Best Of: Nothing Good Comes from Humiliation

By Carmen Medina

Carmen Medina is a former CIA Deputy Director of Intelligence. A 32-year veteran of the Intelligence Community, she is also the author of Rebels at Work: A Handbook for Leading Change from Within. 

For this year’s Thanksgiving Day column, The Cipher Brief revisits Carmen Medina’s exploration of the powerful role humiliation plays in personal psychology, national psyches, and current geopolitics.

More than two decades ago I was in London on a subway train. I happened to be in a car that was largely empty, so I could see clearly two young men sharing a newspaper between them. It was a tabloid newspaper, so there were many pictures—disturbing ones of the Highway of Death during the first Iraq War. The coalition forces, led by the United States, had just decimated Iraqi military units attempting to retreat from Kuwait. At the time, the popular euphemism for the military operation was the Turkey Shoot.

I could hear the two young men on the subway train speaking Arabic. I didn’t understand their words but their meaning conveyed. They were distraught. Their anguished tones suggested they couldn’t believe what the pictures were showing them. The first thought that entered my mind as I took in the scene was humiliation. These two young men felt humiliated by the devastation of the Iraqi army at the hands of the coalition. 

The second thought that entered my mind was: “nothing good will come of this.” The invoking of a strong emotion can have unpredictable and strong consequences. I didn’t foresee what would follow over the next 20+ years, but every time a significant terrorism incident and act of brutality occurs, I remember the two young men sitting, humiliated on that subway train.

Since then, I’ve learned that humiliation is indeed one of the strongest human emotions—perhaps even the most powerful. Researchers have determined that the experience of humiliation has an intense impact on the human brain, requiring the most mental processing power of any emotion. It can have long-lasting effects not just on individuals, but on entire groups and societies.

Today, many societies and nations are swamped by emotions; for some, their emotional states have red-lined. Several countries in the Middle East are in states of humiliation. But of course when we speak of countries, we’re just referencing a rational but artificial construct. No country can feel emotions. But a people can, which is what allows emotional infections to cross international borders. The Muslim populations in Europe have suffered significant episodes of humiliation. There even appears to be a correlation between humiliation and the frequency and severity of terrorism attacks. France’s Muslim citizens have long felt particularly disrespected by the French secular state.

Scientists and anthropologists speculate as to why we still even have emotions. Evolutionary theory tells us that emotions must have had a positive impact on the survival of the human species. And indeed our emotional nature allows us to run away from danger immediately, without the need for reflection. Effective emotional arguments also allow us to rally large groups of people more quickly than any rational discourse. Look at the recent Brexit vote: the winning side appealed more effectively to deep English emotions.

The Brexit example reminds us that the power of emotions can disturb even the most rational and well-ordered societies. The current U.S. elections are a good demonstration. Discordant notes of fear punctuate much of the political rhetoric. Republicans and Democrats both feel outrage at the arguments of the other side. And these emotional reactions aren’t feigned for political effect. They are real, and that means they will endure, even after November 8.

I think you can also smell the scent of humiliation among some Americans. Many feel disrespected by our post-modern digital society; they don’t fit in, so they are left out. Or they are humiliated that their skills and capabilities cannot earn them a decent living. About one third of U.S. working families are classified as low income—their wages are not sufficient for real prosperity. Policy solutions will not easily address their sense of humiliation. It’s an unsettling dynamic that will not run its course in one election cycle. And I worry that nothing good will come of it.


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