Cruelty can be described as indifference to suffering, and even positive pleasure in inflicting it. Sadism can also be related to this form of action or concept.

Cruel ways of inflicting suffering may involve violence, but violence is not necessary for an act to be cruel. For example, if another person is drowning and begging for help, and another person is able to help, but merely watches with disinterest or perhaps mischievous amusement, that person is being cruel — rather than violent.

Cruelty usually carries connotations of supremacy over a submissive or weaker force.

Usage in philosophy and humanities

According to Le Comte de Lautreamont, "For my part, I use my genius to depict the delights of cruelty: delights which are not transitory or artificial..." - because they are primordial and natural. "Cannot genius be allied with cruelty in the secret resolutions of providence? Or, can one, being cruel, not have genius?"

According to Friedrich Nietzsche, almost all higher culture comes from the spiritualization of cruelty.

According to Richey Edwards, "The centre of humanity is cruelty / There is never redemption / Any fool can regret yesterday".

According to Ian McEwan, the Booker Prize winner in 1998, "novels are not about 'teaching people how to live, but about showing the possibility of what it's like to be someone else. It's the basis of all sympathy, empathy and compassion. Other people are as alive as you are. Cruelty is a failure of imagination'."

Harvard University Professor Judith N. Shklar's thinking is based on two main beliefs: that cruelty is the greatest evil, and her idea of "liberalism of fear".

Victor Nell, of the Institute for Social and Health Sciences at the University of South Africa, wrote a target article in 2005 entitled "Cruelty's Rewards: The Gratifications of Perpetrators and Spectators".

Usage in law

The term cruelty is often used in law and criminology with regard to the treatment of animals, children, spouses, and prisoners. When cruelty to animals is discussed, it often refers to unnecessary suffering. In criminal law, it refers to punishment, torture, victimization, draconian measures, and cruel and unusual punishment. In divorce cases, many jurisdictions permit a cause of action for cruel and inhuman treatment.

See also

• Clandestine abuse
• Cruelty to animals
• Foie gras controversy
• Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company
• List of banned films
• List of banned video games
• Puppy mill
• Rodeo
• Sacrifice
• Torture
• Theatre of Cruelty
• Victimology
• Zoosadism
• Zoosexuality and the law

References

• Susan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others, 2003.

References