41–50 of 112 posts
In Dortmund, Germany, on Good Friday, a commemoration ceremony took place in the afternoon at the Bittermark memorial ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahnmal_Bittermark ). 300 POWs and resistance fighters were murdered there just weeks and days before the end of the war. 1700 demonstrators showed up this year. We must not forget.
The last line resonated with me a lot "In every case of documented refusal to obey orders to exterminate people, the coercive powers of the Nazi system proved to be impotent or ineffective." I would have expected the opposite. I guess this means, the structures of society and rule of of law were actually sort of still working, but that most people feared going against the zeitgeist.
In fact, the Nazis had perverted the law and its rule but retained the structure of a lawful state, as chaos and anarchy were pretty much out of fashion in Germany after the 20s. Think of the Nazis as a gang of uneducated mobsters winning some decent hotel in a game of poker. They had to retain the reception, the service personal and the kitchen. But they behave disgustingly at every opportunity.
This is such a ridiculous claim to make. There is absolutely no correlation between Evil and Stupidity. And pretty much every fact of that time disagrees with the theory that Germany was led by idiots and uneducated people. On the contrary, you should be all the more afraid when smart people turn evil.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree with independence of thought, courage, and high principles, but is it moral? An militant anti-semite in present-day Germany is might be just as independent, principled, and courageous.
(In some views) morals are relative and personal, not absolute.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Think of the Nazis as a gang of uneducated mobsters Actually lots of highly educated people were Nazis, including Nazi leaders and apologists. Including people considered by their (even Jewish, even post WWII) academic peers, as the "biggest thinkers" of the 20th century. Heck, Mengele had 2 Ph.Ds (anthopology and medicine).
Oskar Dirlewanger had a PhD in political science, and commanded a unit so brutal that an SS court was convened to investigate. Imagine how horrific someone's actions must be when even the SS think they might be going too far.
-- Mario Savio
I really think there is something to the idea of not going along because you just cannot. I think sometimes the "no" comes first, and then comes finding or making a way, maybe.
Though I think disgust with what one is complicit in, and the sheer inability to go on with it, are ultimately also based on positive values, and on not betraying oneself, so it's always a "no to X, to uphold a yes to Y" IMO.
from https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2014/marchapril/feature/the-t...
> Arendt had removed the guarantee of absolute innocence and automatic guilt from the question of moral responsibility. What did she put in its place? The capacity to exercise an “independent human faculty, unsupported by law and public opinion, that judges in full spontaneity every deed and intent anew whenever the occasion arises.” And who evidenced this capacity? They were not distinguished by any superior intelligence or sophistication in moral matters but “dared to judge by themselves.” Deciding that conformity would leave them unable to “live with themselves,” sometimes they even chose to die rather than become complicit. “The dividing line between those who want to think and therefore have to judge by themselves, and those who do not, strikes across all social and cultural or educational differences.”
Hannah Arendt's essay "Personal Responsibility Under Dictatorship":
https://grattoncourses.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/arendt-pe...
The courage to stand up against your own ingroup is the highest form of courage and morals. It requires independence of thought and high principles.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Russian pows where murdered by neglect in large numbers
It's true both ways: for the German POWs who were sent to Russia, almost none of them made it back alive.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In fact, the Nazis had perverted the law and its rule but retained the structure of a lawful state, as chaos and anarchy were pretty much out of fashion in Germany after the 20s. Think of the Nazis as a gang of uneducated mobsters winning some decent hotel in a game of poker. They had to retain the reception, the service personal and the kitchen. But they behave disgustingly at every opportunity.
> Think of the Nazis as a gang of uneducated mobsters This is such a ridiculous claim to make. There is absolutely no correlation between Evil and Stupidity. And pretty much every fact of that time disagrees with the theory that Germany was led by idiots and uneducated people. On the contrary, you should be all the more afraid when smart people turn evil.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In fact, the Nazis had perverted the law and its rule but retained the structure of a lawful state, as chaos and anarchy were pretty much out of fashion in Germany after the 20s. Think of the Nazis as a gang of uneducated mobsters winning some decent hotel in a game of poker. They had to retain the reception, the service personal and the kitchen. But they behave disgustingly at every opportunity.
"Think of the Nazis as a gang of uneducated mobsters" Only that they were quite educated. Not the lower troops of SA. But the party members were very much into classical education, classical music etc. And they totally went by law and order. "Just" a different order. With racism as its core fundamentals and the neglect of humanism in general.