Complying with Genocide: The Wolf You Feed

The wolf you feed refers to a powerful Native American metaphor. Feeding the good wolf builds a moral and social order of inclusion and tolerance, whereas feeding the bad wolf leads to fear, hatred, exclusion, and violence. You must decide which wolf to feed. E.N. Anderson and Barbara A. Anderson use this metaphor to examine complicity in genocide. Anderson and Anderson argue that everyday frustration and fear, combined with hatred and social othering toward rivals and victims of discrimination, are powerful precursors to conforming to genocide and the very tools that genocidal leaders use to instigate hatred. Anderson and Anderson examine why individuals and whole nations become complicit in genocide. They propose powerful actions that can both protect against complicity and create social change, as exemplified from populations recovering from genocidal regimes. This book is targeted toward scholars and persons who are interested in understanding genocidal complicity and examining social strategies to counteract it.