Evil can be resisted because self-preservation remains a choice.

Evidence

The second lesson tells us that putting self-preservation above moral duty is in no way predetermined, inevitable and inescapable. One can be pressed to do it, but one cannot be forced to do it, and thus one cannot really shift the responsibility for doing it on to those who exerted the pressure. It does not matter how many people chose moral duty over the rationality of self-preservation – what does matter is that some did. Evil is not all-powerful. It can be resisted. The testimony of the few who did resist shatters the authority of the logic of self-preservation. It shows it for what it is in the end – a choice. One wonders how many people must defy that logic for evil to be incapacitated. Is there a magic threshold of defiance beyond which the technology of evil grinds to a halt? — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 594

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes that the self-preservation logic analyzed throughout the book is treatable as a contingent choice, not a law of nature — key to theorizing resistance in the reader’s toolkit.
• QUESTION: The ‘magic threshold of defiance’ question is left open — worth chasing in later readings on social movements and when exclusionary systems collapse.
• XREF: connects to: Recognizing one’s potential for evil can lead to greater self-respect and resistance to oppression. — Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life An Antidote to Chaos, 168; Sacrifice’s dual function—self-surrender and self-preservation—turns magic into cunning rationality. — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 299; The wish to be right stems from self-preservation, which philosophy must break down — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia: Reflections from…, 83 (+1 more)

Related

• When survival becomes the ultimate end it legitimates any means and erases moral scruples. (similarity 0.80)
• Rational self-interest alone suffices for evil to operate unchallenged. (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Recognizing one’s potential for evil can lead to greater self-respect and resistance to oppression. #corroborates (0.80) — Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life An Antidote to Chaos, 168