Should we blame nations for initiating wars, battles, or violent conflicts or hold individuals accountable for sparking these fires?
Historically, we blame nations while overlooking the roles of their leaders and rulers who issue catastrophic orders. This inclination stems from a human tendency.
But this is how the human mind is architected to humanize nonhuman physical entities from countries to animals, political to religious concepts.
Consider how we describe the coronavirus as “sneaky,” “tricky,” “merciless,” “cruel,” and an “invisible enemy.”
This is an innate aspect of human psychology. According to 18th-century philosopher David Hume, humanization leads us to “find human faces in the moon, armies in the clouds, and… ascribe malice or goodwill to everything that hurts or pleases us.”
Similarly, painter and philosopher Leonardo da Vinci saw human-like patterns in cracked walls and images of animals, plants, and landscapes.
Humanization is evident in how we relate to Disney animal characters and visuals in children’s TV shows. It extends to humanizing abstract concepts like thought, action, religion, and weather.
Judaism and Islam reject a humanized deity, emphasizing that God is beyond human comprehension.
However, the human tendency to personify everything relates to our senses. It helps us to understand the nature of things familiarly, often through the lens of human characteristics.
For example, the World Meteorological Organization explains that naming hurricanes and storms — a practice that originated with the names of saints, sailors’ girlfriends, and disliked political figures — simplifies communication and enhances public preparedness.
This phenomenon, called anthropomorphism, attributes human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities, making them easier to relate to and understand. However, it can also lead to misrepresentation and error.
This error in anthropomorphization allows the true instigators of wars and conflicts to evade condemnation and punishment.
Battles are fought in the name of sacrifice, nationalism, patriotism, or defence; soldiers die, and humanized states are held accountable rather than the ruling leaders.
That happens on the world stage when nations, tribes, or communities get humanized, and the leading triggers of wars and conflicts recede into history as unscathed and unharmed culprits.
This pattern is evident in the Vietnam War, the Iraq War, the abuses in Abu Ghraib prison, and the genocides in Afghanistan, Cambodia, and Rwanda.
The initiators of these heinous conflicts often fade into oblivion, replaced by the humanized nations viewed as living entities.
By Promod Puri
Promod Puri.com 