The Genocide Contagion: How We Commit and Confront Holocaust and Genocide by Israel W. Charny (review)

This is a book about human nature and the "foundations of evil" that reside within us. Israel Charny utilizes a psychological approach to analyze how it is that all human beings can become potential perpetrators of genocide. The processes that allow us to kill our fellows in large numbers are intrinsic to our nature: "all are human, all are common, all are necessary for our everyday functioning as human beings, and all, without exception, are practiced by every one of us" (p. 32). All are necessary but taken to an extreme they become disruptive, dehumanizing, and threatening to the lives of others.

The author first lists the "twelve foundations of evil," and shows how they operate in everyday life, what happens when they are taken to extremes, and how they turn ordinary people into potential killers. He shows the many different ways in which such transformations can take place, and in doing so, indicates steps that we can take to prevent them. After laying out in detail the foundations of evil (among them, the quest for innocence, power, and immortality; meaning through conformity or ideology; and defending one's image through dehumanizing others), Charny attempts to bring people to the realization that they may harbor attitudes and exhibit behavior that can endanger human life. He does this through cognitive means, providing a set of questions to be answered by the reader with regard to each foundation of evil. He describes this as "Independent Study: Learning Exercises about How We Cause Harm and Protect Life." After answering the questions posed by the exercise, the individual must respond to three further questions: "What have I learned about myself that is relevant to my everyday life? Are there things I would like to change about my personality or the way I conduct my daily life? Would I like to set a clearer moral norm for myself with regard to what I will and will not permit myself to do under different circumstances, including conditions of war" (p. 177)?

Charny puts forth a single principle to guide us: respect the sanctity of human life by neither taking life nor committing harm against others. On the face of it, this is a principle that we can agree to, but what it entails is not simple. It would exclude capital punishment, but would it also ban abortion? Does it require merely "clean hands"—not committing harm and not profiting from harm that others may have committed—or "working hands": active intervention to prevent evil. The latter could mean a responsibility to provide universal medical care, to end hunger, or to protect human rights everywhere, as well as to prevent genocide. How far the author would want to go is unclear, but the questions he poses fit within the framework of "clean hands." Elsewhere, however, he does speak in passing about a more active approach, but does not provide directions.

Those answering might wonder whether taking one of the foundations to the extreme would be sufficient to bring a person to participate in genocide. Charny does not answer, but comes close, suggesting that the "psychological process of sacrifice lies at the foundation of perpetrating evil against others" (p. 132). He adds: "To a significant extent, committing genocide … serves the purpose of denying our ultimate death" (p. 141). In support, he cites the ancient Aztecs and today's suicide bombers. But is the mystical notion of preserving one's life by killing others part of universal human nature, or, as in the cases he cites, part of culture and ideology? Perhaps more realistically, he suggests that several of the "foundations" taken together and reinforcing each other could unleash the potential for human destructiveness within us. But he does not indicate which combination is most lethal, and thus most to be avoided.

The author has made a well-intentioned and informative effort to provide a form of moral education...