The term "enemy" itself needs no lengthy explanation. This is a phenomenon or concept, the aspirations of which are to cause damage to an object. The enemy can be both single people and groups of people, as well as certain events, habits and circumstances. Like a shadow, the enemy is accompanied by his image, his imaginary representation in the thoughts and emotions of the victim. Often this idea has very little to do with the real state of affairs.
Origins
For a primitive man, the enemy was anyone who was not a member of his tribe. At that time, such behavior can be considered rational. The daily struggle for life and the very existence of the tribe dictated a similar attitude towards strangers. Modern conditions no longer imply a daily deadly struggle in a hostile environment. However, the ancient instincts, deeply seated in everyone, can manifest themselves in extreme situations. For example, during a war or disasters. Intelligence and culture fly off a modern person very quickly.
Who is the enemy
There is a version thatthe word "enemy" comes from the word "varangian". One can imagine a crowd of armed, hairy Vikings in horned helmets, landing on the shore for the purpose of robbery and robbery. Here it is quite obvious who the enemy is and how to deal with him. An enemy is someone who threatens the victim's existence or seeks to appropriate the victim's resources. When this happens in reality and with your own eyes, everything is clear. However, with indirect interaction, that is, when the enemy is not visible, there is a natural need and need to create an idea about this very enemy. A system of images and concepts about the enemy is being created in people's heads.
Image
Next item. The image of an enemy in conflict is a purely mental description of the enemy. In order to justify himself and give himself moral strength, he is endowed with the most negative features and properties. In fact, they dehumanize him. Almost always, if we are talking only about people, and not about phenomena, the formation of the image of the enemy occurs simultaneously for all opposing sides. Often, even the mutual descriptions of their opponents are very similar. Both armies go to kill each other, and each has a banner written: "God is with us." It would be funny if it weren't so sad. Like any human description of the surrounding reality is not perfect, so the image of the enemy describing the adversary is also far from reality. For such an image, this is especially characteristic. What are the fictional properties endowed with the enemy?
Fictitious properties of the enemy
First of all, someone who has been designated as an enemy must inspire acute distrust. And it doesn't matter on what grounds. This may be appearance, skin color, language, belonging to another community or state. The main thing is that any contact, even indirect, with this person or group of persons must be triggered. Of course, the enemy must be to blame for everything. So in the Middle Ages, due to crop failure, sorcerers and witches were blamed, much later - “damned capitalists” or “damned communists”. Based on distrust and a priori guilt of the adversary, the conclusion follows that everything that is beneficial to the enemy harms us. The opposite is also true. The image of the enemy in extreme cases suggests that absolutely all of his thoughts and actions serve one single purpose - to cause maximum harm and damage. The enemy does not eat or sleep, but only plots and does all sorts of nasty things. All these mental constructions lead to the dehumanization of the enemy, the recognition that this is not quite a person or even not a person at all. Which gives a moral justification to rid yourself of any humane manifestations towards him. What kind of humanism can be in relation to a cockroach? Only merciless destruction.
Duration
The image of the enemy that has arisen once has a fairly long life. Even when the active phase of the confrontation is long over and it becomes possible to take a more objective look at the former enemy, this image continues to live in the minds and souls of people. Its consolidation in the mass consciousness is facilitated primarily by people's emotions, negative expectations from the former enemy,stereotypes and stories about him at the household level. A fairly typical example is the attitude of Russians towards the Germans, despite the past 70-odd years, or the games of American children in the war, where the French are still the enemy. And this is after a couple of centuries.
Usefulness of this look
The image of the enemy is useful for the leadership of society in two main aspects. The first is the opportunity to blame the enemy for all the mistakes and mistakes made in the leadership. Negative attitudes switch to an abstract or concrete enemy, which is especially important during periods of aggravation of the social situation in society. The second is to ensure the rallying of citizens or members of the group to protect against the machinations of the enemy.
The unconvincing image of the enemy, clearly and unambiguously contradicting the objective and mass knowledge about the candidate for this position, is extremely dangerous. Therefore, the formation of this image and its promotion to the masses have recently become professionally engaged. The results achieved with this are very impressive. A good example is the III Reich, when tens of millions of civilized people, after processing, became fanatics of very, very controversial ideas. These ideas led to mass violence and the death of millions who fit the description of the created image. Or, for example, the famous Stalinist trials of "enemies of the people", when the vast majority of the country's population simply rejoiced about this.
General principles of creation
First of all, the needin the image of an external enemy arises as a result of real conflict situations, when it is necessary to repulse the aggressor. Until the beginning of the 19th century, external wars were mainly the business of autocrats and their armies. By and large, ordinary peasants did not care, as long as they did not rob. Then, gradually, the population became more and more involved in hostilities, creating the image of the enemy and fighting him with any means at hand. Including the "people's club" according to Count L. N. Tolstoy. During the years of serious trials, the formation of the image of the enemy in the mass consciousness initially occurs spontaneously, and then is fueled by all possible means from the ruling elite. But in order to create this image without real danger, quite a serious effort was required before. Since the 20th century, with the development of the media, this has become much easier. The image of the enemy is created without violence, by influencing people's emotions with well-established techniques and technologies.
Technology
There are many people who claim that the means of propaganda do not work on them. Alas, this is complete nonsense. They affect everyone, although with varying degrees of effectiveness. In addition, when the overwhelming majority consider black to be white, it becomes simply dangerous to insist that white is white. So, what are the main methods used to promote the image of the enemy? All of them are not distinguished by abstruseness and scientific names, but they act very effectively on the mass consciousness. Method of unanimity - when the desired is presented as real and it is pretended that it is exactly what it thinksoverwhelming majority. The stuffing of such information takes place under the flag of crystal clearness and the slogan "because everyone knows it." Repeatedly repeated in various media information is firmly held in the mind. Another method is the 40/60 principle, credited to Goebbels. Its essence is to create a source of information that gives out inconvenient truth in 60% of cases to gain the trust of the audience and in 40% of cases - propaganda lies. To compromise the enemy, a method is used with a code name from a joke: "the spoons were found, but the sediment remained." The enemy is accused of a terrible crime, provoking a wide discussion. Even after it turns out that nothing like this happened, unpleasant associations remain in the subconscious of people. A very important role in creating the image of an external enemy is played by the so-called soft power. These are works of art that, unobtrusively and gradually, through fictional heroes of films and books, convey information about the sharply negative qualities of representatives of the nation or any other group of people in relation to whom this negative image is formed. A typical example is American films that present Russians in a very unsympathetic way. There are many more techniques and techniques for introducing the right thoughts and moods into people's heads to create the right moods. All of them are most effective with complete or overwhelming control over the media. For all the seeming democracy, this control exists in all countries.
