Playing the Indian Card

Monday, July 10, 2006

Willing Executioners

Daniel Goldhagen, in his popular book Hitler’s Willing Executioners, holds all Germans responsible for the Holocaust. He describes Germany as “a society that produced a cataclysm, the Holocaust, which people did not predict or, with rare exceptions, ever imagine to have been possible.” The Holocaust, he says, “was a radical break with everything known in human history” (p. 28). He argues that, to understand the Holocaust, Germany under the Nazis “must be approached as an anthropologist would a previously unencountered preliterate people and their beliefs” (p. 45). It is terribly wrong to suppose the Germans were modern, post-Enlightenment people who think as we do.

German civilization, he argues, has always been anti-Semitic to the core. “European anti-Semitism is a corollary of Christianity,” he claims (p. 49). “Antisemitism has been a permanent feature of Christian civilization” (p. 39).

What seems most apparent to me from all this is that Goldhagen is guilty of exactly what he blames the Germans for: he dehumanizes the Germans just as they, he claims, dehumanized the Jews. He demonizes Christianity just as Christians, he claims, once demonized Judaism.

In doing so, he undermines his entire argument.

Goldhagen is also wrong to think that the Holocaust was all about the Jews. Simple blunder; this is a common error. We forget that less than half of the inhabitants of the concentration camps seem to have been Jewish: an estimated 6 million Jews died in them, but an estimated 13 million overall. Not to mention the enslavement and planned enslavement of many millions more, including essentially the entire Slav race.

But, this being so, Goldhagen’s thesis that it was all made possible by a permanent grudge against the Jews in German civilization, or Christian civilization, just does not work. It is dead on arrival.

But oddly enough, quite inadvertently, in his tirade against Christianity and against Germany, he demonstrates how the Holocaust really happened.

People need scapegoats. Scapegoats are what makes social life possible.

All you need is a group that is “outside,” in some sense, the given society, outside present company.

When such a group can be found, and all evil thrown upon them, it lefts a great burden off the shoulders of everyone else. Everyone else can feel good about themselves, and avoid guilt. Better yet, they can avoid blaming one another, or getting blamed. No matter what they do. Because they are members of the elect, they cannot do wrong.

The next step, working together to destroy the source of evil, becomes an objective around which society per se can form.

In Hitler’s time, the Jews were handy. As Goldhagen intimates, as a group, they were quite successful. It was therefore possible for people to believe conspiracy theories about their “limitless power” and that they were “responsible for nearly every harm that has befallen the world” (p. 28).

But there is, sadly, nothing unique about the Jews in this regard. It is completely wrong to see the Nazi Holocaust as something unique. Would that it were. But we have actually seen bigger holocausts since. Cambodia, Darfur, Bosnia, Stalin, Mao, Idi Amin, Zimbabwe, and on and on. Far from being the exception, it is the rule. Societies run on scapegoats, from small groups all the way up to civilizations.

Goldhagen does not actually claim that Germans were uniquely “primitive” and irrational in their thinking. Obviously, he also thinks that all of Christian civilization is, or was, primitive and irrational, And, of course, he must think the same of “primitive” cultures per se. Indeed, he says, “most societies throughout history have been governed by absurd beliefs at the center of their cosmological and ontological notions of life, which their members have held axiomatically” (p. 29). Unfortunately, he does not see the obvious paradox here: if all other societies but modern secular society, and perhaps Judaism, have been nuts without knowing it, how can he possibly be confident that he himself, and our society, are not also nuts without knowing it?

We should, on the one hand, have more respect for the dead. They themselves become a very common scapegoat, because they are never present to defend themselves; they are necessarily never part of present company.

We should, on the other, be careful to avoid any doctrine that tends to exempt ourselves from guilt. Suspect a scapegoat. What if, for example, far from being wholly different from the Germans of the 1930s, we ourselves, put in the same situation, would probably react in exactly the same way? Either participating in the killing and enslaving ourselves, or, if we were not involved, at best shrugging our shoulders and considering it no moral issue?

