Sam Keen identifies a precise progression in how enemies are dehumanized. It is not one leap from human to demonic. It is a graduated series of steps, each necessary before the next becomes psychologically possible:
Each step is distinct. Each step is necessary before the next. You cannot skip steps. A person cannot psychologically jump from seeing someone as a stranger to seeing them as vermin without completing the intermediate steps. The progression must be completed.
The progression works because each step overcomes specific psychological resistance that would prevent the next step from being accepted.
Stranger to Aggressor: If someone is merely strange, we can coexist. But if they attack us, the relationship changes. We are now in conflict. The step overcomes the assumption of neutrality.
Aggressor to Barbarian: An aggressor is still rational, still calculating. We could negotiate with an aggressor. But if they are barbarian (irrational, savage), negotiation is impossible. Their aggression is not choice; it is nature. The step justifies our own irrationality and escalation.
Barbarian to Animal: A barbarian is still human, still potentially reachable. But an animal operates on instinct. You cannot reason with an animal. You can only control it or destroy it. The step removes the assumption of human capacity for reason.
Animal to Insect: An animal still has some moral status (we protect endangered species). But an insect has no moral status. The step removes the last residue of moral constraint.
Insect to Germ: An insect is still visible, still individual. But a germ is invisible, collective, undifferentiated. The step removes visibility and individuality.
Germ to Statistic: A germ is still a living thing. But a statistic is pure abstraction. The step removes the last vestige of aliveness.
The key insight: each step is sufficient unto itself. At each stage of dehumanization, a specific level of harm becomes psychologically possible.
You can harm a stranger if you fear them (threat justifies action). You can harm an aggressor because they attacked first (self-defense justifies action). You can harm barbarians because they are irrational and dangerous (necessity justifies action). You can kill animals without guilt (they lack consciousness). You can eradicate insects and germs (they lack any moral status). You can bomb statistics (they are abstract numbers).
But if you fail to complete a step, the next step becomes impossible. If you cannot see the enemy as truly animal (still see flickers of humanity), you will experience resistance when it comes time to eradicate them. If you cannot reduce them to statistic (still remember individual faces), you will experience hesitation when ordering mass bombing.
So the machinery must work to complete each step fully. Propaganda must reinforce the current step and prepare the next. Media must train perception to accept the dehumanization. Education must normalize it. Ritual must repeat it.
The progression is not natural or inevitable. It is constructed. Each step requires specific rhetorical, visual, and psychological tools.
Examples:
Stranger → Aggressor: Reports of attacks. News framing focusing on enemy actions. Stories of atrocities. The goal: shift perception from "they are different" to "they are attacking us."
Aggressor → Barbarian: Language emphasizing irrationality. Images of chaotic, violent behavior. Dismissal of enemy culture as primitive. The goal: shift from "they are rational enemies" to "they are savage."
Barbarian → Animal: Visual imagery comparing enemy to animals. Language dehumanizing (calling them apes, pigs, vermin). Denial of enemy literacy, art, science. The goal: shift from "they are human savages" to "they are beast-like."
Each tool is specific. Each prepares perception for the next step. And because the machinery is visible, it can potentially be recognized and resisted.
Historical propaganda shows this progression clearly. Nazi propaganda against Jews: started with portrayal as different (stranger), then as threat (aggressor), then as barbaric/backwards (barbarian), then as animal-like and disease-bearing (animal/germ/disease).
American Cold War propaganda against Soviets: strange (communist), aggressive (expansionist threat), barbaric (godless, without civilization), animal-like (subhuman, controlled like a hive).
The progression is consistent across cases, which suggests it is structural to dehumanization rather than accidental.
Psychology describes cognitive dissonance as the discomfort of holding contradictory beliefs. A person who believes "I am moral" but is doing immoral acts experiences dissonance.
Dehumanization resolves this dissonance by changing the categorization: the act is not immoral because the target is not fully human. Each step of dehumanization resolves the dissonance that would arise from treating humans as the target.
The handshake: understanding cognitive dissonance resolution explains why the progression must be gradual. Each step must be accepted and normalized before the next can be. If any step is rejected (if you cannot genuinely believe the enemy is animal), the dissonance returns and blocks progression to the next step.
The progression appears across historical cases (Holocaust, slavery, colonialism, modern warfare). Each case shows the same steps being deployed with different cultural/linguistic/visual tools.
The handshake: history provides evidence that this is a general mechanism, not specific to one ideology. This suggests it is a core mechanism of institutionalized violence, applicable across cultures and centuries.
Diagnosis: Where is dehumanization language appearing in your media, in your politics? At what step of the progression is it?
Intervention Point: The earliest recognition is the best intervention. Once you see the machinery beginning, you can resist it at the earliest step.
The earlier you interrupt the progression, the easier it is to stop. If you can prevent the shift from aggressor to barbarian, the shift to animal becomes psychologically impossible (you cannot go from seeing someone as rational enemy to seeing them as irrational beast without the intermediate step).
Specific Resistance: At each step, you can insert counter-narratives:
If you live in a society preparing for war or conflict, you will see this machinery assembling around you. It will seem normal. News will gradually shift framing. Political language will harden. The enemy will shift from "different" to "aggressive" to "barbaric" to "subhuman."
At each stage, the shift will feel like response to new information, not like propaganda. But the pattern is consistent enough to recognize: it is the machinery of dehumanization being installed.