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William Brennan

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Dehumanizing the Vulnerable: When Word Games Take Lives Paperback – November 1, 2000

by William Brennan (Author)

4.5 11 ratings

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Shockingly relevant, this hard hitting study shows how dehumanizing language was and is being used to justify violent acts against vulnerable people, including the unborn, African Americans, the elderly, women, and Jews.

Print length

287 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Life Cycle Books, Ltd.
Publication date

November 1, 2000
Dimensions

6 x 1 x 8.75 inches
ISBN-10

0919225195
ISBN-13

978-0919225190
See all details

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Life Cycle Books, Ltd. (November 1, 2000)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 287 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0919225195
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0919225190
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 4.8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1 x 8.75 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,921,867 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #406 in Abortion & Birth Control
- #183,571 in Self-Help (Books)
- #431,365 in Religion & Spirituality (Books)

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4.5 11 ratings

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4.5 out of 5

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Diane Caldera

Choice -- or Torture-Murder?

Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2013

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When news of the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, passed in the House June 2013 and now introduced into the Senate, can be blacked-out by news media as not worth much attention, Dehumanizing the Vulnerable is the book of the century. If American women are free to kill pain-capable innocents -- in times more careful of words and the meaning of equal right to life, unborn children -- we desperately need a thousand more books like this calling their murder, murder -- not "choice."

3 people found this helpful

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JR

Thoroughly researched going in depth into a subject that many ...

Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2015

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Thoroughly researched going in depth into a subject that many would do well to study. The manipulation of language has been used throughout history to facilitate unspeakable horrors.The author demonstrates that this manipulation continues to be used to perpetrate such horrors with abortion apologists using the same words to justify what they do to human beings. The author points out how "never again" became "here we go again." The author's research and scholarship is proof positive that Edmund Burke was right.

2 people found this helpful

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Bill Keevers

A Book About Which it is Difficult if not Impossible to Remain Indifferent

Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2014

Dehumanizing the Vulnerable: When Word Games Take Lives, by William Brennan, is a book that merits being read by the widest possible audience. It is meticulously researched and well argued, and packs quite an emotional wallop to boot. In its discussion of such hot button moral topics as abortion, euthanasia, racism, sexism, and totalitarianism, this book will validate and fortify the beliefs of some (including those of the reviewer); infuriate others; and leave still others discomforted and shaken. This is a book about which it is difficult if not impossible to remain indifferent.

Brennan’s basic thesis is that the great crimes against humanity (abortion, attacks on the vulnerable, dependent and disabled, the exploitation of one sex by the other, anti-Semitism, genocide under Nazism and Soviet totalitarianism, racism and the enslavement of non-whites, and the virtual annihilation of America’s indigenous peoples) share in common a rhetoric or language of dehumanization. This common way of speaking, Brennan argues, takes a variety of forms, ranging from viewing the unborn, the dependent, women, Jews, Native Americans, blacks either as “deficient humans,” ”subhuman” or “nonhuman,” a “species of lower animals,” ”repulsive parasitic creatures,” ”diseased organisms,” “inanimate objects,” “waste products,” or ”legal nonpersons.”

Brennan argues that pinning such labels on people facilitates greatly or makes possible denying them their basic and essential dignity as full-fledged human beings. It follows that a critically important part of the solution to human oppression is a semantic sea change to rhetoric that is life-affirming and that is capable of counteracting the “toxic” rhetoric of dehumanization. Brennan speaks of an “expansive definition of humanity,” one that embraces all human persons regardless of their physical characteristics or stage of life. He points out rightfully that a shift in semantics will not in and of itself eradicate dehumanization. He recognizes that human institutions must change: laws ought to reflect an expansive definition of humanity, and social systems should not allow some people to dehumanize others for profit. However, the powerful role of semantic oppression, long neglected, is given its just due in this book.

Brennan addresses the critical issue of the grounds on which the ethic of expansiveness can be defended. He argues that an “expansive definition of humanity” can be based either on a humanistic or supernatural worldview. That is, its underpinning can be natural law (human beings regardless of characteristics or stage of life being entitled to inalienable rights to dignity and well-being) or divine law (human beings regardless of characteristics or stage of life being equally sacred and valuable in the eyes of God). Thus, Brennan clearly is not pitting secularists against those with an appreciation for the supernatural foundations of our existence: rather he is pitting those with an expansive view of humanity against those with an exclusionary or restrictive view of humanity.

