Looking ahead to our discussion of Lesson 1 of “On Tyranny”, the question explores how groups are unfairly blamed for a nation’s problems. I believe that this blame serves the purpose of dehumanizing members of the group. The chapter mention’s Milgram’s experiment and brought to my mind two other examples of objectification. In these examples, authority figures did not need to approve or instruct, however, similar behaviours were seen from people who participated in the experiences. The two examples are: Marina Abramović’s “Rhythm 0” and, more recently, YouTuber “Norme”‘s effort to beat a world record.
In 1974, artist Marina Abramović performed “Rhythm 0”, an art piece that involved her sitting motionless with 72 items on a table for an audience to use on her however they liked. The performance began innocently, with people picking up the rose and giving it to her. But after some time, it devolved. Her clothes were cut up and she was bruised, pricked with thorns, and cut with a razor blade. The performance ended as an audience member pointed a gun at her and attempted to shoot her. After a struggle with one man from the audience preventing the man with the gun from going further, the gun was removed from the potential shooter. The performance didn’t end because of the gun incident. It ended at exactly 6 hours as planned, at which time, she got up and walked toward the audience who, now faced with the possibility of having to confront their actions, retreated.
Thus, not everyone in attendance chose to abuse her, but those who did ran out as soon as she started walking towards them.
As she recounts it in her YouTube video, when the gallery announced that the performance was over, the audience left as they were unable or unwilling to face her as a person, and had instead viewed her as an object during her performance.Â
In a similar experience documented just days ago, YouTuber Norme just beat the world record for longest time standing still, despite people tagging him and police being called.
These examples show how quickly people dehumanize others, but also show that humanity does exist in those who stood up for the creators of these experiences. It’s unfortunate that it’s only in retrospect that we see a common view that people who mistreated the creators are vilified, while people who defended or treated the creators with kindness are praised.
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