get an interesting

1116
00:35:14,666 --> 00:35:16,666
answer it we can explain the

1117
00:35:16,666 --> 00:35:18,300
following disanalogy between

1118
00:35:18,300 --> 00:35:20,566
killing an evil person and

1119
00:35:20,566 --> 00:35:23,166
destroying an evil group.

1120
00:35:23,166 --> 00:35:24,866
Killing an evil person is still

1121
00:35:24,866 --> 00:35:27,000
murder, unless it is done in

1122
00:35:27,000 --> 00:35:28,700
self-defense, understood fairly

1123
00:35:28,700 --> 00:35:30,166
narrowly.

1124
00:35:30,166 --> 00:35:32,033
The fact that you are evil is

1125
00:35:32,033 --> 00:35:33,500
not sufficient to justify

1126
00:35:33,500 --> 00:35:35,533
someone in killing you.

1127
00:35:35,533 --> 00:35:37,133
But it can be justifiable to

1128
00:35:37,133 --> 00:35:38,900
destroy an evil group, as the

1129
00:35:38,900 --> 00:35:40,900
Southern Poverty Law Center does

1130
00:35:40,900 --> 00:35:42,333
when it bankrupts white

1131
00:35:42,333 --> 00:35:43,666
supremacist groups with

1132
00:35:43,666 --> 00:35:45,466
lawsuits.

1133
00:35:45,466 --> 00:35:47,300
Why is killing an evil group not

1134
00:35:47,300 --> 00:35:49,233
murder, if killing an evil

1135
00:35:49,233 --> 00:35:51,433
individual is?

1136
00:35:51,433 --> 00:35:53,633
A possible rationale is that the

1137
00:35:53,633 --> 00:35:55,166
principles or projects that a

1138
00:35:55,166 --> 00:35:56,566
person endorses at a particular

1139
00:35:56,566 --> 00:35:58,900
time do not define or determine

1140
00:35:58,900 --> 00:36:01,333
the value of the person.

1141
00:36:01,333 --> 00:36:02,466
The person is someone who has

1142
00:36:02,466 --> 00:36:04,433
the capacity to evaluate such

1143
00:36:04,433 --> 00:36:07,933
things, to adopt or reject them,

1144
00:36:07,933 --> 00:36:09,300
to discover errors, correct

1145
00:36:09,300 --> 00:36:11,100
mistaken judgments and identify

1146
00:36:11,100 --> 00:36:12,766
other mistakes.

1147
00:36:12,766 --> 00:36:14,433
Persons have the capacity to

1148
00:36:14,433 --> 00:36:16,166
correct or improve themselves,

1149
00:36:16,166 --> 00:36:18,200
even when they don't do it.

1150
00:36:18,200 --> 00:36:19,400
With a different set of

1151
00:36:19,400 --> 00:36:21,100
principles and projects, you are

1152
00:36:21,100 --> 00:36:22,566
still the same person, morally

1153
00:36:22,566 --> 00:36:24,433
speaking, who did what you did

1154
00:36:24,433 --> 00:36:25,933
when you espoused a different

1155
00:36:25,933 --> 00:36:28,500
set of principles and projects.

1156
00:36:28,500 --> 00:36:30,533
You may feel like a new person.

1157
00:36:30,533 --> 00:36:31,733
But you are responsible for all

1158
00:36:31,733 --> 00:36:33,900
of it.

1159
00:36:33,900 --> 00:36:35,966
But, for some human groups, for

1160
00:36:35,966 --> 00:36:38,233
example, some evil organizations

1161
00:36:38,233 --> 00:36:39,800
principles and projects really

1162
00:36:39,800 --> 00:36:42,633
do define the organization.

1163
00:36:42,633 --> 00:36:43,900
There is no way to reject those

1164
00:36:43,900 --> 00:36:45,033
defining principles while

1165
00:36:45,033 --> 00:36:47,333
preserving the organization.

1166
00:36:47,333 --> 00:36:48,800
Other human groups, such as

1167
00:36:48,800 --> 00:36:50,300
states that have a constitution

1168
00:36:50,300 --> 00:36:52,233
and organized religions that

1169
00:36:52,233 --> 00:36:54,333
have processes for re-evaluating

1170
00:36:54,333 --> 00:36:56,266
and re-interpreting their

1171
00:36:56,266 --> 00:36:58,766
positions or policies, are, like

1172
00:36:58,766 --> 00:37:00,733
individuals, capable of

1173
00:37:00,733 --> 00:37:02,766
self-correction.

1174
00:37:02,766 --> 00:37:04,833
A people has within itself

1175
00:37:04,833 --> 00:37:06,733
resources for evaluating

1176
00:37:06,733 --> 00:37:08,133
positions taken by some of its

1177
00:37:08,133 --> 00:37:09,466
members, and the value of a

1178
00:37:09,466 --> 00:37:11,333
people, somewhat like the value

1179
00:37:11,333 --> 00:37:13,033
of a person, is not a function

1180
00:37:13,033 --> 00:37:14,900
of particular projects that

1181
00:37:14,900 --> 00:37:17,133
might be found within it.

1182
00:37:17,133 --> 00:37:18,800
But organizations like Murder,

1183
00:37:18,800 --> 00:37:20,733
Inc. have as their

1184
00:37:20,733 --> 00:37:22,400
raisons d'etre the perpetration

1185
00:37:22,400 --> 00:37:24,233
of such deeds as murder for

1186
00:37:24,233 --> 00:37:26,633
hire and extortion.

1187
00:37:26,633 --> 00:37:28,066
There was no way to eliminate

1188
00:37:28,066 --> 00:37:29,366
those policies without the

1189
00:37:29,366 --> 00:37:30,966
organization's ceasing to have

1190
00:37:30,966 --> 00:37:32,933
its reason for existing.

1191
00:37:32,933 --> 00:37:34,100
There is no meaningful

1192
00:37:34,100 --> 00:37:35,833
distinction to be drawn here

1193
00:37:35,833 --> 00:37:37,166
between the principles and

1194
00:37:37,166 --> 00:37:38,900
projects that define the

1195
00:37:38,900 --> 00:37:40,333
organization and the

1196
00:37:40,333 --> 00:37:41,900
organization itself.

1197
00:37:41,900 --> 00:37:43,500
The German state under Third

1198
00:37:43,500 --> 00:37:45,900
Reich had too little capability

1199
00:37:45,900 --> 00:37:47,500
of self-correction.

1200
00:37:47,500 --> 00:37:49,233
People within Germany tried to

1201
00:37:49,233 --> 00:37:51,000
get rid of Hitler.

1202
00:37:51,000 --> 00:37:52,500
There were at least 13 failed

1203
00:37:52,500 --> 00:37:53,900
attempts, according to one

1204
00:37:53,900 --> 00:37:56,766
documentary on this topic.

1205
00:37:56,766 --> 00:37:58,300
But there was no effective

1206
00:37:58,300 --> 00:37:59,733
internal mechanism, such as

1207
00:37:59,733 --> 00:38:03,066
impeachment, for doing so.

