Why Do Monsters Exist

In history, humans have influenced ways to abuse each other in hateful ways. Because of hate, all miserable things that happen to people relates to mob mentality. Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel states, “The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.” Throughout history, humanity has seen dignified people pursuing horrendous actions because these individuals got caught up in mob mentality.

Many people would willingly assist someone in danger, yet many German citizens sat idle as innocent people were slaughtered by the thousands. By the mid 1920s, Germany was plunged into a state of economic depression and people were desperately looking for someone to follow. Many people simply conformed to the ideals of others, despite their own thoughts and beliefs. Herd mentality is the subconscious adoption of the attitudes and behaviors of one’s peers. As a result of this ingrained disposition, people are more likely to “bind together in the wrong direction than to be alone in the right one” (Taleb 192). Through the use of propaganda, Hitler effectively targeted people’s innate need to conform to prevent the rapid decline in his following

Don’t leave me here alone.’ The narrator simply shakes him off and moves on. The soldiers have been trained like beasts and they have been dehumanised; they have been taught that no life is to be spared. Death is now the norm and they have been desensitized to it. The narrator relates an incident where he volunteers for a raid on the German trenches. He experiences much trauma; he kills a soldier, Karl. Karl’s death is terrible- the bayonet is trapped in Karl and eventually the narrator has to shoot him. When he returns to the trenches with two German prisoners he tries to suppress what has happened: ‘It is better not to think’. The narrator knows that he would indubitably go insane if he thinks about his action. Karl’s death epitomizes the fact that soldiers on both sides are killed in horrific way for no discernible reason. There is definitely nothing glorious or heroic about war.

It can be stated and proved that World War II was one of the most terrific times in history, with its persecution of normal civilians for not looking “perfect” or for their religion, and the genocide of all those groups. But how did this all happen?

What defines a monster? Is it their grotesque, unnatural appearance that separates them from the rest of mankind, or is it their lack of remorse and compassion that makes them different? The word monster conjures up figures from gothic horror of exotic peoples with horrifyingly exaggerated features, and the kinds of impossible delusive beasts inhabiting the pages of medieval bestiaries. Well at first I thought exactly that. When I used to hear the word “monster”, my mind immediately pictured the petrifying beast that took residence under my bed for a substantial portion of my childhood. It had demonic beating red eyes, razor sharp teeth that glistened with fresh blood and amphibian like scales covering every inch of its enormous body. However, as I got older, I started to realize that there was no such thing as monsters and that it was all just a figment of my imagination. Accordingly, the fear of the monster under my bed slowly dissipated. Nevertheless, it wasn’t until after reading a quote by my favorite author, Steven King, that I was finally able to fully comprehend what the true definition of the word “monster” really was. “Monsters are real, ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes they win”. It had taken me awhile to truly grasp what King had meant, but then it clicked. Everyone has a monster inside them, dormant or not. That monster is the voice we hear in the back of our heads, urging us to cheat or to steal, and in some instances, worse. That monster

In the pursuit of safety, acceptance, and the public good, many atrocities have been committed in places such as Abu Ghraib and My Lai, where simple, generally harmless people became the wiling torturers and murderers of innocent people. Many claim to have just been following orders, which illustrates a disturbing trend in both the modern military and modern societies as a whole; when forced into an obedient mindset, many normal and everyday people can become tools of destruction and sorrow, uncaringly inflicting pain and death upon the innocent.

To understand how this could happen again we must first understand how it happened at all. One can not think of the Germans as hate based beings frothing at the teeth at the opportunity to kill a Jew. The German people were normal people, like you and I. It was

The people scared to look behind them, in fear of what they may see, did exactly what the Nazi demanded. The poor mothers and children dressed in shorts and skirts almost frozen to death, just a jacket wasn’t enough to keep you warm in this weather. The soldiers just

People will resort to drastic measures for survival. Elie Wiesel, a young Jewish boy learns about this as he goes through life in the concentration camps during the Holocaust. He talks about this in his book Night. In Night, Jews are taken from their homes and tortured to death. Everything is taken from the prisoners, so they have to fight for survival. Some of the prisoners give up, but others focus on fighting to the end with a bit of hope that they will make it out alive. Surviving in a place like a concentration camp is very hard and dangerous. Wiesel shows in his memoir that when survival is at stake, people lose self-respect and their humanity.

