A Beast We Are Lest A Beast We Are Becoming
I am reading a book right now called “Hitler’s Willing Executioners” by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen. The book’s proposes that the German people of the early 20th Century, instead of being the unwitting and unwilling pawns of the Nazi regime, were enthusiastic participants in the disenfranchisement, torture and near-extermination of the Jews from most of Europe. It was the German people, rather than some amorphous and isolated entity known as the “Nazis,” that carried out the most horrific event in European History.
The book also states that the motivation for the Holocaust did not grow merely from some post-WWI-Depression zeitgeist. Dehumanizing Jews was a natural outgrowth of the German (and perhaps overall European) culture that had been developing since the Middle Ages. German culture had already debased Jews to such an extent by the time Nazis came to power that to destroy them was the next natural step.
The author warns against believing that somehow people of all times and periods have a universal “common sense” that guides them. He faults historians for assuming that the German culture was somehow fundamentally like ours (containing perhaps a social movement that got out control). He further states that historians who use that commonality as a starting point will arrive at false conclusions. Goldhagen posits that societies from the beginning of time have been able to incorporate into their worldviews axioms that are completely divorced from reality. The burden of proof that the Germans as a whole had anything but a general hatred for Jews at that time lies with finding corresponding historical documents, Goldhagen writes, something the current record does not support.
What makes this so very important for us is that America is in great danger of incorporating fundamental axioms into our worldview that are completely divorced from reality. We have already incorporated into our way of viewing the world some of the most pernicious and evil perspectives that we may be rapidly becoming like the Germans of the early 20th Century. We kill our unborn children in the name of “choice,” we are dismantling the family under the banner of “freedom” and “diversity,” and we are waging wars overseas for brazen self-interest with the battle cry of “liberation.”
My question is, will historians of some later age attribute to us a baseline common sense only to find they were giving us to much credit? Or can we take a step back, refocus our culture on service, true liberty (with responsibilty) and sacrifice, thereby saving our culture from a complete break with grace?
The book also states that the motivation for the Holocaust did not grow merely from some post-WWI-Depression zeitgeist. Dehumanizing Jews was a natural outgrowth of the German (and perhaps overall European) culture that had been developing since the Middle Ages. German culture had already debased Jews to such an extent by the time Nazis came to power that to destroy them was the next natural step.
The author warns against believing that somehow people of all times and periods have a universal “common sense” that guides them. He faults historians for assuming that the German culture was somehow fundamentally like ours (containing perhaps a social movement that got out control). He further states that historians who use that commonality as a starting point will arrive at false conclusions. Goldhagen posits that societies from the beginning of time have been able to incorporate into their worldviews axioms that are completely divorced from reality. The burden of proof that the Germans as a whole had anything but a general hatred for Jews at that time lies with finding corresponding historical documents, Goldhagen writes, something the current record does not support.
What makes this so very important for us is that America is in great danger of incorporating fundamental axioms into our worldview that are completely divorced from reality. We have already incorporated into our way of viewing the world some of the most pernicious and evil perspectives that we may be rapidly becoming like the Germans of the early 20th Century. We kill our unborn children in the name of “choice,” we are dismantling the family under the banner of “freedom” and “diversity,” and we are waging wars overseas for brazen self-interest with the battle cry of “liberation.”
My question is, will historians of some later age attribute to us a baseline common sense only to find they were giving us to much credit? Or can we take a step back, refocus our culture on service, true liberty (with responsibilty) and sacrifice, thereby saving our culture from a complete break with grace?
