Every act of cruelty we see today — whether committed by soldiers, police, immigration agents, politicians, or ordinary citizens — has only one real origin. It does not arise from ideology, nationality, or “the stress of war.” It arises from childhoods marked by silence, fear, humiliation, punishment, and the systematic crushing of a child’s inner truth. In this post, I explore why humanity keeps reenacting its earliest wounds, why cruelty repeats itself no matter the century, and why the world will not break this cycle until it confronts the childhood pain it still insists on denying.
**The Soldiers of Yesterday, the Agents of Today:
Humanity’s Endless Reenactment of Childhood Torture**
Human cruelty does not fall from the sky.
It is not created by governments, wars, or politics.
It does not begin with racism, nationalism, extremism, or ideology.
The origins of cruelty sit closer than anyone wants to admit:
It begins in childhood — in the places society still calls “home,” “discipline,” “tradition,” and “education.”
Every soldier who humiliates a prisoner,
every ICE agent who terrorizes immigrants,
every officer who abuses power,
every politician who fantasizes about “purifying” society,
every adult who harms an animal
is reenacting the terror they once endured as powerless children.
This is why Alice Miller’s words feel timeless, prophetic, and painfully relevant.
In her article The Origins of Torture in Endured Child Abuse, she writes:
“To be unleashed, violence must already be there.”
War, authority, policing — these do not create cruelty.
They release it.
Only a person who was once forced into silence,
forced into fear,
forced to obey,
forced to swallow humiliation,
is capable of inflicting the same suffering on others.
People who were never beaten, mocked, shamed, or emotionally crushed
do not suddenly become torturers under stress.
They simply cannot.
But those who were raised with violence —
but were told it was “love,” “discipline,” “education,” or “God’s will” —
carry a hidden, boiling reservoir of rage that seeks an outlet.
And society gives them one.
Abu Ghraib Was Not an Anomaly — It Was a Mirror
When Alice Miller wrote about the American soldiers’ sexualized torture of Iraqi prisoners, she asked the only question that matters:
Where did they learn this?
Not in Iraq.
Not in the military.
Not from “war stress.”
They learned it:
when they were beaten as children
when they were mocked or shamed
when they were humiliated in school
when they were punished “for their own good”
when they were told to be tough
when they were forbidden to cry
when they were taught obedience through fear
This is “education” in America.
This is “discipline” in many homes.
This is “tradition” in countless religious communities.
And the world pretends to be shocked when children trained in cruelty become adults who practice cruelty.
As Miller wrote:
“The perverted soldiers are the fruits of an education that actively instills violence, meanness, and perversion into young people.”
Exactly.
What shocks the world is not the cruelty.
It is the mirror.
Humans cannot bear to see what they have done to their children.
So they pretend the cruelty comes from somewhere else — war, stress, culture, politics, anything but the truth.
The New Agents of Cruelty: ICE, Police, and Politicians
What Alice Miller described in 2004 is still happening today — only the uniforms have changed.
ICE has become one of the darkest reenactment machines in America.
Who joins ICE?
Who enjoys stalking, chasing, imprisoning, and deporting vulnerable people?
Who feels powerful humiliating terrified immigrants?
The emotionally blind.
The once-punished children.
The never-seen children.
The children who learned that only the strong survive.
ICE is just a modern version of the old training ground:
crush the weak
dominate the defenseless
punish the ones who cannot fight back
project rage onto the “other”
This is not law enforcement.
This is childhood reenacted on a national stage.
And it is getting worse, not better.
Kristi Noem and the Puppy Named Cricket
Nothing reveals a person’s emotional inner world more clearly than how they treat animals.
When Kristi Noem bragged about shooting her 14-month-old puppy because it was “untrainable,” she exposed herself completely.
A puppy that age is a toddler.
You don’t kill a puppy for being inconvenient.
You kill a puppy when you cannot tolerate innocence, vulnerability, or spontaneity —
because you yourself were not allowed to be innocent, vulnerable, or spontaneous.
Only someone raised with cruelty kills the innocent with justification.
This is the psychology of authoritarianism.
This is the psychology of child abuse.
This is the psychology of ICE, Abu Ghraib, and every war crime.
“Human Nature” Is Not to Blame — Childhood Repression Is
People love to say:
“Humans are evil.”
“We all have a beast inside.”
“War brings out the worst in people.”
“Stress makes people do terrible things.”
Alice Miller spent her life proving this is a lie.
Cruelty is not human nature — it is human history.
Cruelty is taught.
Cruelty is absorbed.
Cruelty is inherited.
Cruelty is justified.
Cruelty is disguised as “love” and “discipline.”
And then one day, that child grows up, puts on a uniform, and reenacts the only love they ever knew.
Why America Repeats These Reenactments
Because America still believes:
hitting children is necessary
humiliating children is normal
emotional needs are weakness
punishment is education
“forgiving your parents” is noble
parents are always right
These beliefs guarantee one outcome:
The tortured child becomes the torturer.
Some will torture others.
Some will torture themselves.
Some will join the military.
Some will join ICE.
Some will become school shooters.
Some will become leaders like Trump or Noem.
Some will become engineers—and project their hatred onto whoever holds up the mirror.
The form changes.
The pattern remains.
Breaking the Cycle Begins Where No One Wants to Look
Humanity has one shadow it refuses to face:
the real story of its childhood.
Until we name the violence that shaped us,
until we recognize how “discipline” becomes sadism,
until we mourn the pain we were forced to swallow,
until we stop idealizing our abusers,
the world will keep reenacting the same horror.
Alice Miller said it plainly:
“Only people who were treated in a perverse way, but deny the fact, will seek scapegoats… or destroy themselves.”
This is the blueprint of society.
It will not change with elections, wars, reforms, or revolutions.
It will only change when people dare to look into the mirror —
and tell the truth about what they endured.
Conclusion: Why This Matters Now More Than Ever
We are entering a dangerous time:
robotic systems controlled by emotionally numb adults
immigrants hunted
minorities demonized
animals abused
The soldiers of the past and the agents of today are the same people
— only now they have more tools.
More power.
More justification.
More opportunities to reenact the pain they refuse to feel.
Until humanity faces the origins of its cruelty,
it will never break free from it.
Watching the young man in the video below is so heartbreaking 💔
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