Harald Welzer Quote: How Social Exclusion Enables Genocidal Violence

“[...] As a result, these normative changes mean that a group of members of society is gradually excluded from the ‘universe of general obligation’, which continues to apply to the others, those belonging to the majority society, but now becomes exclusive. As I said, this process is the central prerequisite for the emergence of genocidal processes. For exclusion proceeds from the definition that the group to be excluded, and that means each of its members, is a threat to the well-being and ultimately to the existence of the majority society—which then logically sees its salvation in rendering this group, perceived as threatening, harmless and, in the final analysis, destroying it. That is why all known processes of extermination are preceded by a definition of the threatening group, and this definition is followed by an accelerating social, psychological, material, and legal declassification, which increasingly transforms the initially only claimed otherness of the excluded group into a reality shaped and felt by contemporaries. [...]”

Harald Welzer

Harald Welzer is a German social psychologist, sociologist, and publicist who focuses on violence, memory culture, and social transformation processes.

This quote highlights how societal exclusion can systematically lead to genocidal violence and emphasizes the central role of social dehumanization in such processes.

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