Mass murder expanded beyond elite cadres to ordinary soldiers

Evidence

Alfred de Vigny wrote, “The paid man, the soldier, is a glorious pauper, victim, and executioner.” A soldier wields violence and is also exposed to it; he is both an executioner and a victim. But what does he become once the very possibility of being exposed to violence is removed? The fatal conclusion is that he becomes a mere executioner. And that is why he must somehow continue to be a victim if he wishes to continue to be called a soldier. There is a difficulty, though: what could he be the victim of? The only possibility is that he is psychically the victim of having to act as an executioner. That is the only way he can be defined in his own eyes, as in those of society, as the fighter that he no longer is. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 367 (#expands, via linked claim)

The Holocaust could be accomplished only on the condition of neutralizing the impact of primeval moral drives, of isolating the machinery of murder from the sphere where such drives arise and apply, of rendering such drives marginal or altogether irrelevant to the task. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 528 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Removing combat exposure reduces soldiers to mere executioners — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 367; Mass murder required neutralizing proximity-based moral drives. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 528; Organized ordinary masses out-crime professional criminals under totalitarian rule (+1 more)

Related

• Removing combat exposure reduces soldiers to mere executioners (similarity 0.81)
• Mass murder required neutralizing proximity-based moral drives. (similarity 0.81)
• Military histories written from commander viewpoint erase soldiers’ humanity (similarity 0.80)
• Removing risk reduces the soldier to a mere executioner in need of new victimhood (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Removing combat exposure reduces soldiers to mere executioners #expands (0.85) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 367
• Mass murder required neutralizing proximity-based moral drives. #expands (0.80) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 528
• Organized ordinary masses out-crime professional criminals under totalitarian rule #corroborates (0.75)