The victim’s isolation is produced by the tormentors’ shared action, not physical distance

Evidence

Loneliness of the victim is not just a matter of his physical separation. It is a function of the togetherness of his tormentors, and his exclusion from this togetherness. Physical closeness and continuous co-operation (even over a relatively short time - no subject was experimented with for longer than one hour) tends to result in a group feeling, complete with the mutual obligations and solidarity it normally brings about. This group feeling is produced by joint action, particularly by the complementarity of individual actions - when the result is evidently achieved by shared effort. In Milgram’s experiments, action united the subject with the experimenter, and simultaneously separated both of them from the victim. On no occasion was the victim granted the role of an actor, an agent, a subject. Instead, he was held permanently on the receiving end. Unambiguously, he was made into an object; and as the objects of action go, it does not matter much whether they are human or inanimate. Thus loneliness of the victim and the togetherness of his tormentors conditioned and validated each other. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 445

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines victimization as ejection from the group of acting subjects into the status of a mere object of action - a key mechanism for objectifying the Other.
• XREF: The object/subject binary here echoes the Orientalism toolkit’s construction of the Other as passive object awaiting Western agency. — connects to: Spiritual isolation precedes and enables physical removal of a targeted group — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 352; Psychological isolation rather than physical locks is the main method of coercion; Moral inhibition is neutralized by making victims remote and invisible — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 550 (+3 more)

Related

• Spiritual isolation precedes and enables physical removal of a targeted group (similarity 0.85)
• Physical segregation severs communication needed for moral recognition (similarity 0.81)
• Moral inhibitions do not act at a distance and depend on proximity (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Psychological isolation rather than physical locks is the main method of coercion #corroborates (0.88)
• Strong social ties also enable exclusion and violence toward outsiders #corroborates (0.78) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 528
• Moral inhibition is neutralized by making victims remote and invisible #expands (0.75) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 550
• Shame arises from individual isolation and dissolves within collective action #corroborates (0.72) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 735
• The civilizing process makes violence invisible rather than eliminating it #expands (0.72) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 285