“Dehumanization often begins with the removal of personal identification. A convicted criminal is issued a prison identification number, for example. This form of dehumanization allows the guards and other authorities to maintain an impersonal relationship with inmates. This practice of dehumanization is also used by military prisons to maintain a feeling of superiority over captured enemy combatants. Viewing the enemy as a human being may compromise a soldier’s ability to interrogate him or her later.
Dehumanization is a process by which members of a group of people assert the “inferiority” of another group through subtle or overt acts or statements. Dehumanization may be directed by an organization (such as a state) or may be the composite of individual sentiments and actions, as with some types of de facto racism. State-organized dehumanization has been directed against perceived racial or ethnic groups, nationalities (or “foreigners” in general), religious groups, genders, minorities of various sexual orientations (eg. homosexuals or pedophiles), disabled people as a class, economic [e.g. the homeless] and social classes, and many other groups.
A common theme (or meme) is that of scapegoating, where dehumanizing the target provides a release from guilt for the person that scapegoats them, who typically begins to see themselves as a victim of the dehumanized person, rather than as a potential oppressor.”
The only reason this thought came up for me; I was watching “Saving Private Ryan” over the last few days and it dawned on me. There is a well known psychological process for dehumanizing a group of individuals. It starts with classification of the group of individuals, in our case its “Deadbeat dads”. When dealing with Maintenance Enforcement you are assigned a seven digit number – that is what you are known as. Every transaction and conversation begins with this number. I know my number by rote now because that’s how I am addressed in the system. They don’t use my first or last name in addressing me.
Additional classifications is putting more psychological distance between the individuals perpetrating the act and those on the receiving end. In our case, it’s the extreme punishment such as 14 years in prison for misfiling a statement of finance. It continues with breaking down the moral and ethics boundaries of the individual. This can be found in the Statement of Finance documentation required by Maintenance Enforcement, this document calls for the following:
· Name, current address, Social Insurance Number, Health Care number and Driver’s License.
· Present Employer information – gross and net salary
· Annual bonus’s, commission, any raises you might receive, part-time employment, income producing hobbies, other income from rental properties, annuities, and pensions.
· List of additional income such as are you collecting rent from a roommate.
· Income from self-employment.
· Do you have a business? What is the salary? Bonuses? Dividends? Other income such as automobile allowances and expenses you submit.
· Any other monies received from the business such as company car, house, loans, savings plans, and share purchase options.
· Copies the business financial statements.
· Number of shares in the business and are you an officer of the corporation?
· Total amount of loans you have made to the corporation.
· Your monthly expenses including rent or mortgage payments, property taxes, utilities, groceries, clothing, transportation, personal expenses, home or rental insurance, vehicle insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, maintenance, alcohol, tobacco or other dependencies.
· Complete list of your monthly payments to creditors.
· List of dependants.
· List of agreements requiring you to pay child or spousal maintenance.
· List of all chequing and savings accounts, term deposits and annuities.
· List of all retirement savings plans including RRSP, LIRA, LIF, and LRIF’s.
· List of all real estates.
· List of motor vehicles including type, make, model, year, serial no of the vehicle, purchase price you paid, balance owing, current market value and equity.
· List of securities, including your shares, bonds and their current market value including any dividends paid out.
· List of all location of all certificates for all corporate holdings both public and private and names and addresses of the brokers you deal with.
· Insurance policies including the name of the insurance company, policy number, amount, person insured, premium and the cash surrender value.
· Trusts – including the description of the assets held, location and the names and addresses of the trustee’s.
· Parties who owe you money including their name, address, reason for debt, and amounts owning.
· Are you a plaintiff in any lawsuit that may result in the court awarding you money? Name of the person being sued, amount claimed, your lawyer’s name, address, phone number and status of the court action.
· Have you settled a lawsuit for a sum of money that has not yet been paid? Your lawyer’s name, amount owing, payment date, lawyer’s address, lawyer’s phone number and status of the court action.
