RepressionAn Example of Social

Control

This Week• Repression as a means of social control

– Whose Responsible?

– Real Examples: Lynching and War

– Torture and Warfare

Things to think about• How is repression part of socialization?

– What are the goals of repression?– Responsibility is mixture of small and large scale.– How effective is torture as a means of social

control and intelligence gathering?

Repression and Social Control

• How does society keep people in line?• Internal Sources of Social Control

– Socialization internalizes society’s goals and values• External Sources of Social Control

– Informal sanctions - pressure, humiliation, etc.– Formal sanctions - rules, laws, etc.

• Repression– Use of coercion to enforce goals of the repressing group

Repression to Silence Opposition

• At this anti-war rally, police used “bean-bag” bullets on protestors.

• Thus, people are encouraged to seek only “legitimate” means of voicing dissent, like voting.

Responsibility for Repression

• While connected, it is necessary to separate the institution promoting repression from people who engage in it.

– Governments, military and political officials sanction the use of repression.

– War, dictatorial regimes, and governments encouraging fear of others promotes the use of repression.

– Mixture of small-scale (individuals who participate) and large-scale (institutions and context of repression)

Some Individuals Participate

• Some people enjoy their role in the repressive regime!

Others Refuse to Participate• Revealed: U.S. Soldier Killed Herself

After Objecting to Interrogation Techniques

– Editor & Publisher• http://www.commondreams

.org/headlines06/1102-05.htm

Pat Tillman• After 9/11, enlisted in

the Rangers to fight in Afghanistan, but was sent to Iraq instead.

• Thought the war in Iraq was “so fucking illegal.”

• Killed by “friendly fire” in Afghanistan.

But, Torture is Official Policy• The US engages in the “practice of

rendition, in which dozens of suspects have been seized and turned over for interrogation to other countries, including several known to engage routinely in torture.”– Torture Victim Had No Terror Link, Canada

Told U.S.• Scott Shane, NY Times 9/25/06

Torture• The violent force-feeding

of hunger strikers, incidents of excessive violence used in transporting prisoners and combinations of interrogation techniques "must be assessed as amounting to torture" – http://

www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0213-01.htm

Torture Produces Little Useful Intelligence

• Torture was used to obtain justifications for the invasion of Iraq– Confession That Formed Base of Iraq War was

Acquired Under Torture• Agence France Presse

– http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1027-04.htm

• Information Obtained through Torture is Unreliable– Campbell warns against torture

• http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3295397.stm

War Worsens Threat

• Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Worsens Terrorism Threat– New York Times

• More Deadly Than Saddam– Japan Times - http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1016-20.htm

• 98 Percent of Cluster Bomb Victims are Civilians– Inter Press Service - http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1103-09.htm

Military Charts Movement of Conflict in Iraq Toward Chaos

New York Times -http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/01/world/middleeast/01military.html?hp&ex=1162443600&en=ae294d1d13aed188&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Things to think about• How is repression part of socialization?

– What are the goals of repression?– Responsibility is mixture of small and large scale.– How effective is torture as a means of social

control and intelligence gathering?