Newsletter from Jay Wilcox - July 2023: On Humanization

Good morning/afternoon/evening,

We all know the fate of the Titan submersible and its wealthy passengers. I followed this story on social media and saw so many ghoulish reactions in my feed--everything from jokes to laughing emojis to the mantra "Billionaires aren't people." Yes, I heard at least two people claiming that billionaires are not people. I believe in few absolutes, but I will say that dehumanization is always bad. Claiming that "[X group of people] aren't people" is an act of violence--and, like a blade with no handle, dehumanization inevitably hurts the person attempting to wield it.

Before I continue, my argument is not a defense of billionaires. The super-wealthy must be made to pay their fair share. It's just a lot harder to tax someone's annual income after they've been crushed by the entire weight of the Atlantic Ocean. Some say true reform is only possible through by-any-means revolution--but if we refuse to at least see the ruling class as human beings, then we'll never sufficiently understand human nature and the impulses that led to such corruption in the first place.

We fear what we don't understand.

After all, if your identified enemy is not a human being, then what is he? What emotions ride alongside righteous rage? I believe I've spoken to helplessness in a previous newsletter--how the feeling of being weak can make us lash out harder, mighty in our hopeless nausea. If you don't see X group of people as human, you'll feel sick when you think of them. This sickness will feed on itself. How could THEY do this to me? THEY must want me to suffer! This is a bad headspace to inhabit. We construct these monsters and wonder why we can't knock them out--forgetting, of course, how hard it is to throw a punch in a nightmare.

Someone who preaches dehumanization is trying to draw strength from their own weakness, but they would do well to consider the end goal of such rhetoric. What feelings are they inoculating themselves against? For what kind of violence are they praying? When I approach an incline on my bike, I push harder, building momentum before the climb. Dehumanization seems like a similar push--if we can just hate hard enough, we'll cross some apex and gravity will take over, carrying us swiftly toward The Big Necessary Violence. Gravity will relieve us of our struggle, our pain.

Yes, I understand billionaires frequently use their power to corrupt and squash social progress, and maybe it takes a certain strange altruism to say, "This person can't be human, because humans wouldn't hoard their wealth and steal from other humans." Still, refusing to recognize a person, even a person we dislike, as human cuts us off from critical thinking. What in myself resembles this person I despise, and how can I learn from their example?

I never want to sound preachy, and I'm aware that good people, important social movements, often lose by taking the "high road." The only reason the Joker stands a chance against Batman is because Batman does not kill--yet I see dehumanization as killing part of ourselves, letting our altruism curdle into poison. I'm speaking directly to myself when I say there are more comfortable and effective ways to experience life. If you're not mindful of what you think and why, quiet moments can become tortuous, and you don't have to get so angry when you're mowing the lawn, dude.

Thank you so much for reading. I hope you've been well.

Infinite Regards,

Jay