· Have you applied for any benefit, refund, compensation, grant, settlement or other funds form any government or program?
· Do you have any inheritances?
· Other assets such as interests in other businesses, promissory notes, judgment debts, loans and mortgages receivable, objects of art, jewellery, bullion, coins, cameras, household furnishings and appliances (stereos, TVs, computers, crystal, dishwashers, and other asses no previously listed.
· Have you given away, sold or assigned or otherwise transferred any property?
You have become a number and a series of assets that the government can claim at any time. Where is our humanity? The only thing I see missing on this list is your gold filings or perhaps how much they could get for that pacemaker in your chest or the clothes on your back.
The process of filling out MEP’s forms is very dehumanizing and demoralizing, it might be better to jump off a building.
Further steps in the dehumanizaing process include:
“However, for individuals viewed as outside the scope of morality and justice, “the concepts of deserving basic needs and fair treatment do not apply and can seem irrelevant.” Any harm that befalls such individuals seems warranted, and perhaps even morally justified. Those excluded from the scope of morality are typically perceived as psychologically distant, expendable, and deserving of treatment that would not be acceptable for those included in one’s moral community. Common criteria for exclusion include ideology, skin color, and cognitive capacity. We typically dehumanize those whom we perceive as a threat to our well-being or values”
It seems in the process of dehumanizing divorced fathers, whatever happens to them is because they were bad people, didn’t pay for their children, cheated in their wives and the like. When one of us “deadbeat dads” commits suicide he was mentally imbalanced – nobody bothers to look at the process that drove the individual to that point.
“Psychologically, it is necessary to categorize one’s enemy as sub-human in order to legitimize increased violence or justify the violation of basic human rights. Moral exclusion reduces restraints against harming or exploiting certain groups of people. In severe cases, dehumanization makes the violation of generally accepted norms of behavior regarding one’s fellow man seem reasonable, or even necessary. “
Basic human rights such as food, shelter and clothing are denied when paying MEP. You must pay the support and whatever is left you get to live off of. What happens is the actions taken against a divorced father through our legal system have become the accepted norms for behavior however if the same individuals (i.e. such as judges, politicians, lawyers and other officials) faced the same punitive actions – how would they react? You, as a divoriced father, have been re-classified out of normal society. You are no longer a normal citizen; the only thing missing is getting you to sow a label on your jacket branding you a deadbeat dad.
“Deindividuation facilitates dehumanization as well. This is the psychological process whereby a person is seen as a member of a category or group rather than as an individual. Because people who are deindividuated seem less than fully human, they are viewed as less protected by social norms against aggression than those who are individuated. It then becomes easier to rationalize contentious moves or severe actions taken against one’s opponents.”
How quickly is a divorced father viewed as a “deadbeat dad” when you have an argument against the system? When you say the payout for support in unfair? What has happened is the normal social conventions that would have stopped such things as your bank accounts froze or your drivers license suspended is gone – it is a perfectly rational move by society to suspend your rights and freedoms.
“Once certain groups are stigmatized as evil, morally inferior, and not fully human, the persecution of those groups becomes more psychologically acceptable. Restraints against aggression and violence begin to disappear.”
Tell me when someone speaks of a deadbeat dad they are saying this person might be or are evil. It becomes perfectly acceptable or more psychologically acceptable to use more extreme means on these deadbeat dads. Let’s show them all they can’t fuck with us.
In the end, deadbeat dads or divorced fathers are seen as second class in society. It is easier to brand us all the same way and to treat us as such. There is one system and one treatment and one punishment for all divorced dads. Your freedoms are taken away.
How do you move on? Or why bother moving on because there is nothing left or it will be 3 to 4 years before any good can come of this. Poking and prodding of friends isn’t going to help either – unless they have experienced the reaming your ex-wife and the justice system gave you – there is simply no comparison. 
