Text / Xu Yeqing
It should have been a long-planned murder that spread the shadow of death in the most quiet and powerful way onto a group of peoples who had never been welcomed. From the moment they got off the train and saw the barbed wire, the fate of the Jews, who had been isolated and ostracized, was finally deteriorated into a symbol of end. Sorted, screened and numbered, the coats of the trained German doctors are always dusty, and the cold and piercing scalpel is always ringing. Auschwitz's field is too cramped and compact—it can't accommodate extra people and things to provide extra supplies; at the same time it's too spacious and empty—the efficiency of the gas chamber can instantly wipe out the overcrowded air to zero, and even the cleaning agent that washes the floor seems monotonous.
Behind this period of excellence in efficiency, it reflects the height of modern civilization, which not only allows the massacre to be turned from a fantasy into a careful plan, but also allows countless normal people to participate without moral guilt. The Holocaust was not an accidental misfortune, but an inevitable consequence of the modern process.
Because of this, Siegmund. Bauman begins by revealing that the Holocaust is a window into the past and the future, and that the more he refuses to look at it because the picture is depressed, the more it will bring about the danger of self-deception. It is true that the Holocaust existed as a test of modernity, and its success is a testament to the splendor of modernity.
One.
Heresy under the Shadow Extension: On Modernity, Racism and Genocide
The Jews, as a people who have experienced the Great Migration in history, their long separation from others has led to the reproduction of segregation in terms of diachronic continuity and synchronic self-identity, and gradually becomes an "internal outsider". Its unique and complex supranational attributes, on the one hand, are not trusted by the rulers, but they still use them to take on various dangerous and unpleasant tasks, but on the other hand, at the stage when the nation has become the most important basis for the self-construction of the group, it gradually erases the differences between natives and outsiders, blurring and confusing the originally clear national boundaries.
Objectively, the original jewish connection with Hebrew has gradually weakened after an absolute span of historical time, and even the remaining spiritual connection has been strongly questioned by those who occupy the Holy Land. Displaced, however, they were unable to conquer the land. But for the Nazis, who rejected the Jews, only by stigmatizing or even demonizing them could they gather the strength of the people to achieve the purpose of purging.
Racism emphasizes practical activity throughout the stage and "serves the construction of man-made social order by cutting out elements of current reality that are neither fit into the imagined perfect reality nor can be modified to fit that perfect reality". In the modern society that pursues self-control and self-management, racism holds that there are groups that cannot be corrected and improved through various efforts, and that there is no other way but to cut them. As a result, the Jews, who were labeled "uncorrectable," were left with two alternate methods of alienation, expulsion and destruction.
In the elaborate social engineering of the Nazis, all "worthless lives" were targeted for the sake of "racial ancestry." The Jews, who corroded the identity of other races and eroded their own ethnic order, became the only option.
Thanks to the curtain of modernity, racism has found its kind that resonates.
The first is the omnipotent science of studying everything, through which the idea of ethnocentrism is reinforced again and then rooted in the minds of rational people.
The second is management at the level of reality, which studies how to win maximum efficiency at the least cost, to turn the whole expulsion and slaughter into a socially rational management activity, and as an attempt to systematically use applied scientific ways of thinking, philosophy, and admonition.
In summary, three necessary conditions are required to implement the whole set of social projects.
The first is the theory of racism, which not only has a racial conception, but also affirms that some of these groups themselves have flaws that cannot be corrected. This is followed by medical treatment syndromes, including models of health and normalcy, isolation strategies, and surgical techniques as prescribed by mature medical practices. But the most important is the bureaucracy, a set of engineering methods for transforming society, the belief in the artificiality of social order, the expert system, and the practical activities of scientific management of human scenes and interactions.
At the same time, the indifference of the masses is also a catalyst for accelerating its development. Over-descriptions such as "Jewish international conspiracy theories" in the process of cultural dissemination became the most derogatory and deadly form of anti-Semitism.
All of the above is worth vigilance because they all exist in the structure of our modern life. If the environment of most postmodernist, consumer-oriented, and market-centric Western societies is based on a limited resource market, perhaps one day the state will take over society directly again, creating a hotbed of racism.
Modernity and the Holocaust in English
Two.
The creepiness of everyday life: the uniqueness and normality of the Holocaust
(a) Perfect design and bureaucracy
The modern genocide event stands out not only on its sensational scale, but also in its pursuit of the purpose of perfect social design, namely that humanity should transform society and force it to submit to a comprehensive and scientific conceptual plan. Thus, the institutions that instrumentalize human behavior are proliferated, the practitioners faithfully and efficiently pursue the set goals, the ruler monopolizes the ultimate end and the role of limiting the ruled to the use of means is legitimized. Every link must be methodically served in the perfect plan of the Holocaust.
