The Mind, Mob & the Contagion of Violence:- The “Act of Killing” & Its relevance in modern Society

Between 1965–66 Anwar Congo and his companions, tortured, raped, mutilated and slaughtered thousands with cheery nonchalance during the infamous Indonesian Communist Purge, a massacre over several months, targeting alleged “Communist Sympathizers”; “Communists” including every person who opposed the government, or who the government targeted from farmers to ethnic minorities.

So, at what point, does this violence become condonable and even normalized? How does knowledge of impunity trump humanity? How does this shape the course national history?

The “Act of Killing” a documentary by Director Joshua Oppenheimer is told through interviews held with ex-leaders of the squads, who were amongst those participating in the extrajudicial executions. Anwar and his friends, small-time criminals become recruits for the government’s death squads. As the documentary unfolds, the interviewees enact scenes of executions they carried out through the decades, in a sort of almost comedic cinematic demonstration, complete with cameras, and costumes. The supposed rationale behind hatred being that the “Communists” was that they were going to conduct a coup against the govt and were in general cruel, dictatorial, unpleasant people. A ruse which, evolved into a slew of killings from 1965–1966, massacring almost million citizens. As Anwar and his compatriots go on a spree of depravity, sanctioned by political action, they remain secure in the knowledge of the justifiability of their actions, impunity, and inculpability. Anwar and his friends are neither penalized, not condemned, but in fact celebrated as heroes; appearing in TV shows and rubbing shoulders with Indonesia’s most known politicians, they boast of their activities to national audiences. Anwar in fact is a co-founder of the

The history of this violent episode in Indonesian history, it seems has been largely trivialized, As the descendants of the victims of the violence have spoken out in recent times. increased attention has been directed to this traumatic, yet forgotten period in Indonesian history. The interviewees own feelings towards their past, is interesting to behold; a lack of remorse, while common also coexists sort of dissonance, and a dormant regret about the acts.

When violence becomes well-established, a new normalcy becomes the norm, where the means justify the ends and the unimaginable becomes conceivable. The “Convergence theory” explains, how when individuals unite under a particular cause, all their all desires are subsumed into a collective mass. “Deindividuation” explains how, in a group identity, self-awareness and personal responsibility become diluted, leading to a situation of anonymity. The infamous “Conformity” study explained, how people are tempted to blend in to the ways of their group to fit in. All this emboldens individuals to perform acts that otherwise, by themselves they would never have dreamed of. But, the major culprit, standing accused is source of the message itself; the insidious indoctrination of hatred towards the “other” by institutions benefitting from the carnage. Anwar and his companions, no doubt had a history of criminality, and are no doubt even aware of what their wrongdoings, but their depravity is taken to new and inconceivable levels. In a sort of perpetuating circle, hatred is both fed into as well as fed off the psyches of the men. The “Pancasila Youth” — a far right paramilitary organization, still running today, co-founded by Anwar played a prominent role in the massacre. Today it is patronized by those close to the government.

The 1994 Genocide of Rwanda, was driven by similar such campaigns, aimed at eliminating Tutsis, with concerted campaigns by the Rwanda Patriotic Front in spreading propaganda and inciting violence towards the Tutsis. Political Patronage and impunity unleashed the most heinous side of the perpetrating individuals and vice-versa. In 23rd May, 2019 in my country India Pragya Thakur, an accused in an act of Hindu terrorism, for a series of bomb blasts in the city of Jaipur, is now a member of the Indian parliament. Since 2014, when the Hindu Nationalist Party BJP gained power there have been a wave of lynching’s of minorities (in this case Muslims), for either slaughtering cows (deemed sacred in Hindu faith) or in general. Pragya Thakur is a member of the ABVP, an affiliate of the RSS (Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh), a right-wing Hindu Nationalist paramilitary organization, much like the Pancasila Youth, and which has close ties to the ruling party. Lynching’s of minorities while, still not at unrestrained levels, are still becoming common place. Propaganda, with the precariousness of the people’s economic woes develops into a hatred that at once become normalized, socially acceptable and even glorified. But the most unsettling question raised by an “An Act of Killing”, is that of the future, that we wish to make. Silence, does not heal the trauma, but sedates it, leaving it alive and festering in the consciousness of a nation and its people affecting the well-being of people, who oft may or may not realize how their woes are subconsciously or unconsciously tied to the past. Oppenheimer’s piece points towards histories whose annals, have cleansed themselves of that which they wish to avoid, and made farces out of justice. It seems to linger on George Orwell’s message; if the past controls the future and the present the past, can the fate and wellbeing of any society be sustained by a bed of obfuscated truths?