8 Steps to Oblivion

By Steve Davies

Preamble

I stirred from a deep sleep at around 2.30pm last night. Like millions of people around the world I am deeply disturbed about the slaughter of innocents in Gaza.

I grabbed the notebook I keep next to my bed. My starting point? Knowing all that I do about moral disengagement I asked myself what would I write about what is being done to the people of Gaza if I was completely morally disengaged. What steps would be taken to ensure success?

What I scribbled in capital letters is that people want to live in a safe world. And they certainly want governments that actually serve and care for people. That they want governments that listen and are morally engaged.

Then I went back to sleep.

When I got up this morning I started writing typing in earnest. Carefully interpreting my scribbled notes. I’m a left-handed spider writer.

The eight steps

The cold logical and deeply disturbing facts are this:

1. Innocents get killed in all wars.
2. In large scale targeted bombings, large numbers of innocents will be killed. They will be labelled ‘collateral damage’.
3. The killing of innocents in such bombings will increase in proportion to the explosive power of each bomb used.
4. The killing of innocents in such bombings will be maximised by increasing population density of the ‘enemy’.
5. Such killings will be further increased by the design of the bombs being used. For example, through the use of bunker busting bombs on urban areas.
6. In shear logical terms all of the above would be known and taken into account in all aspects of military planning.
7. To do all of the above requires dehumanisation of the ‘enemy’ regardless of whether they are actual combatants or not. Success is highly dependent on personnel abandoning all sense of moral agency.
8. Crucial to the success of the preceding steps is the dismantling of Gazan society. This means destroying all social infrastructure. Health, education, social welfare, food production and distribution, along with all economic infrastructure.

The lesson

The historical and contemporary lesson? The greater the degree of distance between victims and participants in genocide the more successful the implementation of the eight steps.

The terminator hypothesis

The power of technology provides the moral disengagement (detachment as it were), to carry out the eight steps.

This, I contend, is the highway to hell and oblivion and, moreover, it is blatantly the case that money is no object.

Millions of people have seen the movie The Terminator. With advances of technology – surveillance and targeting technologies, artificial intelligence and drones – we are a heartbeat away from removing the human element from the perpetration of inhumanities.

The dire impact of that on societies, economies, communities, individuals, government and civilisation today and into the future cannot be underestimated.

The driver of this is normalised and deep moral disengagement.

The question ourselves and our governments need to ask.

Is that the world we want ourselves and those who come after us to live in?  

Reality

As I emphasised at the beginning people want governments that actually serve and care for people. That they want governments that listen and are morally engaged.

That’s the positive change that’s needed. And, even in Australia, we are living and seeing the opposite in far too many respects.