1208
00:38:03,066 --> 00:38:04,466
What is destroyed when such a

1209
00:38:04,466 --> 00:38:05,766
group is destroyed are,

1210
00:38:05,766 --> 00:38:07,466
basically, the inhumane projects

1211
00:38:07,466 --> 00:38:09,266
to which it is committed.

1212
00:38:09,266 --> 00:38:11,233
Likewise with Murder, Inc.

1213
00:38:11,233 --> 00:38:12,233
and, I suspect, with the Ku Klux

1214
00:38:12,233 --> 00:38:13,933
Klan.

1215
00:38:13,933 --> 00:38:16,100
If there is any plausibility in

1216
00:38:16,100 --> 00:38:18,166
this kind of explanation, then

1217
00:38:18,166 --> 00:38:19,666
to be a potential target of

1218
00:38:19,666 --> 00:38:21,233
genocide, it would not be enough

1219
00:38:21,233 --> 00:38:23,366
that the relationships defining

1220
00:38:23,366 --> 00:38:25,166
the group in question gave

1221
00:38:25,166 --> 00:38:26,600
meaning, shape, and content to

1222
00:38:26,600 --> 00:38:28,366
the lives of their members.

1223
00:38:28,366 --> 00:38:30,566
They must give a decent sort of

1224
00:38:30,566 --> 00:38:32,866
meaning, shape, and content.

1225
00:38:32,866 --> 00:38:34,533
The group must, at any rate, not

1226
00:38:34,533 --> 00:38:37,233
have as its raison d'etre an

1227
00:38:37,233 --> 00:38:39,100
evil project or set of evil

1228
00:38:39,100 --> 00:38:40,766
projects.

1229
00:38:40,766 --> 00:38:42,433
A people is a kind of group that

1230
00:38:42,433 --> 00:38:44,200
evolves, not something that is

1231
00:38:44,200 --> 00:38:45,533
ordinarily deliberately

1232
00:38:45,533 --> 00:38:46,933
constituted, the way an

1233
00:38:46,933 --> 00:38:48,333
organization is deliberately

1234
00:38:48,333 --> 00:38:49,800
created.

1235
00:38:49,800 --> 00:38:51,333
A people as such is not the kind

1236
00:38:51,333 --> 00:38:52,800
of group that can be said to

1237
00:38:52,800 --> 00:38:54,533
have defining projects, although

1238
00:38:54,533 --> 00:38:56,200
a state might have them.

1239
00:38:56,200 --> 00:38:58,566
But not all peoples have states.

1240
00:38:58,566 --> 00:39:00,233
The Diaspora Jews and the Sinti

1241
00:39:00,233 --> 00:39:01,766
and Roma of Europe during the

1242
00:39:01,766 --> 00:39:03,300
reign of Hitler were peoples

1243
00:39:03,300 --> 00:39:05,766
without states.

1244
00:39:05,766 --> 00:39:07,300
Perhaps the idea that it is not

1245
00:39:07,300 --> 00:39:09,000
necessarily evil to destroy an

1246
00:39:09,000 --> 00:39:11,833
evil group might partly explain

1247
00:39:11,833 --> 00:39:15,333
how some ordinary Germans, not

1248
00:39:15,333 --> 00:39:16,600
Nazis or members of the

1249
00:39:16,600 --> 00:39:18,600
government or military, could be

1250
00:39:18,600 --> 00:39:20,633
as complicit as so many were in

1251
00:39:20,633 --> 00:39:23,633
Hitler's Final Solution.

1252
00:39:23,633 --> 00:39:25,366
Nazi propaganda portrayed the

1253
00:39:25,366 --> 00:39:27,933
Jews as an evil people, and

1254
00:39:27,933 --> 00:39:29,866
paranoid propaganda portrayed

1255
00:39:29,866 --> 00:39:31,500
that people as embarked on a

1256
00:39:31,500 --> 00:39:33,866
project of world domination.

1257
00:39:33,866 --> 00:39:35,266
I don't think the idea of an

1258
00:39:35,266 --> 00:39:37,333
evil people makes sense; it

1259
00:39:37,333 --> 00:39:38,666
presupposes that a people can be

1260
00:39:38,666 --> 00:39:40,133
an agent.

1261
00:39:40,133 --> 00:39:41,333
But a people does not have

1262
00:39:41,333 --> 00:39:42,833
enough internal cohesion for

1263
00:39:42,833 --> 00:39:44,366
that to be the case.

1264
00:39:44,366 --> 00:39:46,233
That point aside, Nazi

1265
00:39:46,233 --> 00:39:48,200
propaganda portraying the Jews

1266
00:39:48,200 --> 00:39:50,133
as an evil people could at best

1267
00:39:50,133 --> 00:39:52,366
only partly explain the

1268
00:39:52,366 --> 00:39:54,766
complicity of ordinary Germans.

1269
00:39:54,766 --> 00:39:56,300
For it matters when a group is

1270
00:39:56,300 --> 00:39:58,633
destroyed how that is done.

1271
00:39:58,633 --> 00:40:00,566
Individual members of even an

1272
00:40:00,566 --> 00:40:02,033
evil group would still have

1273
00:40:02,033 --> 00:40:03,766
human rights.

1274
00:40:03,766 --> 00:40:05,433
The Southern Poverty Law Center

1275
00:40:05,433 --> 00:40:06,600
does not kill white

1276
00:40:06,600 --> 00:40:07,733
supremacists.

1277
00:40:07,733 --> 00:40:08,833
It bankrupts their

1278
00:40:08,833 --> 00:40:10,000
organizations.

1279
00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:12,266
And so, even the misguided and

1280
00:40:12,266 --> 00:40:13,800
confused belief by ordinary

1281
00:40:13,800 --> 00:40:15,300
Germans that the Jews were an

1282
00:40:15,300 --> 00:40:17,500
evil people would not explain

1283
00:40:17,500 --> 00:40:20,000
their complicity in the killing

1284
00:40:20,000 --> 00:40:22,566
of individual Jews.

1285
00:40:22,566 --> 00:40:24,433
I want to move on now from the

1286
00:40:24,433 --> 00:40:25,566
non-arbitrariness of

1287
00:40:25,566 --> 00:40:27,000
understanding genocide as a kind

1288
00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:30,400
of murder, which I don't think

1289
00:40:30,400 --> 00:40:31,700
it is arbitrary, to consider

1290
00:40:31,700 --> 00:40:33,433
some other groups that are not

1291
00:40:33,433 --> 00:40:34,633
mentioned in the U.N.

1292
00:40:34,633 --> 00:40:35,800
definition.

1293
00:40:35,800 --> 00:40:36,833
What about the idea of a gay

1294
00:40:36,833 --> 00:40:38,233
genocide?

1295
00:40:38,233 --> 00:40:42,066
Would that idea make sense?

1296
00:40:42,066 --> 00:40:43,833
Gays are not a people or any

1297
00:40:43,833 --> 00:40:45,800
kind of tribe.