I find myself in wholehearted sympathy with Brennan’s argument. It exemplifies a sociology that is morally grounded. A universal moral standard (an expansive definition of humanity) is put forward as a societal ideal. The sociological side of the analysis identifies those cultural elements (in this case linguistic symbols) that not only define how human beings are viewed but have implications for how various groups are treated differently. The sociological analysis helps us understand why the universal moral principle is not being realized and what steps need to be taken to bring the reality closer in line with the ideal. Clearly the sociological analysis constitutes an intellectual activity independent of the activity by which the moral standard is delineated. However, the sociological analysis is clearly subordinate to the moral mission which serves to frame that activity. Brennan’s argument is not esoteric, given the fact that his book is meant to appeal to a general audience and therefore a premium is placed on accessibility. However, the development of a morally-grounded sociology or a Catholic sociology requires systematic efforts to integrate two autonomous yet cybernetically linked intellectual activities-the development of universal moral principles upon which society should be grounded, on the one hand, and the identification of social and cultural forces that either support or impede the actualization of those principles, on the other. In unpacking Brennan’s argument, we are able to infer the outlines of such an integrated perspective. High on the agenda of those interested in developing, legitimizing, and institutionalizing a morally based sociology or a Catholic sociology should be to present such a perspective in as explicit and codified a form as possible.

—Anthony L. Haynor Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey

4 people found this helpful

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Gary Simmons

The Messy Parts of History We Don't Want to Know About

Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2010

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A three-minute review of a very good book.

8 people found this helpful

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Kevin Jones

An excellent exposition on verbal corruption

Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2000

In this surprisingly compact book, Professor Brennan documents characteristics of the dehumanizing rhetoric which has accompanied so many atrocities of history. His text provides persuasive evidence that the rationalizations used to justify destroying other human beings are rather uncreative, falling into only eight categories. Brennan classifies these alibis of destruction into "Deficient" humans, nonhumans, animals, parasites, diseases, inanimate objects, waste products, and the Orwellian "legal nonperson." He focuses upon the plight of women, European Jews, American blacks, the unborn, and the disabled.
Brennan's commentary on the "semantic gymnastics" by which some people have dehumanized others is sharp, though pedants like myself would enjoy several hundred pages asking whether semantic corruption precedes mass oppression, or merely rationalizes oppressive actions already in progress.
While reading the concluding chapters, I was reminded of Simone Weil's comment that force turns a person into a *thing*, an object, a non-human. Brennan shows us the powerful force of words, those mere utterances that have for too long confined men and women to toil, terror, and death.

34 people found this helpful

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Sarah Wood

A Consistent Pro-Life Ethic Illustrated

Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2001

One of my favorite books, Dehumanizing the Vulnerable illustrates how human beings are reduced to non-human status by those who wish to destroy them, and it starts with the power of words. Everyone from unborn babies to people of certain ethnic backgrounds have been the victims of those who were the "pro-choice" movement of the time. ("Pro-choice" in owning a slave, murdering Jews or "terminating" an unborn baby.) This book is relevant not only to those who oppose abortion, but those like myself who oppose the entire spectrum of aggression (including war and the death penalty). Invaluable for all human rights activist, whether your focus is on the rights of humans in the womb,out of the womb---or both.

25 people found this helpful

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Peter Kenney

A Good Investment

Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2003

William Brennan is a Pro-Life activist who has provided the Right To Life movement with a very useful tool by authoring DEHUMANIZING THE VULNERABLE. Brennan shows how dehumanizing language is used to devalue vulnerable populations such as the unborn and the elderly. The historical examples he offers are quite convincing as he traces the dehumanizing efforts made against women, European Jews, Soviet enemies, African Americans and Native Americans. Opponents of such groups often try to depict them as inanimate objects, waste products, nonpersons and even diseases.
Brennan makes his case with clarity. Anyone interested in Right To Life issues will find this book to be a good investment.

14 people found this helpful

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