I’m confident we would. And the reason I am confident, is that we are. For one thing, we are as sanguine as most Germans were about the holocausts happening on our watch. When Idi Amin started slaughtering everyone, most foreign reaction seemed to be to think it was funny. Nobody is doing much about Mugabe in Zimbabwe, or Darfur, right now. Perhaps not close enough to home.

But it is even worse than that. We have our own scapegoats. Societies always do. Most obviously, we feel no moral qualms at all, at least as a society on the official level, over abortion. But this is in itself a bigger mass murder, in numbers, than Hitler’s. And we are willing executioners: an estimated quarter of all Canadian women have themselves now had at least one abortion performed.

The trick is the same one used against the Jews: children are painted as the source of evil. Really: all that stuff about “overpopulation” we’ve been hearing since the fifties. Children were/are going to destroy the world. They also supposedly keep good Aryan women enslaved, axiomatically barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. And anyone too fond of children is suspected of pedophilia. Unborn children are portrayed as less than fully human, just as were the Jews. They are spoken of in terms of disease, as the Jews were: compared, for example, to tumors.

A corollary factor, of course, is that there is visibly some advantage to the rest of us to killing them: in the case of the Jews, it meant their wealth could be confiscated, their high positions filled by eager others. In the case of kids, abortion gave freedom to have sex whenever and with whomever we wanted—without financial risk.

We have other scapegoats. But let’s not dilute the point. Time to look at the beam in our own eye.

1 comment:

James McGinley said...

CALL TO BATTLE: LAUNCH ALL-OUT NONVIOLENT WAR IN JULY TO RESCUE DARFUR. Fast Day #8; Vigil Day #59 - A CONCRETE PROPOSAL


www.standwithdarfurwhitehouseii.blogspot.com


We are years, YEARS behind in stopping this Genocide; a tragic, inexcusable failure of will and humanity on our part. We must bring this to an end. Bashir's Genocide is exterminating 500 people per day, more than one 9/11 per week. We are giving crystal clear signals to Bashir that he has the time to exterminate, NOW, the remaining 3,000,000 people. Oxfam is pulling out, and the other aid groups are on the verge of following – too hostile on the ground. We are training ourselves to the "gradualism" that was Dr. King's greatest enemy and horror. We are fast depleting the energy that was so valiantly raised by so many of you by April 30th.

Nonviolent wars are not started with tricks and manipulation, emails, four hour demonstrations, letters or phone calls (although, brilliantly, the efforts by many of you thus far have set the stage). We can now win the war if we unleash the masses. Now. ALL-OUT NONVIOLENT WARS OF THE MASSES are ALWAYS STARTED by a small group of NONVIOLENT "MARINES", fully acting out their anguish, agony and horror at the suffering of others (In APPENDIX below: Gandhi in India, Civil Rights Movement...). When these "Marines" do so and sufficiently pay an honest price, it is an irresistible media spectacle. The radical self-sacrifice of these "Marines" ignites the hearts of the masses – possessing less vision, imagination and information. Here is the idea:

STAGE #1. IGNITE THE ALL-OUT NONVIOLENT WAR - DEPLOY THE NONVIOLENT "MARINES" to Rescue and Restore Darfur. Nonviolent campaigns need to be started by the few on the nonviolent side.

I pray that anyone that passionately wants to join will emulate the Gandhi/India campaign (APPENDIX) as follows:

We will begin a long, drawn out series of rolling arrests. Where? The White House. Alternate targets could be the Sudan Embassy, Chinese Embassy, Russian Embassy, United Nations in NYC, or one of the network headquarters for their profound non-coverage of Darfur. If it is the White House, this is not a protest aginst the White House, or President Bush. Why?

WE THE PEOPLE ARE THE PROBLEM AND THE ONLY SOLUTION. WE MUST DELIVER A MANDATE THAT 20-30,000 PEACEKEEPERS (preferably African Union and non-Western UN) BE ON THE GROUND IN DARFUR, BEGINNING OCTOBER 1, with sufficient empowerment/funding/support. With an unmistakable outcry from the masses, the administration and congress have given every sign that they will happily comply. They need a "win."

PHASE A: A minimum of 20 people are required for us to enter this phase. We need to dramatically demonstrate and HONESTLY EXPRESS the despair we feel over the agony of our Darfur family.