1298
00:40:45,800 --> 00:40:47,033
If the question is about all the

1299
00:40:47,033 --> 00:40:48,333
gays in the world, they do not

1300
00:40:48,333 --> 00:40:50,433
form a community and never have,

1301
00:40:50,433 --> 00:40:51,700
although there have been many

1302
00:40:51,700 --> 00:40:53,066
gay communities.

1303
00:40:53,066 --> 00:40:54,400
Men who were identified as

1304
00:40:54,400 --> 00:40:56,066
homosexuals and forced to wear

1305
00:40:56,066 --> 00:40:57,500
the "pink triangle" in Nazi

1306
00:40:57,500 --> 00:40:59,766
camps suffered losses of social

1307
00:40:59,766 --> 00:41:01,766
vitality specific to their being

1308
00:41:01,766 --> 00:41:03,866
gay if they had been members of

1309
00:41:03,866 --> 00:41:05,866
gay communities.

1310
00:41:05,866 --> 00:41:07,333
Gay communities can shape and

1311
00:41:07,333 --> 00:41:09,000
animate the lives of their

1312
00:41:09,000 --> 00:41:11,266
members in positive ways which

1313
00:41:11,266 --> 00:41:12,666
is especially important in the

1314
00:41:12,666 --> 00:41:14,500
context of a larger social world

1315
00:41:14,500 --> 00:41:16,400
that rejects them.

1316
00:41:16,400 --> 00:41:18,766
Does the forcibly imposed loss

1317
00:41:18,766 --> 00:41:20,966
of such social vitality

1318
00:41:20,966 --> 00:41:22,933
constitute a gay genocide?

1319
00:41:22,933 --> 00:41:25,000
The philosopher James Nickel, in

1320
00:41:25,000 --> 00:41:26,800
an interesting essay on four

1321
00:41:26,800 --> 00:41:29,100
ways of getting rid of groups,

1322
00:41:29,100 --> 00:41:31,033
mentions the case of forcibly

1323
00:41:31,033 --> 00:41:33,100
re-educating homosexuals as

1324
00:41:33,100 --> 00:41:34,466
analogous to the forced

1325
00:41:34,466 --> 00:41:37,133
assimilation of cultural groups,

1326
00:41:37,133 --> 00:41:38,866
which he regards as not

1327
00:41:38,866 --> 00:41:40,766
ordinarily genocidal.

1328
00:41:40,766 --> 00:41:42,033
But the men of the pink

1329
00:41:42,033 --> 00:41:43,500
triangles were persecuted and

1330
00:41:43,500 --> 00:41:46,033
ostracized, not re-educated.

1331
00:41:46,033 --> 00:41:47,400
They resemble victims of a

1332
00:41:47,400 --> 00:41:49,200
genocide to the extent that

1333
00:41:49,200 --> 00:41:50,766
their lives had importantly

1334
00:41:50,766 --> 00:41:52,700
gained positive meaning from gay

1335
00:41:52,700 --> 00:41:54,033
communities to which they

1336
00:41:54,033 --> 00:41:56,233
belonged, which were destroyed.

1337
00:41:56,233 --> 00:41:57,800
Yet those communities were far

1338
00:41:57,800 --> 00:42:01,300
younger, transitory, in flux and

1339
00:42:01,300 --> 00:42:03,833
inevitably less richly textured

1340
00:42:03,833 --> 00:42:06,933
and layered than communities

1341
00:42:06,933 --> 00:42:08,633
constituted by sharers of a

1342
00:42:08,633 --> 00:42:10,766
natural language, religion, and

1343
00:42:10,766 --> 00:42:13,366
multi-generational traditions.

1344
00:42:13,366 --> 00:42:14,833
Gay communities are like many

1345
00:42:14,833 --> 00:42:16,566
political communities, and many

1346
00:42:16,566 --> 00:42:18,100
are political communities,

1347
00:42:18,100 --> 00:42:19,700
pockets of resistance to

1348
00:42:19,700 --> 00:42:21,500
prevailing norms.

1349
00:42:21,500 --> 00:42:23,066
Still, those communities were

1350
00:42:23,066 --> 00:42:25,000
only part of what gave shape and

1351
00:42:25,000 --> 00:42:26,366
meanings to the lives of their

1352
00:42:26,366 --> 00:42:27,866
members.

1353
00:42:27,866 --> 00:42:29,166
The members of gay communities

1354
00:42:29,166 --> 00:42:31,066
also had many other communities

1355
00:42:31,066 --> 00:42:32,633
of origin.

1356
00:42:32,633 --> 00:42:34,033
Gay communities can have a

1357
00:42:34,033 --> 00:42:36,100
life-saving impact on those who

1358
00:42:36,100 --> 00:42:38,366
are otherwise cultural rejects.

1359
00:42:38,366 --> 00:42:41,066
But many then as now did not

1360
00:42:41,066 --> 00:42:43,133
belong to gay communities.

1361
00:42:43,133 --> 00:42:44,966
Many have been, and are today,

1362
00:42:44,966 --> 00:42:46,433
married to someone of another

1363
00:42:46,433 --> 00:42:50,400
sex.

1364
00:42:50,400 --> 00:42:51,833
The men most likely to be

1365
00:42:51,833 --> 00:42:53,066
rounded up and sent to

1366
00:42:53,066 --> 00:42:54,366
concentration camps were those

1367
00:42:54,366 --> 00:42:55,633
who met at gay bars or gay

1368
00:42:55,633 --> 00:42:57,633
parties or were activists.

1369
00:42:57,633 --> 00:42:58,933
The philosopher Ludwig

1370
00:42:58,933 --> 00:43:00,633
Wittgenstein's idea of family

1371
00:43:00,633 --> 00:43:03,500
resemblance concepts is useful

1372
00:43:03,500 --> 00:43:05,133
for thinking about the extent to

1373
00:43:05,133 --> 00:43:07,000
which the idea of a gay genocide

1374
00:43:07,000 --> 00:43:08,966
makes sense.

1375
00:43:08,966 --> 00:43:11,066
Destruction of gay communities

1376
00:43:11,066 --> 00:43:12,733
is hardly a paradigm of

1377
00:43:12,733 --> 00:43:13,833
genocide.

1378
00:43:13,833 --> 00:43:15,166
But it does bear some relevant

1379
00:43:15,166 --> 00:43:17,100
similarities and so, when the

1380
00:43:17,100 --> 00:43:18,833
assault is systematic, it might

1381
00:43:18,833 --> 00:43:20,466
find a place in the extended

1382
00:43:20,466 --> 00:43:23,566
family of genocidal assaults.

1383
00:43:23,566 --> 00:43:24,833
The way to think about it, on

1384
00:43:24,833 --> 00:43:27,066
the social death hypothesis, is

1385
00:43:27,066 --> 00:43:29,033
to consider to what extent the

1386
00:43:29,033 --> 00:43:31,300
destroyed community had

1387
00:43:31,300 --> 00:43:33,233
contributed meaning and identity

1388
00:43:33,233 --> 00:43:35,066
to its members and whether the

1389
00:43:35,066 --> 00:43:36,666
loss of those meanings would

1390
00:43:36,666 --> 00:43:38,333
leave those individuals socially

1391
00:43:38,333 --> 00:43:41,166
dead.

