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world without any reification and unexpected consequencesto human action. Rather, they had the visionof a world in which — although human action mayproduce unexpected consequences — humanity could freeitself from the fateful position of the sorcerer's apprentice,and would be capable of intervening, of correctingmistakes and of avoiding socially induced suffering andcatastrophes. They rejected a world in which humanityis the plaything of processes run amuck, the victim offorces and power relations that annihilate. They knewthat human history is for the most part characterizedby the very absence of massive life destruction and theknowledge that humanity is capable of consciouslyshaping its history, of controlling the means andrelations of production and destruction.ModernityGenocide is only one of many manifestations toshow that a social formation and the associated socialrelations have gone berserk. So has modernity, worldsociety with a differentiation so excessive as to prohibita sufficient understanding of its web and processes,highly coercive to both individuals and groups and,thus, all too often defying intervention. If genocide ischaracterized by uncontrolled state power, so ismodernity; if it is made possible because of segmentedindividuals who do their jobs as part of a coercivedivision of labor and who no longer see where and howthey are connected to the social whole, so is modernity;if it requires technical and administrative thoroughnessand efficiency, so does modernity; if it is massivelydestructive to life, so is modernity; if it is directedagainst certain national, religious, ethnic, or racialgroups, modernity has brought them forth, has forciblytaken them into its confinement — and often pitted oneagainst the other in the course of social differentiation.Seen against the background of modernity, ofmodern processes and forces of production and destruction,events of genocide may no longer be construedas unique occurrences only. Because they also manifesta pattern deeply embedded in modernity, we mustconceptualize them as integral parts of modernity.Granted, we are horrified by them and are still unableto comprehend the genocidal events in the twentiethcentury, particularly the Holocaust. Why are we notequally dazzled by the even larger potential of destructionalready in place? Why not by the military machineryready to administer the looming nuclear omnicide?Why not at the millions who anonymously perish ofhunger right before our eyes due to our universallyanonymous market forces and power relations? Canall this be comprehended at all? Can modernity becomprehended? Should we not be dazzled by modernity,instead of by some selective phenomena producedby it? Should we not go to the root cause both in ourcognition and action, in praxis? By seeing genocideembedded in modernity, we do not mean to take apurely determinisitic point of view. Even with modernityas a given, genocide only occurs under specificcircumstances. History, place, ideology remain important.The historicity of particular genocides remainsimportant. However, modernity is still a necessary, ifnot a sufficient, condition for genocide to occur.Furthermore, by placing the emphasis on anonymouslife destruction processes in modernity, we also implyan expansion of the United Nations convention ofgenocide — that no explicit human agency may berequired. For instance, the structural violence exercisedby market forces determining production and distributionalone is generally known to kill millions and couldalso assume genocidal qualities.Clearly, from our perspective, genocide is a part,and must be studied in the context, of modernity. Asa phenomenon, it is but one element among, or a subsetof, other life annihilation processes. Processes killingmillions by starvation may also be genocidally directedat specific national, ethnic, racial, or religious groups.In imperialism's thrust for ever greater market penetrationand brutal conquest of other at least minimallyexchange-oriented and differentiated societies, it causesmany groups to suffer ethnocide while it exposes othersto genocide. In war's massive destruction of lives, somenational, ethnic, racial, or religious groups may suffertotal or near total extinction. Omnicide alone wouldblur all differentiation in modernity's human-induceddestruction of life.The Study of GenocideWhat is it, then, that specifically characterizes thestudy of genocide? First, it is the acquisition of knowledgenot for its own sake but to prevent modernity'stremendous destruction of life. Second, it is the effortto improve our understanding of all life-annihilationprocesses inherent in modernity. Third, it is the effortto learn more about the circumstances under whichmodernity's life destruction processes tend to focus onspecific groups in events known to us as genocide. Forinstance, what are the circumstances under which warsor life-annhilating economic or political conflictsgenocidally turn against ethnic, racial, religious, ornational groups, or when do conflicts involving suchgroups tend to escalate into genocides? Fourth, it isthe effort to develop means to prevent genocide. Suchmeans must simultaneously be developed on two levels.On the structural level, means and strategies must befound for the increased social control over spheres thathave become reified and taken on lives of their own.On another level, intervention techniques must beIntroductionxv