Mobbing: A Familiar Pattern
Editorial

by Anton Hout (edited by me)
 
Stories of the Holocaust fill most of us with shock and horror. To think of fellow human beings in such a degraded state evokes deep emotions of sadness, anger, and shame for the human race for..

what we have wrought. It is painful to contemplate the suffering these people endured. What is even more difficult to comprehend - is that this was done to them by other human beings, and worse - that it was done willfully.
This was no accident, no anomally, it was..

the end result of a systematic eliminative process. A process which was necessary to create the conditions where such a thing was even possible. It did not start here. Hatred against these people was carefully nurtured, by which their identity, ethics, sanity and humanity..

were denied, by which permission to abuse them was granted, then encouraged, then demanded.
I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever
human beings endure suffering and humiliation.
We must always take sides.

Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.

Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.
~ Elie Wlesel

The method of elimination known as #mobbing has been with us for a long time. It is simple, efficient and scalable. It is insidious and pernicious as it hides behind a veil of lies and justifications.

It is designed to be difficult to detect or prove. Those that do see it are terrified and are too intimidated to speak out. This silence emboldens the bullies and the mobbing process continues and escalates to its predictable, stereotypical and inevitable result:

the elimination of the targeted individual, group or race.

The course of mobbing changes its character over time as the social setting changes. Research thus far reveals very stereotypical courses (Leymann, e. g. 1990b).

Even though this relates to Mobbing in the workplace..

it describes the same process used by the Nazis against their scapegoats, primarily the Jews.

1. Critical incidents:
Long before the war, resentment toward the Jewish population was brewing. Longstanding grievances fuelled hatred and a racist mindset that..

reached the highest levels of European power. At this stage it is not yet a mobbing, not yet a Holocaust, but it has begun.

2. Mobbing and stigmatizing:
Anti-semitism is rampant and promoted openly. Slander, derision and baiting is the order of the day. A prime example..

indicative of the level to which this vitriol reached can be found in Julius Streicher, the Nazi newspaper publisher of, the aptly named, "Der Stuermer" (The Attacker). Streicher used his newspaper to further his rabidly anti-semitic views by spreading venemous stories and..

calling for the destruction of the Jewish people. Bullies like Streicher paved the road to destruction with incitement and propaganda. At the same time as these tactics erode support for the target, they also make it socially acceptable, even benefitial, to participate..

in the attacks. Ironically the targets of this abuse are made out the be the "real" troublemakers. In the case of the Jews, Streicher blamed them for all of Germany's, Europe's and the World’s woes.

3. Personnel management:
Once bullies like Striecher have stirred up..

enough trouble it becomes a problem for those in authority. The Nazi Party was the legal governing authority to which Jewish people were expected to appeal to for justice.

When those in authority have a vested interest in silencing and destroying the target the outcome is..

sadly predictable. Lives are destroyed with the full legal sanction of the state (or corporation, in the case of workplace mobbing targets).

4. Incorrect identification:
What is the Final Solution to the Mobbing Question? As bullies never accept responsibility for their crimes,

it is the disenfranchised, helpless target who is branded as the "real" problem - for which a final solution must be found.

5. Expulsion:
The Solution? Eliminate them!!!
Professor Kenneth Westhues of the University of Waterloo describes the mobbing process to which workers..

are subjected. One can readily see the same process at work in Nazi Germany in the campaign against the Jews.

Mobbing can be understood as the stressor to beat all stressors. It is an impassioned, collective campaign by co-workers to exclude, punish, and humiliate..

a targeted worker. Initiated most often by a person in a position of power or influence, mobbing is a desperate urge to crush and eliminate the target. The urge travels through the workplace like a virus, infecting one person after another. The target comes to be viewed as..

absolutely abhorrent, with no redeeming qualities, outside the circle of acceptance and respectability, deserving only of contempt. As the campaign proceeds, a steadily larger range of hostile ploys and communications comes to be seen as legitimate.

In spite of the hopeful words "Never Again" this insidious process has never stopped. It has relentlessly continued to play itself out around the world to this very day - with no end in sight. Bullies of every stripe, military, political and corporate, continue to profit..

by trading in misery and death. Each of them uses this process to justify their crimes to make them palatable to themselves and to bystanders who might otherwise object. They use this slow, methodical approach to creep up on thier victims.

Victims who do not want to believe what is happening, that a poison is taking hold of them, that a noose is tightening around their necks, that thier neighbours, coworkers or countrymen would ever perpetrate such crimes against them.

As the Nazis advanced and consolidated their power many didn't want to believe the reports they were hearing of mass killings. They delayed going into hiding and held out faint hope that maybe things would be alright after all.

They learned too late that..

the mobbing process had already gone too far. Too far for hope, too far for reason, too far for mercy.

We ignore mobbing at our own peril. Inhumanity is so commonplace in our world that many have simply accepted it or have been beaten down for so long they no longer have..

the strength to stand up to it. It is incumbent on those who still can to speak up while there is still time. Many are too intimidated and afraid and console themselves that others have suffered even more than they have, that they are "lucky" because things could be much worse.

They witness abuses against others but say nothing, do nothing, because they are afraid that they would be next. Their credo is "Better them than me."

(to be continued..)