Genocide, after all, is an exercise in community building...In 1994, Rwanda was regarded in much of the rest of the world as the exemplary instance of the chaos and anarchy associated with collapsed states. In fact, the genocide was the product of order, authoritarianism, decades of modern political theorizing and indoctrination, and one of the most meticulously admistered states in history.
The quote highlights a chilling perspective on genocide, suggesting that such horrific acts can stem from a twisted sense of community and order rather than chaos. In Rwanda, the 1994 genocide was misleadingly perceived by the international community as a result of societal breakdown. However, it was, in reality, the culmination of years of authoritarian control and systematic indoctrination, reflecting a misguided attempt at building a unified national identity through extreme measures.
The author, Philip Gourevitch, emphasizes that the Rwandan genocide was not a spontaneous eruption of violence, but rather the result of a carefully organized campaign that turned state power into a tool for mass extermination. This contradictory reality challenges common misconceptions about the nature of genocides, calling attention to how even the most ordered societies can descend into brutality when ideologies twist the concept of community into something lethal.