1392
00:43:41,166 --> 00:43:42,566
The idea of a genocide of the

1393
00:43:42,566 --> 00:43:44,866
disabled stretches the concept

1394
00:43:44,866 --> 00:43:46,866
of genocide even further.

1395
00:43:46,866 --> 00:43:48,700
And yet, there are communities

1396
00:43:48,700 --> 00:43:50,033
built around the needs and

1397
00:43:50,033 --> 00:43:51,566
interests of persons with

1398
00:43:51,566 --> 00:43:54,166
specific kinds of disabilities,

1399
00:43:54,166 --> 00:43:55,900
and it is not impossible that

1400
00:43:55,900 --> 00:43:56,966
they might be targeted for

1401
00:43:56,966 --> 00:43:58,833
elimination.

1402
00:43:58,833 --> 00:44:00,400
Hitler's euthanasia program

1403
00:44:00,400 --> 00:44:01,966
targeted individuals with

1404
00:44:01,966 --> 00:44:04,033
disabilities, not communities.

1405
00:44:04,033 --> 00:44:05,500
But were a tyrant with similar

1406
00:44:05,500 --> 00:44:07,000
ambitions to come to power

1407
00:44:07,000 --> 00:44:08,333
today, such communities might be

1408
00:44:08,333 --> 00:44:10,566
targeted.

1409
00:44:10,566 --> 00:44:12,633
But what some feminist scholars

1410
00:44:12,633 --> 00:44:15,533
call "femicide," the systematic

1411
00:44:15,533 --> 00:44:17,366
murder of females, for example,

1412
00:44:17,366 --> 00:44:19,700
by exposing infants, is not a

1413
00:44:19,700 --> 00:44:21,700
form of genocide.

1414
00:44:21,700 --> 00:44:23,833
Females are a class, a category,

1415
00:44:23,833 --> 00:44:26,233
but not a community.

1416
00:44:26,233 --> 00:44:27,733
Classes or categories are not

1417
00:44:27,733 --> 00:44:29,600
the right sorts of groups to be

1418
00:44:29,600 --> 00:44:31,833
targets of genocide.

1419
00:44:31,833 --> 00:44:33,400
The class of all the individuals

1420
00:44:33,400 --> 00:44:34,800
who were in the Twin Towers on

1421
00:44:34,800 --> 00:44:37,133
9/11 does not define a group

1422
00:44:37,133 --> 00:44:38,700
that it would make any sense to

1423
00:44:38,700 --> 00:44:41,766
regard as a target of genocide.

1424
00:44:41,766 --> 00:44:43,600
When Marc Lépine entered a

1425
00:44:43,600 --> 00:44:46,766
classroom in Montreal in 1989,

1426
00:44:46,766 --> 00:44:48,066
announced that he was "fighting

1427
00:44:48,066 --> 00:44:49,666
feminism," separated the men

1428
00:44:49,666 --> 00:44:51,566
from the women, shot nine women,

1429
00:44:51,566 --> 00:44:53,366
killing six, and then roamed the

1430
00:44:53,366 --> 00:44:55,633
hallways shooting more women,

1431
00:44:55,633 --> 00:44:57,933
14 all told, he became a mass

1432
00:44:57,933 --> 00:44:59,966
murderer but not a perpetrator

1433
00:44:59,966 --> 00:45:01,733
of genocide.

1434
00:45:01,733 --> 00:45:03,400
Feminist scholars rightly call

1435
00:45:03,400 --> 00:45:04,866
this a femicide.

1436
00:45:04,866 --> 00:45:07,166
But femicide is not an instance

1437
00:45:07,166 --> 00:45:09,466
of genocide.

1438
00:45:09,466 --> 00:45:12,500
Last month a cadet at the U.S.

1439
00:45:12,500 --> 00:45:14,200
Air Force Academy in Colorado

1440
00:45:14,200 --> 00:45:15,666
Springs posed the following

1441
00:45:15,666 --> 00:45:18,000
question to me after I gave a

1442
00:45:18,000 --> 00:45:19,900
version of this talk.

1443
00:45:19,900 --> 00:45:21,666
Was Hitler's destruction of the

1444
00:45:21,666 --> 00:45:24,366
Czech city of Lidice in response

1445
00:45:24,366 --> 00:45:26,000
to the assassination of

1446
00:45:26,000 --> 00:45:30,800
Reinhard Heydrich, a genocide?

1447
00:45:30,800 --> 00:45:32,033
Was Hitler's destruction of the

1448
00:45:32,033 --> 00:45:34,400
city of Lidice a genocide?

1449
00:45:34,400 --> 00:45:35,566
I thought that was an astute

1450
00:45:35,566 --> 00:45:37,066
question.

1451
00:45:37,066 --> 00:45:38,866
If the city of Carthage was a

1452
00:45:38,866 --> 00:45:41,366
victim of genocide, why not the

1453
00:45:41,366 --> 00:45:43,833
city of Lidice?

1454
00:45:43,833 --> 00:45:45,466
Again, I would say the way to

1455
00:45:45,466 --> 00:45:47,466
think about it is to consider to

1456
00:45:47,466 --> 00:45:49,900
what extent that city defined

1457
00:45:49,900 --> 00:45:51,933
the social vitality of its

1458
00:45:51,933 --> 00:45:53,500
members.

1459
00:45:53,500 --> 00:45:55,100
The city of Lidice was part of

1460
00:45:55,100 --> 00:45:57,633
the larger Czech state that was

1461
00:45:57,633 --> 00:45:59,766
surely also a contributor to the

1462
00:45:59,766 --> 00:46:01,200
social vitality of the

1463
00:46:01,200 --> 00:46:03,100
inhabitants of its cities, which

1464
00:46:03,100 --> 00:46:05,366
makes the case more complicated

1465
00:46:05,366 --> 00:46:07,466
than that of Carthage.

1466
00:46:07,466 --> 00:46:09,100
There is more to be said, but I

1467
00:46:09,100 --> 00:46:11,433
want now to leave the worry that

1468
00:46:11,433 --> 00:46:12,933
the U.N. definition may be too

1469
00:46:12,933 --> 00:46:15,000
narrow and turn to the worry

1470
00:46:15,000 --> 00:46:16,733
that it may be too wide, because

1471
00:46:16,733 --> 00:46:18,533
of the phrase "in whole or in

1472
00:46:18,533 --> 00:46:20,300
part."

1473
00:46:20,300 --> 00:46:22,233
On the commonest interpretation

1474
00:46:22,233 --> 00:46:23,933
of "in whole or in part,"

1475
00:46:23,933 --> 00:46:25,300
that phrase invites the

1476
00:46:25,300 --> 00:46:26,800
question, how big does the part

1477
00:46:26,800 --> 00:46:28,566
have to be?

1478
00:46:28,566 --> 00:46:30,500
For example, how many need be

1479
00:46:30,500 --> 00:46:31,566
killed?

1480
00:46:31,566 --> 00:46:33,266
One person is a part of a group.