Every 3 hours (so it stretches over days) one of us nonviolently violates the rules at the White House President's Park so as to get arrested. The law is that for the first arrest there is likely to be a 12 hour or less holding period, a $50 fine, and then release.

Phase B. If by the end of this cycle of arrests (3 days elapsed?) we do NOT see the beginning-of-the-end of Hell for Darfur in sight the same group immediately goes through the process a 2nd time, knowing full well that 6 MONTHS IN PRISON may well be the price. This phase goes on until 1. all of us are in prison, OR, 2. the end of Hell for Darfur is assured.

Obviously numbers count for this initial action. If instead of the example of 20, it is 200 or 2,000 people, the impact goes up astronomically. Maybe "prison" will be avoided, but this CANNOT be our goal.

Those involved must fully accept responsibility for staying the course and make certain over the months and years ahead that US Imperialist Tendencies do not come to bear, and that we Rescue, AND Restore Darfur.

STAGE #2. THE MASSES OF NONVIOLENT WARRIORS BECOME ENGAGED, ORGANIZED AND DEPLOYED IN THE FIGHTING.

For every one of the initial "Marines" (just one riding alone across the battlefield in "Dances with Wolves"/100's walking into swinging clubs in Gandhi's India/100's facing the fire hoses down South - APPENDIX) the numbers multiply: 1,000, 10,000, 100,000. The masses become warriors too. National organizations (Africa Action, Save Darfur Coalition, STAND, Genocide Intervention) and other vehicles exist to register this 2nd tier of 100,000's, 1,000,000's of nonviolent fighters and to effectively utilize and deploy them; radically for the Save Darfur Coalition 9/17 event at the United Nations for example.


HOW TO ORGANIZE THE INITIAL STAND? Some thoughts:

Let's not care whose idea or what idea we implement. Instead, let us care that it is the best possible shot at raising the mass army THAT FIGHTS TO WIN, immediately. We must "be" the Truth Force that Gandhi so powerfully weilded. We must be the Truth of Darfur’s desperate need at the White House, at the United Nations, and wherever we go.

Got any ideas you think are good? Better? AWESOME! Contact me or tell me how to contact YOU! Want me to come and talk with you or your group? Want me to join and follow your group? Let's do it. Contact your friends, associates, acquaintances who might be interested.

Let's make this happen. We're killing time. Lets stop the Genocide This Summer, while there is life in Darfur to save.

Sincerely, Jay McGinley
email: jymcginley@cs.com
phone: 484 356 6243

………………………………….

Appendix: ADDITIONAL RATIONALE AND PERSPECTIVE

EXAMPLE: Do you remember the scene from "Gandhi" when for days, man after man after man walked headlong into swinging British clubs? Well, so did the millions of India, and the entire civilized world watch and remember, and ACT.

EXAMPLE: Do you remember the beginning scene from the movie "Dances With Wolves," when, impossibly, the hero rode across a Civil War field raging with gunfire, both sides behind stone walls, totally in stalemate? His insane ride miraculously shocked his side out of passivity and denial to follow him across the field and rout the opposition. (Yes, this was a violent war but it still illustrates the dynamic that radically committed leaders cause the masses to fight; no other way does it as well. Ever.)

EXAMPLE: Do you remember the TV images of the Civil Rights marchers getting fire-hosed, beaten, and attacked by Police Dogs then doing it all again? And how only then did the MILLIONS of US Citizens go to war? And, on, and on....

Harvard’s Samantha Power’s Pulitzer Prize winning Genocide study of the last 100 years presents a clear conclusion: “the battle to stop genocide has thus been repeatedly lost… [because] Americans outside the executive branch were largely mute….” From "Problem from Hell."

Isn't God/Goodness/Justice/Humanity/History asking us: "WHY DON’T YOU GO TO ALL-OUT NONVIOLENT WAR FOR YOUR FAMILY IN DARFUR?" We must start BEING THE ANSWER to this question by July’s end.

I am open to any appropriate way to go to nonviolent war as long as it equates to fighting to win and doing the very best that we can do.