Essay 3: Dehumanization and Euphemization

Common Ground of Lies
(Corrections made and numbered in BOLD)

(1)How have Hitler, and the United States Government acted in the same way? Throughout the ages, humankind has found reasons to explain its actions, no matter how horrendous the consequences are. Though many leaders do not subscribe their policies to Machiavelli’s “The Prince,” all the world’s governments follow Machiavelli’s most tried and true principle: “The end justifies the means.” In his article “Dehumanizing People and Euphemizing War,” Dr. Haij Bosmajian- a professor at the University of Washington in Seattle-states that dehumanization effectively disarms allegation of inhumane treatment in his article. The article correctly cites politicians that used this technique and its effectiveness. (2)The connection between dehumanization, language and power is undeniable; they are all in exact proportion to one another.

The more relevant example of the relationship between euphemism and power stems from a current crisis and its comparative conflict. In the early twenty-first century, the Bush administration announced an invasion of Iraq to “find terrorists groups.” In the mid-1960’s, the Johnson administration declared a “police sanction” in Vietnam. What is similar about these two conflicts? The language used differed, while the inhumanity remained constant. The Vietnam War started out with powerful language needed to gain support; President Lyndon B. Johnson depicted the Vietcong and communist groups as regular “Commie Scum” and made them into unwanted objects while euphemizing mass killings. “When government officials talked of ‘regrettable byproducts' ... (they meant that) civilians (were) killed by mistake,” (Bosmajian 2). The difference between the Vietnam War and the Iraqi Conflict? Stronger language and less associated imagery with the killings. President Bush started the conflict by stating the governments intentions as trying to “smoke (terrorists) out of their holes” making them appear to be common garden pests. Unlike Vietnam, (6) no longer is there the ability to see video footage and photography from the warfront. The only source of what is happening in the war is the controlled and privately funded media as well as here-say from various independent sources. The war in Iraq has very little footage of the destroyed civilization and mutilated populace, separating and isolating the disturbed culture from the actions of the United States Military by eliminating the power of video footage and exhibiting the true power of words. (4)Ironically, the United States’ actions in Iraq are unquestionably similar to the actions of an empire that is deemed the antithesis of America.

(4)Logically, the Third Reich’s leading political group achieved their power and following in the same way that the American government gathered their political backing. Hitler’s propaganda so efficiently dehumanized the Jewish people; any politically outspoken human rights activist in Nazi Germany would have been fighting for a lost cause. The Nazi Party “As Richard Grunberger points out in The Twelve Year Reich: A Social History of Germany the German government (, was able to achieve) the incessant official demonization of the Jew (and) gradually modified the consciousness of the most humane people’” (Bosmajian 1) preventing reason from being a factor in the treatment of Jews. Hitler’s strong language gave him the power to control an entire group of people with resistance or protest. Hitler was able to obstruct the truth from the common folk, allowing Nazi’s to seize the power they needed. (3, 4, 5, 6) The truth is a very fragile idea that needs to be understood to retain power. Obstruction of the truth makes any action justifiable as a device to carry out “rightful” causes and “responsibilities.” The trick to keeping power over language- and therefore over people-is to understand that truth is discovered and not created. In Vincent Ryan Ruggiero’s Book, Beyond Feelings, he states that “our ideas and beliefs are unavoidably influenced by other people’s” (36), revealing the true nature of truth. No one person in Nazi Germany decided that the Jews were evil; the “truth” came from propaganda generated by the leading political party.

(5,6) Additionally, acronyms are used by politicians to hide what they are saying, while individuals use them to avoid acknowledgment of what they are stating. Many of the acronyms that we use in our everyday lives hide the true meaning of what they entail and Hasmajian states that “at one time cancer was the “Big C”; children have “to do a BM”; while “syphilis” may be difficult to utter, “VD” is less of a problem; the “SOB” may hand out a lot of “BS”; “HO” is to be dreaded; and of course we have our “F---” word” (2). These words, though, also translate to how the government may have deadly weapons that kill millions, yet are only known as WMDs or PMCs, a way of using technical jargon to make the meaning of these atrocities hazy. Unexplained acronyms are sprinkled liberally in public reports that are published by the government, disallowing and interpretation or understanding of what is being communicated amongst the leaders of the country. What messages are flying over the heads of the millions who have access to this information? All these texts really say, is that the government is taking hold of the population without saying anything at all. It empowers the political powers that hold the country to have liberty in analyzing and recognizing all represented uses of an idea or a concept.

Therefore, language and imagery hold the key to obtaining power over populations; deception creates vulnerability and many capitalize on this exposure. Hitler, Johnson and the Bush Administration took over this truism, giving them the power to control mass populations. The acronyms that the nation’s politicians use and that the general populace adheres to empowering language and shows that hiding the meaning of what is trying to be said only strengthens the intent behind it. What is said by the government can easily go over the most intelligent of civilian minds and the mind-controlling techniques of powerful politicians are incomprehensible until after they become relevant. There are many approaches to controlling people, but euphemisms and dehumanization are the strongest. Yet all these approaches only create deceit and mistrust. With such deceit comes the power of control.