1481
00:46:33,266 --> 00:46:35,500
Yet the murder of one person is

1482
00:46:35,500 --> 00:46:37,533
not a genocide, though it can be

1483
00:46:37,533 --> 00:46:39,333
a hate crime.

1484
00:46:39,333 --> 00:46:41,133
And what if there are survivors?

1485
00:46:41,133 --> 00:46:42,733
Has a people really been killed

1486
00:46:42,733 --> 00:46:44,166
if there are survivors?

1487
00:46:44,166 --> 00:46:45,500
And by the way, there are almost

1488
00:46:45,500 --> 00:46:47,700
always some survivors.

1489
00:46:47,700 --> 00:46:49,333
How severe must the harm be?

1490
00:46:49,333 --> 00:46:51,033
Must it be irreversible?

1491
00:46:51,033 --> 00:46:52,266
how many need be harmed?

1492
00:46:52,266 --> 00:46:53,333
How many children need be

1493
00:46:53,333 --> 00:46:54,200
transferred?

1494
00:46:54,200 --> 00:46:55,833
Must they be permanently lost to

1495
00:46:55,833 --> 00:46:57,433
their communities of origin?

1496
00:46:57,433 --> 00:46:58,733
How much physical destruction

1497
00:46:58,733 --> 00:46:59,966
must there be?

1498
00:46:59,966 --> 00:47:01,366
How much birth prevention, and

1499
00:47:01,366 --> 00:47:03,000
so on?

1500
00:47:03,000 --> 00:47:04,600
The U.N. definition invites

1501
00:47:04,600 --> 00:47:06,333
these sorts of questions.

1502
00:47:06,333 --> 00:47:08,033
One of the provisos with which

1503
00:47:08,033 --> 00:47:09,200
the United States eventually

1504
00:47:09,200 --> 00:47:11,466
accepted the genocide convention

1505
00:47:11,466 --> 00:47:12,900
was that the "part" had

1506
00:47:12,900 --> 00:47:15,433
to be "a substantial part."

1507
00:47:15,433 --> 00:47:16,766
It seems there is no

1508
00:47:16,766 --> 00:47:18,433
non-arbitrary way to draw a line

1509
00:47:18,433 --> 00:47:20,733
between genocides and less

1510
00:47:20,733 --> 00:47:23,766
massive atrocities.

1511
00:47:23,766 --> 00:47:26,166
In contrast to the U.N.

1512
00:47:26,166 --> 00:47:27,966
definition, Raphael Lemkin's

1513
00:47:27,966 --> 00:47:29,733
approach, which fits well with

1514
00:47:29,733 --> 00:47:31,933
my social death hypothesis, does

1515
00:47:31,933 --> 00:47:34,200
not so naturally invite

1516
00:47:34,200 --> 00:47:36,133
questions of "how many?"

1517
00:47:36,133 --> 00:47:38,366
On his view, genocides victimize

1518
00:47:38,366 --> 00:47:40,400
members of a group generally.

1519
00:47:40,400 --> 00:47:42,133
Instead of interpreting "in

1520
00:47:42,133 --> 00:47:44,366
whole or in part" as a matter of

1521
00:47:44,366 --> 00:47:46,000
how many individuals were killed

1522
00:47:46,000 --> 00:47:47,933
or harmed, Lemkin looks at the

1523
00:47:47,933 --> 00:47:49,600
kinds of relationships and the

1524
00:47:49,600 --> 00:47:51,500
kinds of social institutions

1525
00:47:51,500 --> 00:47:54,166
that define a group as a people.

1526
00:47:54,166 --> 00:47:55,400
For example, its educational

1527
00:47:55,400 --> 00:47:57,066
institutions, it child-rearing

1528
00:47:57,066 --> 00:47:58,866
practices, its language, its

1529
00:47:58,866 --> 00:48:00,400
economic practices, its

1530
00:48:00,400 --> 00:48:02,000
political practices, its

1531
00:48:02,000 --> 00:48:04,500
religion or religions.

1532
00:48:04,500 --> 00:48:06,233
These are what he regards as the

1533
00:48:06,233 --> 00:48:08,300
group's essential foundations.

1534
00:48:08,300 --> 00:48:10,033
He defines genocide as "a

1535
00:48:10,033 --> 00:48:12,233
coordinated plan of different

1536
00:48:12,233 --> 00:48:13,933
actions aiming at the

1537
00:48:13,933 --> 00:48:15,633
destruction of these essential

1538
00:48:15,633 --> 00:48:17,900
foundations of the life of

1539
00:48:17,900 --> 00:48:19,833
national groups, with the aim of

1540
00:48:19,833 --> 00:48:21,166
annihilating the groups

1541
00:48:21,166 --> 00:48:22,600
themselves"

1542
00:48:22,600 --> 00:48:23,666
The aim of annihilating the

1543
00:48:23,666 --> 00:48:25,233
group is attached, in Lemkin's

1544
00:48:25,233 --> 00:48:26,933
definition, to the overall plan

1545
00:48:26,933 --> 00:48:28,566
that aims to destroy foundations

1546
00:48:28,566 --> 00:48:31,466
of the life of the group.

1547
00:48:31,466 --> 00:48:33,200
The U.N. definition, in

1548
00:48:33,200 --> 00:48:34,833
contrast, attaches the aim of

1549
00:48:34,833 --> 00:48:36,266
destroying the group to the

1550
00:48:36,266 --> 00:48:38,500
enumerated kinds of actions,

1551
00:48:38,500 --> 00:48:40,500
thereby inviting the question

1552
00:48:40,500 --> 00:48:42,300
how many such actions need be

1553
00:48:42,300 --> 00:48:44,133
performed?

1554
00:48:44,133 --> 00:48:47,066
How many people need be killed,

1555
00:48:47,066 --> 00:48:48,566
in order for that action to be

1556
00:48:48,566 --> 00:48:50,100
constitutive of a genocide?

1557
00:48:50,100 --> 00:48:52,033
On Lemkin's view, the group is

1558
00:48:52,033 --> 00:48:53,366
destroyed by destroying the

1559
00:48:53,366 --> 00:48:55,300
relationships, contemporary and

1560
00:48:55,300 --> 00:48:57,933
intergenerational, personal and

1561
00:48:57,933 --> 00:49:00,166
institutional, that are created

1562
00:49:00,166 --> 00:49:02,833
by these social institutions

1563
00:49:02,833 --> 00:49:04,466
fundamental to defining its

1564
00:49:04,466 --> 00:49:06,266
members as a people.

1565
00:49:06,266 --> 00:49:07,733
This destruction can, and

1566
00:49:07,733 --> 00:49:08,933
typically does, take place in

1567
00:49:08,933 --> 00:49:11,900
stages, over time, as social

1568
00:49:11,900 --> 00:49:13,466
restrictions and prohibitions

1569
00:49:13,466 --> 00:49:15,000
are imposed.

1570
00:49:15,000 --> 00:49:16,933
It's not as though religious,

1571
00:49:16,933 --> 00:49:18,500
ethnical, and national groups

1572
00:49:18,500 --> 00:49:19,766
are different kinds of targets

1573
00:49:19,766 --> 00:49:21,300
of genocide.