Thus, from a diachronic point of view, the uniqueness of the Holocaust lies in its modern occurrence, and in terms of synchronicity, it is that it integrates some of the elements of modernity that are taken for granted, especially the bureaucratic system of behavior and the mentality with which it is institutionalized, produced, maintained, and reproduced. The technocratic bureaucracy provides countless coercive means for the production and distribution of violence, and its absolute effectiveness stems precisely from its purely rational character.
The bureaucracy emphasized the division of the functions of labor and replaced moral responsibility with technical responsibility. The sense of distance created by the two will allow the actors to be fully mobilized to serve the goals, and to focus on obedience to superiors and efficiency. But another terrible consequence is to dehumanize the objects of action in a purely technical and morally neutral way. In the concentration camps, Jews were seen as a purely quantitative indicator, the value of the human person was trampled on infinitely, and the only important thing was the desire of officials to reduce the cost of the massacre.
In short, the modern bureaucracy ignores the original goal and emphasizes the characteristics of the means of realization, and the design of the rational social order makes the Holocaust possible.
(b) The bankruptcy of modern defense
With the development of modern civilization, the gradual improvement of self-control mechanisms has made individuals tend to gain self-control on their own, and the culture against the close connection between bodies has inadvertently caused group indifference.
The elimination of violence from everyday life in civilized societies also means that citizens cede the right of individuals to use physical violence to government agencies and have full confidence in the defense measures in society. Thus, when the Holocaust approached citizens under the guise, the masses either looked apathetic or acted indifferent. But if we continue to think deeply, we will find that precisely because of the Nazi government's almost complete monopoly on power, social forces were unable to express themselves and thus could not form the structural basis of democracy.
Shattering the science of the age of obscurantism brought about the worship of reason, challenging morality and sensibility while attacking religion and tradition. The pros and cons of science as a tool depend on the user and the purpose of its use. Thus, when the forces of science and reason were shouted out by the Nazis, in addition to the practice of means and efficiency, the consequences of extinction were catastrophic. And what is even more frightening is that the morality of human nature has been transformed into the morality of technology and obedience, which has effectively cultivated a group of successful rational executors.
Three.
Free options without recess: Enticing the victim to cooperate
One of the important factors in the genocide that was able to proceed was the cooperation of the victims. There are two conditions for coercion: first, the violence has become strong enough to destroy the will and resilience of the victims, using terror to make them submit to the upper power and accept the order imposed by the power; the second is that the identity group has been deprived of the resources necessary for sustained resistance, and the most critical point is that part of the identity group has been assimilated and disintegrated.
The Jewish elite was then elected by the Nazis to become Jewish commissioners to administer the Jewish community in a form of autonomy, as an intermediary role controlled by the government. But in reality, the Jewish elite had no choice but to have the most fundamental purpose of survival.
But all of this can only be facilitated by the bureaucratic organization of modern rationality. First, it must be completely specialized, unconditionally monopolizing the special functions it performs. Specifically, the bureaucracy needs to delineate precise targets to avoid panic among other groups, and it also rejects intervention from outside groups, ultimately leaving target groups locked down.
The most notable means are direct appeals, by accusing Jews of grave crimes that cannot be cured, but whose impact on the public is bound to be limited. As a result, the celebrity image of scholars and rational spokesmen began to be borrowed. Only the contrasting effect of the purge of the Jewish community caused citizens to gradually let down their guard and continue to confine themselves to private life, while also turning a blind eye to Jews in order to live their own personal lives.
Perhaps shockingly, the Jews who were made step by step into Auschwitz had rational choices. The absurdity lies in the game of "save those you can save" – allowing victims to make missing comparisons and even claim pardons or special treatment rights. It's an unfair choice from the start. But the result was the gradual disintegration of the internal structure of the Jewish community, and the Jewish commissars in it made a personalized rational orientation for their survival strategies. Although this is an unequal trade-off, it is clearly much smoother and more secretive to give them a choice than a direct massacre – with the help of "last" lies and staged steps. At the same time, the Nazis seemed to have given their collaborators a moral reassurance, including the sentence of "sacrificing a few to save the majority" and the persecution that "refusal brings punishment."
In the Jewish Quarter, the poor were the first to suffer, and the rest competed for a limited "pass." It was as if on the eve of the siege of the city by the walking dead, the capable people betrayed and killed each other for the resources to survive, and the huge wealth was devalued overnight as a pass printed with a few cents. But when outsiders came along, the moral degeneration of the Jewish commissar became a self-justifying prophecy.
