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SIR – You mentioned the slaughter directed by radio of half a million people in Rwanda. Perhaps the exact techniques used to commit genocide, such as (to take Rwanda’s case) radio broadcasts coupled with the use of crude panga-knives, are not the most important question. Nor should we restrict ourselves to studying the state apparatus needed to sustain acts of mass murder, such as the Holocaust.
The deepest conundrum is what makes groups of people, defined by religion, class, race or any other attribute, so vulnerable to political manipulation that they can be easily persuaded to commit diabolical acts against other groups. Until we solve that core problem, would-be manipulators will always find one medium or another, from the printed word to the latest form of e-communication, to demonise and proscribe the hated “other”.
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