I was going to put up fascinating colour footage of Dachau shot by George Stevens in 1945, but could not bear to do it. This material is just too indecent to show, too painful to watch. “How can one human being do this to another human being?” was his question. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is one helpful contemporary take, in a year the focus is on children.
It matters that we remember, because the awful truth is that evil can take root anywhere, any time, given the facts Christians call Fall & Freewill. Political convictions, good intentions, progress, even religion or lack of it, all existed in Central Europe in 1941. They cannot innoculate against evil. Only truthful memory enables us to understand our own moral frailty and, perhaps, make better choices in future.I can understand lack of belief in God. God does not compel faith, and honest doubt is worth more than feigned belief. I object, however, to lack of belief in evil, including the possibility of anyone being entangled by it, for that really is a pernicious, blinding thing.
7 comments:
Self-knowledge. It is not 'they' who are alone capable of committing evil; it is 'us' and 'I'.
Events like the Stanford Prison Experiment back in 1971 show that those we raised in the 'west' consider the best and brightest are fully capable of doing evil. It affected the professor in charge, Phil Zimbardo, deeply and he is still investigating.
As you said, we need to remember, but, we also need to remember those who said 'no'. Raoul Wallenberg, Chiune Sugihara, Selahattin Ülkümen, Elisabeth Abegg, Irena Sendler and others.
Many thanks for your post on HMD. Like you I struggled to identify appropriate images for the day and in the end put up some pics I took at Yad Vashem in December.
Dear Erp,
I remember a radio programme earlier this year on Phil Zimbardo. They had to give up before very long, didn't they, because of the ways the subjets were entering into their roles.
I wish I had known of these experiments in the days I worked in a prison. There's something about power that brings out the very worst in everyone, and toxic bullying attitudes are always there under the surface.
Thanks so much for pointing me in a more posiive direction, too. I needed that! Phil, thanks so much for the Yad Vashem pictures. I've not been there, but hope to one day. Lucy and I had some time at the British School of rchaeology back in the eighties, but before YV was built. I didn't realise the children's memorial was so much more than a garden. It sounds amazing! Like Erp's reminder therer were heroes and humanitarians too, your px and visit account encouraged me. Thanks so much.
I never had Zimbardo as a teacher, but, I did attend the 'What matters to me and why" talk he gave back in 2003. It was one of the most memorable I went to. The university news wrote about it though it doesn't give the full flavor.
('What matters to me and why' is a talk series organized by the Stanford university deans of religious life [aka chaplains]. The speakers are memorable people from the university who have to answer the question posed. It can be quite intense. The speakers are of all religious faiths (or none which I think might be the most common position))
Erp, many thanks for a great link, relating what Zimbardo learnt to his core convictions and contemporary realities. he sounds like a wonderful man.
I remember now that what I heard of him was his obituary on a public radio (BBC R4) programme called "Last Words." They rounded up survivors, if that's the word, from the prison experiments, among others.
As far as I know Zimbardo is still alive. Or does "Last Words" broadcast obits ahead of death thereby allowing the subject a chance to reform?
Ah! Right you are (and Wikipedia agrees!) Fine bit of false memory syndrome on my part! I get a lot of R4 stuff as podcasts, and the programme may have been one of their choice of the week things about the Stanford experiments around the time Guantanamo got controversial over here.
I like the idea of doing obits ahead of time, especially for Dorian Gray/ Benjamin Button people...
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