1574
00:49:21,300 --> 00:49:24,400
Rather, religious, ethnic, and

1575
00:49:24,400 --> 00:49:26,000
political institutions are all

1576
00:49:26,000 --> 00:49:27,733
part of what bind individuals

1577
00:49:27,733 --> 00:49:29,533
together into a people, and it

1578
00:49:29,533 --> 00:49:30,600
is the people that is the

1579
00:49:30,600 --> 00:49:32,133
target.

1580
00:49:32,133 --> 00:49:33,966
Like the U.N. definition,

1581
00:49:33,966 --> 00:49:35,433
Lemkin's understanding also

1582
00:49:35,433 --> 00:49:36,800
allows for genocide to be a

1583
00:49:36,800 --> 00:49:38,466
matter of degree.

1584
00:49:38,466 --> 00:49:40,233
But on Lemkin's approach,

1585
00:49:40,233 --> 00:49:42,200
degrees are the kinds and ranges

1586
00:49:42,200 --> 00:49:44,433
of social vitality destroyed,

1587
00:49:44,433 --> 00:49:46,300
which tends to affect

1588
00:49:46,300 --> 00:49:47,533
individuals in the group

1589
00:49:47,533 --> 00:49:48,866
generally, not just a part of

1590
00:49:48,866 --> 00:49:50,333
them, even if not all are

1591
00:49:50,333 --> 00:49:52,266
affected in the same way or to

1592
00:49:52,266 --> 00:49:54,000
the same degree.

1593
00:49:54,000 --> 00:49:55,300
Here is an illustration of the

1594
00:49:55,300 --> 00:49:56,700
difference between the U.N.

1595
00:49:56,700 --> 00:49:57,966
approach and the Lemkin

1596
00:49:57,966 --> 00:49:59,200
approach.

1597
00:49:59,200 --> 00:50:01,000
Take the case of Rwanda.

1598
00:50:01,000 --> 00:50:03,000
After the Rwandan genocide,

1599
00:50:03,000 --> 00:50:04,266
President Clinton said he did

1600
00:50:04,266 --> 00:50:05,666
not realize how many were being

1601
00:50:05,666 --> 00:50:07,266
killed, as though that were key

1602
00:50:07,266 --> 00:50:09,866
to defining genocide.

1603
00:50:09,866 --> 00:50:11,100
He was thinking in terms of the

1604
00:50:11,100 --> 00:50:13,233
U.N. definition.

1605
00:50:13,233 --> 00:50:14,466
But on Lemkin's approach, we

1606
00:50:14,466 --> 00:50:16,133
would look for destruction of

1607
00:50:16,133 --> 00:50:18,133
social vitality in terms of

1608
00:50:18,133 --> 00:50:19,833
practices, institutions, and

1609
00:50:19,833 --> 00:50:21,900
relationships.

1610
00:50:21,900 --> 00:50:23,833
Given what is commonly known and

1611
00:50:23,833 --> 00:50:25,333
not known in the United States

1612
00:50:25,333 --> 00:50:27,266
about the Rwandan genocide,

1613
00:50:27,266 --> 00:50:28,866
it might appear, initially, to

1614
00:50:28,866 --> 00:50:30,033
us as though Rwanda were a

1615
00:50:30,033 --> 00:50:31,633
counter-example to my social

1616
00:50:31,633 --> 00:50:33,300
death hypothesis.

1617
00:50:33,300 --> 00:50:35,200
What seems most salient in the

1618
00:50:35,200 --> 00:50:37,333
case of Rwanda is the rapid mass

1619
00:50:37,333 --> 00:50:39,366
slaughter by machete.

1620
00:50:39,366 --> 00:50:42,000
Where is the social death?

1621
00:50:42,000 --> 00:50:43,400
But, in fact, the mass

1622
00:50:43,400 --> 00:50:44,733
slaughters were preceded by a

1623
00:50:44,733 --> 00:50:46,600
series of social restrictions

1624
00:50:46,600 --> 00:50:48,266
and prohibitions that actually

1625
00:50:48,266 --> 00:50:50,133
did destroy the social vitality

1626
00:50:50,133 --> 00:50:52,266
of those perceived as Tutsis,

1627
00:50:52,266 --> 00:50:54,200
making it much easier for Hutus

1628
00:50:54,200 --> 00:50:55,866
to kill them.

1629
00:50:55,866 --> 00:50:57,666
Samantha Powers writes in her

1630
00:50:57,666 --> 00:51:00,200
historical survey which she

1631
00:51:00,200 --> 00:51:02,533
titled  A Problem from Hell,  that

1632
00:51:02,533 --> 00:51:04,566
the Hutu newspaper Kangura

1633
00:51:04,566 --> 00:51:06,533
published in December 1990 a

1634
00:51:06,533 --> 00:51:08,566
list of "Ten Commandments of the

1635
00:51:08,566 --> 00:51:10,666
Hutu," governing relations

1636
00:51:10,666 --> 00:51:12,566
between Hutu and Tutsi.

1637
00:51:12,566 --> 00:51:15,033
They included such statements as

1638
00:51:15,033 --> 00:51:17,666
that any Hutu who marries,

1639
00:51:17,666 --> 00:51:19,100
befriends, or employs as a

1640
00:51:19,100 --> 00:51:20,666
secretary or concubine a Tutsi

1641
00:51:20,666 --> 00:51:22,500
woman shall be considered a

1642
00:51:22,500 --> 00:51:24,366
traitor, and likewise for any

1643
00:51:24,366 --> 00:51:25,766
Hutu who makes a business

1644
00:51:25,766 --> 00:51:27,833
partnership with a Tutsi,

1645
00:51:27,833 --> 00:51:30,033
invests money in a Tutsi

1646
00:51:30,033 --> 00:51:31,633
enterprise, or lends to or

1647
00:51:31,633 --> 00:51:33,933
borrows money from a Tutsi, and

1648
00:51:33,933 --> 00:51:35,900
the list goes on.

1649
00:51:35,900 --> 00:51:37,400
Similarly, she writes, in the

1650
00:51:37,400 --> 00:51:39,966
town of Celinas in northern

1651
00:51:39,966 --> 00:51:41,266
Bosnia non-Serbs were given

1652
00:51:41,266 --> 00:51:43,066
"special status" prior to

1653
00:51:43,066 --> 00:51:44,333
expelling them or concentrating

1654
00:51:44,333 --> 00:51:46,500
them in camps.

1655
00:51:46,500 --> 00:51:48,733
A curfew was imposed from 4 PM

1656
00:51:48,733 --> 00:51:50,733
to 6 AM.

1657
00:51:50,733 --> 00:51:52,666
Non-Serbs were prohibited from

1658
00:51:52,666 --> 00:51:54,333
meeting in cafes, restaurants,

1659
00:51:54,333 --> 00:51:56,700
or other public places, bathing

1660
00:51:56,700 --> 00:51:58,400
or swimming in the nearby

1661
00:51:58,400 --> 00:52:00,566
rivers, hunting or fishing,

1662
00:52:00,566 --> 00:52:01,900
moving to another town without

1663
00:52:01,900 --> 00:52:04,333
permission, carrying a weapon,

1664
00:52:04,333 --> 00:52:06,300
driving or traveling by car,

1665
00:52:06,300 --> 00:52:08,566
and that list goes on as well.