Taken together, the Holocaust can be used as a paradigm of modern bureaucratic rationality. It has achieved the greatest gains at the least cost, successfully using everyone's resources and abilities, and excluding actions that have nothing to do with opposing the goals of the act. But the most memorable of these is the lesson that reason should not be seen as the only measure of organizational effectiveness.
"Modernity and the Holocaust" Douban scored 9.1 points
Four.
The Double Sin of Distance: The Ethics of Obedience
The social distance between the perpetrator and the victim temporarily relieves the abuser of uneasiness psychologically. But another important factor in the amplification of atrocities is the "serialized action"—the difference between each action is too small to produce a psychological impression, and the person is immersed in the last action with little impact, and continues the entire course of the act step by step, until finally an explosive "cumulative effect" is finally produced. Isolating the victims, the group of perpetrators exacerbates the group emotions of violence, resulting in a strange sense of cooperative accomplishment and guilt. And that's the second constraint – "situational responsibility."
Morality in the bureaucracy is technical, and telling every actor in it to follow and obey the orders of their superiors is regarded as the highest morality. And the more the victim is separated from the actor, and the closer the actor and the superior authority are brought closer, the more it will blur the connection between each of his official actions and the suffering of the victim, and the more he will reduce the inner uneasiness of the actor.
Obeying the orders of superiors also means that a mechanism for transferring responsibilities has emerged. In this way, even if he is held accountable in the future, the actor can calmly blame the bloody sword-wielding superiors, and then recognize from the bottom of his heart the innocence of being manipulated.
It is worth noting that the manipulated end must be the source of authority of single-mindedness, clarity and monopoly, avoiding pluralism in order to completely control everyone's conscience and behavior and shape the plan for the Holocaust.
If we want to trace the source of evil, then everyone is not immune, and evil actually sleeps in everyone's heart. But the intensification of malice comes from evil social arrangements—the rationalization of numb and cruel characters in an authoritative tone, the erasure of the moral conscience of the participants, and the degeneration into appendages of power.
Five.
Conclusion: The Walking Dead and the Hope of the Handmaid
Throughout the book, starting with the current theoretical study of the Holocaust and the surprising lack of key issues, the link between group hostile racism and genocidal programs is explored. The author strives to confront the uniqueness and routine of the Holocaust and the internal factors of modernity, combines the psychosocial experiments of Miragham and Zimbado, analyzes the cooperation of victims under the modern bureaucracy and the moral blind obedience of actors, and makes fundamental corrections to the study of morality.
Under the process of modern civilization, perfect social design and rational bureaucracy are prerequisites and conditions, the supreme monopoly authority defines the order of "purging", the hierarchical obedience and the isolation of the object of imposition make the process unbridled - self-preservation is an unavoidable choice, the responsibility of being dispersed by the group floats freely in the air, and technical morality is finally enshrined.
According to Post-World War II statistics, by 1945, after the Holocaust, Poland had only more than 70,000 Jews left in the original 3.5 million Jews, only 35,000 Jews left in the Netherlands, and only 40,000 of the 330,000 Jews in Germany and Austria survived.
Astonished. Abhorrent. And dejected.
More thriller than 1984, more desperate than Catch-22. However, history is only a terrible corner, and we must look directly at the possibility of a second Holocaust, which is still hidden in the modern society in which we live. Moreover, participatory behavior is not the limit of sin, and only escaping shame and rejecting rational reflection can turn formal immorality into extreme malice.
The lesson of the Holocaust is a two-sided admonition, with two-dimensional meanings of light and darkness.
First, when faced with danger or a dilemma in which choices are too costly, it is easy for most people to persuade themselves to abandon moral ethics and choose the self-preservation of the survival interests with peace of mind.
The horror story of human nature is staged, and the spread more powerful than the virus works well under the bureaucracy. In order to create only fictitious safety proofs instead of being reduced to the walking dead, not to mention the existence of the intermediary distance between the perpetrator and the victim, you and I pressed the slaughter button, and an exploding mushroom cloud rose up thousands of miles away.
Second, for a few, evil is not omnipotent, and self-preservation is not always above moral obligation.
Ofrid, who is always dressed in red, remembers images of a pluralistic free society, and there is still hope that there is less than a half probability of flipping a coin. The road to salvation is long and arduous, but as long as someone is willing to assume his moral responsibility in any situation, malice will always come to an end.
" Let's hope that everything doesn't get so bad." I hope not. ”
The railway to Auschwitz still exists.
And after a century, we hope to be very different from that period.