The birth of tragedy
- Watching "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas"
There was a clear blue sky, white clouds, the yard surrounded by big trees, and later there were swaying swings. It's a midsummer countryside, an ideal paradise, but it's also a murderous house. There, there are countless lives living carefully, hunched over, just to survive, and countless lives die inexplicably. Do you see the smoke in the sky? It wasn't cooking smoke, it was June snow, it was the ashes of the dead gathering in the sky and refusing to fall. Once upon a time, wasn't there such smoke in Schindler's List, but here we smelled the choking stench.
Alive, so what?
In Schindler's List, have you ever heard the cheerful cries of children shouting "GOODBYE JEWS?" In The Pianist, have you ever seen that as long as you are Jewish and alive, there is nowhere to escape? In this film, the screenwriter seems to give the answer: "The Jews criticize the Wu people and seduce the enemies of the Wu people", "Laugh at the literary rhythm of the Wu people", "Wherever they go, disasters continue", "Our country will die because of it, not far away." "This is probably the reason for Hitler's destruction of Judah, right?" I remembered watching "Beiyang Sailors" when I was young, and there were also the worries of the Japanese emperor, the worries of being an island nation. Could this be the cause of aggression?
I cannot imagine that Germany, a country of philosophical masters and rationalism, could provoke two world wars and even carry out a policy of genocide. Did the Germans think so deeply that they got caught up in the fire? Or are you worried too much to extricate yourself from? Probably not. The children were clearly thoughtless and instigated by the adults. Are children really that innocent? No. The inherent frivolity and good things of children themselves are probably a reason. I kept wondering if it were you, would you be among them, shouting excitedly, "GOODBYE JEWS!" this? Wait until you've gone through the vicissitudes, and then, you say, "That's my youthful madness!" "Isn't it too late?
Young and frivolous, ignorant and impulsive, the excuse is nothing more than that. So, what is the real motivation behind the action? Either it is based on the herd mentality, you are like this, and I am like this; or, it is the manifestation of the self. Such a psychology has always existed, and it will always exist.
But this is not the truth.
The truth lies in why some people blindly follow.
The truth lies in why there is such a policy.
The truth is that human beings create "me" and "we," and "I" and "you" distinguish themselves from others, that we belong to such a collective, that I am safe, and that you, perhaps, are the enemy, or one of the unfortunate. The truth is that humanity has the organization of the state. Coetzee put it this way in The Age of Murder: "We are born to belong. From the moment we are born, we are subjects. "The law protects citizens who keep to themselves." Therefore, the will has never been changed by ordinary people, so it means submission and obedience.
This is not the truth. The truth is why there is such a national will. If the will of the state were the will of every citizen, perhaps there would be no tragedy. But economists have already given proof that this good wish cannot be fulfilled. The so-called will of the state can only be the will of a few people extracted from the consciousness of the majority of the people. The will of the few is the will of all the people in this country. So, if you say that the Jews are not good, then everyone has to say that the Jews are not good, otherwise, it is against the whole country with personal strength.
Nor is this the truth. The truth is why such a will becomes the will of the whole country, even if it is so ridiculous. If there are many voices, if you can express your dissatisfaction, if you are right, and if the state is really humble enough to accept, then the tragedy will not happen. This is totalitarianism. The evil of totalitarianism lies in imposing one's will on the will of others, the age of imperial power, the age of warlords, the age of Stalin. Hitler was a dictator. In the age of totalitarianism, you either dodge, execute, or be a victim.
But this is not the truth, the truth is why such a will is born? The truth is who chose such a dictator. The will can be reduced to the ugliness of the individual, but the choice is the result of the people, and being seduced is only temporary, but is it not a factor in the choice of the masses to try to be fresh and for their own benefit? The so-called life is nothing more than choosing an optimal solution for oneself under various constraints - based on spirit or material. Some people are born with desires, some people are depressed and discouraged all their lives, and some people realize their wishes but harm others. That's it.
Can you choose not to? When a country has no leader, will you feel at ease and as stable as Tarzan? You need a leader, and so do I. Hundreds of years ago, a French writer wrote:
"It is unbelievable that the commoners, who were once subjects, would suddenly and utterly forget their earlier demands for independence, so that it would have been impossible to arouse them and regain this conviction; in fact, they did so without urging them to do so with all their might, so freely that, one might say, on the face of it, they had not lost their freedom, but had merely sat in slavery. The truth may be that, at first, this kind of service was unavoidable, for it was forced by external forces; but then those who served with all their hearts and minds without complaint or remorse were doing with their own free will what their predecessors had been forced to do. ”
The birth of the tragedy, in fact, each of us was involved.