1666
00:52:08,566 --> 00:52:09,700
The restrictions were less

1667
00:52:09,700 --> 00:52:11,533
dramatic and less visible to

1668
00:52:11,533 --> 00:52:13,566
outsiders than were the mass

1669
00:52:13,566 --> 00:52:15,700
slaughters that followed.

1670
00:52:15,700 --> 00:52:17,333
But what is most dramatic and

1671
00:52:17,333 --> 00:52:19,233
most visible is not necessarily

1672
00:52:19,233 --> 00:52:21,266
what is central to the evil of

1673
00:52:21,266 --> 00:52:23,300
destroying a people.

1674
00:52:23,300 --> 00:52:24,566
A similar point can be made

1675
00:52:24,566 --> 00:52:25,966
regarding terrorism.

1676
00:52:25,966 --> 00:52:27,400
What is dramatic and most

1677
00:52:27,400 --> 00:52:29,300
visible is usually a spectacle,

1678
00:52:29,300 --> 00:52:31,600
such as a bombing; but what is

1679
00:52:31,600 --> 00:52:33,566
central to terrorism is a

1680
00:52:33,566 --> 00:52:35,666
pattern, a systematic program of

1681
00:52:35,666 --> 00:52:38,266
credible threats.

1682
00:52:38,266 --> 00:52:39,766
Lemkin also understands a

1683
00:52:39,766 --> 00:52:42,000
genocide as having two phases:

1684
00:52:42,000 --> 00:52:43,633
the first phase consists in the

1685
00:52:43,633 --> 00:52:45,266
destruction of a people, and the

1686
00:52:45,266 --> 00:52:47,300
second phase consists in the

1687
00:52:47,300 --> 00:52:49,100
imposition of a new people on

1688
00:52:49,100 --> 00:52:51,200
the land or individuals

1689
00:52:51,200 --> 00:52:53,966
remaining after the first phase.

1690
00:52:53,966 --> 00:52:55,266
Destruction of a people does not

1691
00:52:55,266 --> 00:52:57,766
always require mass slaughter.

1692
00:52:57,766 --> 00:52:59,366
Hitler reserved that measure

1693
00:52:59,366 --> 00:53:01,433
only for those whom he

1694
00:53:01,433 --> 00:53:03,433
considered un-Germanizable.

1695
00:53:07,433 --> 00:53:09,166
In conclusion, let's return to

1696
00:53:09,166 --> 00:53:11,533
the some of opening questions.

1697
00:53:11,533 --> 00:53:13,133
Some of them have already been

1698
00:53:13,133 --> 00:53:14,833
addressed at some length.

1699
00:53:14,833 --> 00:53:17,000
Take that first one.

1700
00:53:17,000 --> 00:53:18,833
How do genocides differ from

1701
00:53:18,833 --> 00:53:21,833
non-genocidal mass murders?

1702
00:53:21,833 --> 00:53:23,066
The idea of social death is

1703
00:53:23,066 --> 00:53:24,200
helpful.

1704
00:53:24,200 --> 00:53:26,666
First, the victim of genocide is

1705
00:53:26,666 --> 00:53:28,266
a people or a substantial

1706
00:53:28,266 --> 00:53:30,600
community, and the aim, or

1707
00:53:30,600 --> 00:53:32,533
foreseeable consequence, is to

1708
00:53:32,533 --> 00:53:34,533
destroy the social vitality made

1709
00:53:34,533 --> 00:53:36,700
possible by social institutions

1710
00:53:36,700 --> 00:53:38,233
and connections that make of its

1711
00:53:38,233 --> 00:53:40,633
members a people or community.

1712
00:53:40,633 --> 00:53:42,666
Mass murders can victimize

1713
00:53:42,666 --> 00:53:44,533
aggregates of individuals, or

1714
00:53:44,533 --> 00:53:46,700
categories or classes, who do

1715
00:53:46,700 --> 00:53:48,066
not constitute a people or

1716
00:53:48,066 --> 00:53:49,600
community.

1717
00:53:49,600 --> 00:53:52,166
Second, genocide need not be

1718
00:53:52,166 --> 00:53:54,233
massively homicidal on either

1719
00:53:54,233 --> 00:53:55,700
the U.N. definition or

1720
00:53:55,700 --> 00:53:58,166
Lemkin's definition.

1721
00:53:58,166 --> 00:53:59,966
Some genocide scholars think it

1722
00:53:59,966 --> 00:54:01,366
stretches the concept of

1723
00:54:01,366 --> 00:54:03,533
genocide too much if mass murder

1724
00:54:03,533 --> 00:54:05,866
is not considered essential,

1725
00:54:05,866 --> 00:54:07,500
with the result that genocide no

1726
00:54:07,500 --> 00:54:10,566
longer seems as serious a crime.

1727
00:54:10,566 --> 00:54:12,600
My view is, first, that it is

1728
00:54:12,600 --> 00:54:14,500
not obvious that social death is

1729
00:54:14,500 --> 00:54:15,900
less serious than physical

1730
00:54:15,900 --> 00:54:18,600
death.

1731
00:54:18,600 --> 00:54:19,666
And second, that not all

1732
00:54:19,666 --> 00:54:21,200
genocides are equal.

1733
00:54:21,200 --> 00:54:22,833
Some are much worse than others.

1734
00:54:22,833 --> 00:54:24,233
Much depends on how the death is

1735
00:54:24,233 --> 00:54:25,566
brought about.

1736
00:54:25,566 --> 00:54:27,300
Consider the mass rapes aimed at

1737
00:54:27,300 --> 00:54:29,100
enforced pregnancy perpetrated

1738
00:54:29,100 --> 00:54:30,900
in the former Yugoslavia in the

1739
00:54:30,900 --> 00:54:32,266
1990s.

1740
00:54:32,266 --> 00:54:34,133
This atrocity left some female

1741
00:54:34,133 --> 00:54:36,200
survivors little more than

1742
00:54:36,200 --> 00:54:38,000
gestating corpses, social

1743
00:54:38,000 --> 00:54:40,266
outcasts, unmarriageable, their

1744
00:54:40,266 --> 00:54:42,233
offspring unassimilable.

1745
00:54:42,233 --> 00:54:43,866
What had they to look forward to

1746
00:54:43,866 --> 00:54:45,733
other than life-long Post

1747
00:54:45,733 --> 00:54:47,133
Traumatic Stress?

1748
00:54:47,133 --> 00:54:48,600
Would their fate have been worse

1749
00:54:48,600 --> 00:54:50,300
if they had been killed?

