The Complications And Consequences Of The Rwandan Genocide

In “Of Studies”, Francis Bacon explores the benefits and consequences associated with studies and to what degree they should be used. He claims that “histories make men wise”, which in the context of the Rwandan genocide, seems to mean learning and making an effort to understand the tragedies that occurred there (Bacon 10). To study the historical implications of an event so widely interpreted has the potential to challenge existing opinions about global society and the implications of such a mass killing. However, if studies are necessary to make informed decisions, as asserted by Bacon’s statement that leadership “come[s] best from those that are learned”, then to properly judge the happenings of the Rwandan genocide we must contemplate it completely (9). Especially considering the outside perspective of most observers, it is more pertinent to question how we differ from those involved in the genocide. Thus, while the concept of killing carries a seemingly universal moral weight in society, the Rwandan Genocide exhibits …show more content…
He begins to illustrate the reality of those that killed by quoting an unnamed pygmy in Gikongoro who discusses humanity and the characteristics of it that led to the opportunity for such mass destruction. If “we must go against nature to get along and have peace”, then it seems that human nature lends itself towards chaos and manipulation (448). The perpetrators of the killing, though committers of violent and outwardly shocking acts, did not begin as such. Threatened with death and forced to kill, citizens, obedient to the engineers of the massacre, soon became killers of their own volition. Although this notion, that humanity instinctively falls into conflict depends heavily on an idea of chaos, it also has roots in an innate sense of obedience, something extensively studied in places outside of