We find that in war, as well as in incarceration facilities, that part of the psychological warfare upon the other is to dehumanize them, because by doing so, it is far easier to get those who are supposed to accomplish missions, perform their duties, and to get other tasks done, to accomplish these very things, which includes when called for, such as in war, the killing of the other. For those who are working at incarceration facilities, it is often considered necessary to have good control of the inmates, believed to be best done by taking away their individual identity, and replacing such with something as simple as seeing them as nothing more than a convict or prisoner of war so identified by a number.
The crux of the problem though with dehumanizing the other, is that it also dehumanizes us, because the more that we see fellow human beings as something less worthy than we are, as less than we are, so that we see them as being subhuman, the more that we lose touch with who and what we really are, at our essence. Because it isn’t possible to see the other as subhuman, without at the same time, being less human ourselves, because to be human necessitates characteristics such as compassion, empathy, consideration, and concern, which is one of the salient reasons why so many of those that have fought in oversea battles, return to the States, a changed man, but not the sort of change that makes them a better person, but rather makes them to feel haunted by that which they have participated in.
So too, to believe that we can treat people with humanity and respect on the one hand, but with the flip of the switch, see them instead as being subhuman, represents a viewpoint that is not only inconsistent with what humanity actually is, but isn’t consistent to what we know – for all humans, no matter their race or creed, are innately created equal. To believe somehow that some humans are more deserving of love and respect than other humans, as mandated by governance, or believed in by our faith, or told to us by our superiors, is to misconstrue what humanity actually is, and when we get this wrong, all sorts of troubles ensue.
To take the life of another human is not natural, and because we know that it implicitly is wrong, except under specific circumstances, we find that the powers that be make it their point when it comes to war or the corralling of captives into a prison, that they must take control of the narrative, which is why they do their level best to impress upon the minds of those that have been given the duty to do that killing, that all is right – which is essentially easier to digest, when those that have been targeted to be killed, have been reclassified as something less than human, and thus fairly deserving of their fate for whatever reason. While this may well be effective in the short run, such a viewpoint as that ultimately takes a very heavy toll, because no matter how it is written up, that which is wrong is never actually going to be right.