Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

Genocide is not a new phenomenon in human experience. It was practiced in Biblical times[1] and long before that. Indeed, many historians postulate the theory that Cro-Magnon deliberately exterminated Neanderthals.

Yet, as civilization developed and certain humanist values were formulated by philosophers and theologians, the rulers realized that they had to control the narrative if they did not want to succumb to resistance from rival lords and competing scenarios. Democracy may have been born in Greece, when rulers understood that information is power and that they had to cater to public opinion, at least to the views of other powerful players. Gradually the logic of the “rule of law” emerged, not just dura lex sed led (the law is hard, but it is the law), but a feeling that summum jus, summa injuria (an excess of law entails injustice), that the rule of law somehow should correspond to the rule of justice[2]. While the use of force remained the prerogative of the sovereign, it was not absolute and had to be legitimized. Thus, self-serving myths were concocted, the self-righteous narrative that the king or President is presumed to do the right thing, which, of course, would exclude gross injustice and crimes such as genocide. As information management became crucial, State secrecy became an enabler of crime.

In my book “Völkermord als Staatsgeheimnis”[3] (Olzog, Munich, 2011, only in German, no English translation as yet), I explored the mechanisms of secrecy that surrounded the Armenian genocide[4], the Holocaust, the massacres of Halabja and Srebrenica.

The common denominator of these mega-crimes was the effort by governments and the complicit media to hide or deny the atrocities, to use coded language and euphemisms, while maintaining a semblance of legality and “business as usual”.

In the digital world, the world of television, memes and social media, it has become impossible to hide a genocide, thus creating an image problem for governments in democratic societies. Policy shifted to blaming the victims for their own misfortune. As Tacitus wrote Proprium humani ingenii est odisse quem laeseris, (Agricola, 42) — it is human nature to hate those whom we have hurt.

Thus today’s strategy dictates how to depict the victims as terrorists, dehumanize them as beasts, accuse them of crimes and depravity, reverse cause and effect, ignore the pre-history of conflicts, flood social media with narratives built on fake news, fake history, fake law, provide an artificial atmosphere of normalcy, as if a specific war and the ensuing genocide were tantamount to natural disasters, not man-made, something that had to happen, because it was in the fates, because God willed it so – Deus vult!

Paradigm change

A quantum change in our perception of genocide has taken hold. Once seen as the ultimate crime, as the gravest violation of international law and morals, as a justification to completely break diplomatic and commercial relations with the genocidal state, today genocide is quasi-accepted by governments that are ostensibly committed to human rights and international law.........

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