Absolute evil reveals evil’s radical essence by exceeding comprehensible motives

Evidence

Whatever else the Nazi state has achieved, it certainly succeeded in overcoming the most formidable of obstacles to systematic, purposeful, non-emotional, cold-blooded murder of people – old and young, men and women: that ‘animal pity by which all normal men are affected in the presence of physical suffering’. We do not know much about the animal pity, but we do know that there is a way of viewing the elementary human condition which makes explicit the universality of human revulsion to murder, inhibition against inflicting suffering on another human being, and the urge to help those who suffer; indeed, of the very personal responsibility for the welfare of the other. If this view is correct, or at least plausible, then the accomplishment of the Nazi regime consisted first and foremost in neutralizing the moral impact of the specifically human existential mode. It is important to know whether this success was related to the unique features of the Nazi movement and rule, or whether it can be accounted for by reference to more common attributes of our society, which the Nazis merely skilfully deployed in the service of Hitler’s purpose. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 520 (#expands, via linked claim)

The Holocaust had dwarfed all remembered and inherited images of evil. With that, it inverted all established explanations of evil deeds. It suddenly transpired that the most horrifying evil in human memory did not result from the dissipation of order, but from an impeccable, faultless and unchallengeable rule of order. It was not the work of an obstreperous and uncontrollable mob, but of men in uniforms, obedient and disciplined, following the rules and meticulous about the spirit and the letter of their briefing. It became known very soon that these men, whenever they took their unforms off, were in no way evil. They behaved much like all of us. They had wives they loved, children they cosseted, friends they helped and comforted in case of distress. It seemed unbelievable that once in uniform the same people shot, gassed or presided over the shooting and gassing of thousands of other people, including women who were someone’s beloved wives and babies who were someone’s cosseted children. It also was terrifying. How could ordinary people like you and me do it? Surely in some way, let it be a small way, a tiny way, they must have been special, different, unlike us? Surely they must have escaped the ennobling, humanizing impact of our enlightened, civilized society? Or, alternatively, they must have been spoiled, corrupted, subjected to some vicious or unhappy combination of educational factors which resulted in a faulty, diseased personality? — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 430 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Their power rested on the doomed living in a make-believe world, the world which they, the men with rifles, defined and narrated for their victims. In that world, obedience was rational; rationality was obedience. Rationality paid – at least for a time – but in that world there was no other, longer time. Each step on the road to death was carefully shaped so as to be calculable in terms of gains and losses, rewards and punishments. Fresh air and music rewarded the long, unremitting suffocation in the cattle carriage. A bath, complete with cloakrooms and barbers, towel and soap, was a welcome liberation from lice, dirt, and the stench of human sweat and excrement. Rational people will go quietly, meekly, joyously into a gas chamber, if only they are allowed to believe it is a bathroom. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 580 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Absolute evil exceeds the categories of punishable and forgivable crime; Radical evil arises where all people become equally superfluous — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1034; Opposites like good and evil are relative contrasts within an absolute whole — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 915 (+5 more)

Related

• The Nazi accomplishment was neutralizing universal moral inhibition against killing (similarity 0.86)
• Extreme evil can stem from meticulous order rather than its breakdown (similarity 0.85)
• Absolute evil exceeds the categories of punishable and forgivable crime (similarity 0.82)
• Absolute evil is evil detached from any humanly comprehensible motive (similarity 0.81)
• Nazi rule inverted reason so that rationality demanded moral consent to crime (similarity 0.81)
• Rational self-interest alone suffices for evil to operate unchallenged. (similarity 0.81)
• Older Nazi officials retained moral qualms the genocidal machine overrode (similarity 0.80)
• Nazi power operated by crafting a rational make-believe world for victims (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• The Nazi accomplishment was neutralizing universal moral inhibition against killing #expands (0.80) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 520
• Extreme evil can stem from meticulous order rather than its breakdown #complicates (0.78) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 430
• Opposites like good and evil are relative contrasts within an absolute whole #contradicts (0.75) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 915
• Nazi power operated by crafting a rational make-believe world for victims #complicates (0.75) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 580
• Defeating a great evil can merely disperse it into many smaller persistent ones #complicates (0.72) — , A Year of World Stories, 10132
• Rationality and order produce inhumanity, not merely contain it #complicates (0.72) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 435