“Suddenly, as if someone was shooting them inside my brain, all the massacres I had seen since the day I was touched by war began flashing in my head. Every time I stopped shooting to change magazines and saw my two lifeless friends, I angrily pointed my gun into the swamp and killed more people.” (Beah 119). This is one of the most powerful quotes in the book. As you’re reading you understand that this is just the beginning and it only gets worse from here on out. This is the life of a child soldier.

The film, Radical Evil, by Stefan Ruzowitzky, argues that there is genocidal potential in each of us. Personal responsibility is not lost, but rather shown through the courage to step out or the willingness to conform. Radical Evil attempts to explain conformity through a series of psychological tests such as the Milgram Experiment and the Asch Conformity Test. Through psychologists, sociologists, historians, and primary sources, the film suggests that everyone is capable of murder or genocide given the right environment such as military orders or the atmosphere of war. Essentially, the perpetrator becomes the victim of their own psyche and circumstances. However, allowing the Einsatzgruppen, or any other Nazi affiliated group, to assume

The conflict between the Allies and the Axis was a horrific and deadly one, which consisted of genocide and mass bombings. Innocent citizens were killed with the estimated sixty million casualties, which lead to the question as to the morality of the different actors—Germany, Japan, England and America— in WWII. In order to truly assess their guilt, meaning their moral innocence, each country will be measured upon the morality of their intent and execution of the different controversial mass killings that Germany (the Holocaust), Japan (Nanking), and the Allied forces (Dresden and Hiroshima) took part in. This hierarchy of evil can be judged upon how Japan’s tyranny and the Allies’ area bombing compare to the genocide performed by Germany. Similarly, these countries will be judged on the whether these different acts were premeditated versus in response to another act, as well as the proportionality to which these acts were carried out. This measurement of evil places each party on an overall scale, which depicts the total guilt that each country or countries deserve. WWII exemplifies that while war is an unavoidable aspect of human nature, there is no such thing as a just war. Similarly, while there is a definite hierarchy of morality between the different actors of WWII, each of the countries at play are immoral in their intent and execution of the attacks on opposing countries.

More than half a century has passed since the end of World War Two and to this day it is still difficult to fully understand the severity of what was by far the most destructive war in human history. More than sixty million people were killed during World War Two and more than half of those were innocent town’s people. Among the dead were over six million Jews, which was two thirds of the total living race in Europe at the time. Beyond these general statistics were thousands of stories of crimes committed against soldiers and civilians. These crimes against humanity included cases of prisoners of war being murdered, sent to concentration camps and abuse as well as harmless civilians being rounded up and

As shocking as Nazi acts were these have not been isolated incidents. Hundreds of thousands have been murdered in Russia, Cambodia, Chile, Iraq, Yugoslavia, Vietnam, Philippines, El Salvador, Rwanda and many more over the second part of the past century. The sad part is that the world communities has witnessed the massacres and have been hesitant to intervene. One of the many examples occurs in the case of the genocide and crimes against humanity in Rwanda which any action by the United Nations was paralyzed by the Cold War. The result in most of these cases that have reoccurred in history the leader/dictator/president/military has been able to get away with it unlike in the case in Nuremberg. One of the very few exceptions of this was the case of the capture of the President Saddam Hussein. He was captured on December 2003 and was tried and found guilty by the Iraqi Special Tribunal who charged him for crimes of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed since 1968.

How is the term “monster” defined? Are monsters dark creatures, with the ability to call upon hell and all its attributes? Do they have mangy fur and eyes the vibrant color of blood? In reality, monsters are not furry beast that live under the bed. Monsters are born into this world just as you and I, as human children.Children who utilize false innocents to cloak their wicked tendencies. Monsters are no longer simply being that haunt the nightmares of children, no longer can they be vanquished by the flip of a light switch. Monsters are real, they are individuals that have traveled so deep into the darkness of their own soul that they have lost their way out. As human beings we are gifted with free will, therefore we have the ability to chose what side ,light or dark, prevails in our hearts. With fierce unwavering determination, we even possess the power to fight away the darkness with in the hearts of others.