1750
00:54:50,300 --> 00:54:52,300
The worst harm that Immanuel

1751
00:54:52,300 --> 00:54:53,533
Kant was able to imagine was to

1752
00:54:53,533 --> 00:54:55,300
be treated merely as a means to

1753
00:54:55,300 --> 00:54:57,300
the ends of others, to have

1754
00:54:57,300 --> 00:54:58,666
one's humanity utterly

1755
00:54:58,666 --> 00:55:01,066
disrespected, devalued, to be

1756
00:55:01,066 --> 00:55:02,966
treated as a thing.

1757
00:55:02,966 --> 00:55:04,533
Hannah Arendt identified an even

1758
00:55:04,533 --> 00:55:06,400
worse harm, namely, to have

1759
00:55:06,400 --> 00:55:07,833
one's humanity utterly

1760
00:55:07,833 --> 00:55:09,600
destroyed.

1761
00:55:09,600 --> 00:55:11,333
Extreme social death comes close

1762
00:55:11,333 --> 00:55:15,266
to that idea.

1763
00:55:15,266 --> 00:55:17,300
What about the question

1764
00:55:17,300 --> 00:55:18,600
is genocide redundant as a

1765
00:55:18,600 --> 00:55:20,800
crime, given other war crimes

1766
00:55:20,800 --> 00:55:23,900
and crimes against humanity?

1767
00:55:23,900 --> 00:55:25,133
The idea of crimes against

1768
00:55:25,133 --> 00:55:26,666
humanity was defended as

1769
00:55:26,666 --> 00:55:28,533
distinct from war crimes on the

1770
00:55:28,533 --> 00:55:30,600
ground that it can be committed

1771
00:55:30,600 --> 00:55:32,466
outside the context of war and

1772
00:55:32,466 --> 00:55:33,766
against a country's own

1773
00:55:33,766 --> 00:55:34,900
nationals.

1774
00:55:34,900 --> 00:55:36,300
The idea of the crime of

1775
00:55:36,300 --> 00:55:37,833
genocide can be defended as a

1776
00:55:37,833 --> 00:55:39,300
special kind of crime against

1777
00:55:39,300 --> 00:55:41,633
humanity that inflicts a harm,

1778
00:55:41,633 --> 00:55:43,366
namely, social death, that is

1779
00:55:43,366 --> 00:55:45,433
not captured by other crimes

1780
00:55:45,433 --> 00:55:47,100
against humanity and that tends

1781
00:55:47,100 --> 00:55:49,066
to be more severe and pervasive

1782
00:55:49,066 --> 00:55:53,066
in its effects.

1783
00:55:53,066 --> 00:55:54,233
What about the question whether

1784
00:55:54,233 --> 00:55:55,600
genocide the worst crime or the

1785
00:55:55,600 --> 00:55:58,200
greatest evil imaginable?

1786
00:55:58,200 --> 00:56:00,466
If social death is central to

1787
00:56:00,466 --> 00:56:02,666
one's understanding of genocide,

1788
00:56:02,666 --> 00:56:04,466
how severe it is depends on the

1789
00:56:04,466 --> 00:56:06,033
degree of the loss of social

1790
00:56:06,033 --> 00:56:08,066
vitality, the forms those losses

1791
00:56:08,066 --> 00:56:10,000
take, and whether any form of

1792
00:56:10,000 --> 00:56:13,166
social vitality is recoverable.

1793
00:56:13,166 --> 00:56:14,566
Forced assimilation and

1794
00:56:14,566 --> 00:56:16,600
transportation of children can

1795
00:56:16,600 --> 00:56:19,266
result in very great losses of

1796
00:56:19,266 --> 00:56:21,166
social vitality.

1797
00:56:21,166 --> 00:56:22,633
But if there remains the

1798
00:56:22,633 --> 00:56:24,733
possibility of regeneration, and

1799
00:56:24,733 --> 00:56:27,366
if there remain remnants of

1800
00:56:27,366 --> 00:56:28,966
social vitality, it would

1801
00:56:28,966 --> 00:56:30,433
probably have been worse to kill

1802
00:56:30,433 --> 00:56:32,033
the children or to enslave them

1803
00:56:32,033 --> 00:56:33,233
than to transport and try to

1804
00:56:33,233 --> 00:56:35,466
assimilate them.

1805
00:56:35,466 --> 00:56:36,566
By the way, on this

1806
00:56:36,566 --> 00:56:37,900
understanding of genocide, we

1807
00:56:37,900 --> 00:56:39,166
can view the kidnapping,

1808
00:56:39,166 --> 00:56:40,266
selling, and transport of

1809
00:56:40,266 --> 00:56:42,300
Africans to the New World to be

1810
00:56:42,300 --> 00:56:45,333
slaves as a genocidal project.

1811
00:56:45,333 --> 00:56:46,833
The destruction of the slaves'

1812
00:56:46,833 --> 00:56:48,233
social vitality may not have

1813
00:56:48,233 --> 00:56:50,233
been a by-product.

1814
00:56:50,233 --> 00:56:51,766
Even if it was, that destruction

1815
00:56:51,766 --> 00:56:53,766
was a reasonably foreseeable and

1816
00:56:53,766 --> 00:56:56,266
accepted price of having slaves

1817
00:56:56,266 --> 00:56:57,633
and so, I think, should count as

1818
00:56:57,633 --> 00:56:59,233
part of the perpetrators'

1819
00:56:59,233 --> 00:57:01,666
intent, broadly construed.

1820
00:57:01,666 --> 00:57:03,400
Even if not every genocide is

1821
00:57:03,400 --> 00:57:05,400
the worst imaginable crime, that

1822
00:57:05,400 --> 00:57:06,766
does not preclude the judgment

1823
00:57:06,766 --> 00:57:08,666
that the Holocaust is the worst

1824
00:57:08,666 --> 00:57:10,300
atrocity perpetrated within

1825
00:57:10,300 --> 00:57:13,266
recorded history.

1826
00:57:13,266 --> 00:57:15,200
If you take as central to

1827
00:57:15,200 --> 00:57:16,466
defining the Holocaust the

1828
00:57:16,466 --> 00:57:17,966
projects of its perpetrators,

1829
00:57:17,966 --> 00:57:19,300
the Holocaust was much more than

1830
00:57:19,300 --> 00:57:20,566
a genocide.

1831
00:57:20,566 --> 00:57:21,766
First, it was more than one

1832
00:57:21,766 --> 00:57:22,900
genocide.

1833
00:57:22,900 --> 00:57:24,600
Second, it included terrorism,

1834
00:57:24,600 --> 00:57:26,700
torture, and deprivations that

1835
00:57:26,700 --> 00:57:28,700
Primo Levi well-described as

1836
00:57:28,700 --> 00:57:30,866
"useless violence," which were

1837
00:57:30,866 --> 00:57:32,500
superfluous even for the aims of

1838
00:57:32,500 --> 00:57:34,666
the genocides.

1839
00:57:34,666 --> 00:57:37,400
And so, even if genocide is not

1840
00:57:37,400 --> 00:57:39,333
necessarily the worst imaginable

1841
00:57:39,333 --> 00:57:41,233
crime, that does not mean that

1842
00:57:41,233 --> 00:57:44,966
the Holocaust wasn't.

1843
00:57:44,966 --> 00:57:47,166
[applause]