Bread and Circuses
If the proposition is correct that compassion is biological,
that we feel an "animal pity" looking upon the suffering of
our fellow, then our civilization, in order to accomplish
cruel or immoral goals, must find a way to counter pity.
In the previous
essay, I quoted Zygmunt Bauman for the proposition that
bureaucracy overcomes pity by distancing the human subject and
by spreading responsibility across the organization and diffusing
it down the hierarchy. The distancing is accomplished in two ways:
the human affected by our actions is redefined as an "animal",
as "the other"; and technology permits us to act upon humans
who are at such a distance that we cannot directly observe what
we have done to them. This last point--that the psychological
consequences are less when technology permits us
to act at a distance-- is supported by studies
comparing the post-Vietnam war suffering of infantry, who had
shot people at close range, and of pilots who had dropped
bombs on them from higher altitudes. Bauman says that animal
pity is inspired by the proximity of the sufferer, and
it seems contradictory but true that it is harder to kill
one person with one's hands than a million by pressing a
button.
