How Human Nature Fosters Violence, War and Genocide

Why are we the way we are? What causes us to be ourselves, with our characteristic attitudes, beliefs, reactions and behaviors? Scholars from many disciplines, religion, history, psychology, sociology and others have all addressed these fundamental questions related to who we are.
This book examines one specific, deadly and characteristic area of human life: mass violence and genocide, that has been present since the beginnings of recorded time. It describes the tendency of people to experience fear of others as a natural state, to demean, diminish and/ or kill others, the victims, largely because of what can be seen to be superficial designations of religion, race, ethnicity or nationality. These latter designations often are used as camouflage for instances of violence, mass killings or genocide that hide behind or build upon a basic human tendency, derived from our evolutionary background, to support members of our own group and to demean, dehumanize and often kill those who are considered “others”. Approaches to understand what might be called a potentially genocidal process within us that involve both an acceptance of and a challenge to our basic natures are emphasized.