Dictum of the day, or on the nature of hatred

...For many of us this means facing the uncomfortable truth that ordinary people are capable of committing genocide. What after all does it take? Perhaps unlike murder it takes a more complete indifference to a portion of humanity. The perpetrator must have the ability to forget that a specific portion of the population, of one's larger community, is human. It takes a consuming indifference to the fate of a member of this group. The very notion of indifference here goes beyond hate. Hate implies relationship, something many in this particular conflict had with neighbors, colleges, in-laws and schoolmates. But these relationships were also destroyed by the dehumanization that some, not all, embraced. While many resisted what they knew to be false, many did not and fell victim themselves to this propaganda. But once a person loses his humanity to indifference, genocide becomes a means to the end.

Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Milorad Trbić, First Instance Verdict, X-KR-07/386, 16 October 2009, para. 794.