Nazi and Stalinist genocide expressed rather than betrayed modernity’s spirit

Evidence

The two most notorious and extreme cases of modern genocide did not betray the spirit of modernity. They did not deviously depart from the main track of the civilizing process. They were the most consistent, uninhibited expressions of that spirit. They attempted to reach the most ambitious aims of the civilizing process most other processes stop short of, not necessarily for the lack of good will. They showed what the rationalizing, designing, controlling dreams and efforts of modern civilization are able to accomplish if not mitigated, curbed or counteracted. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 270

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: This is the chapter’s paradigm-shifting thesis — genocide as the consistent expression rather than aberration of the civilizing process — the load-bearing reversal the whole field builds on.
• XREF: This directly sets up the Islamophobia module’s question: if genocide is modernity’s consistent expression, what does that mean for modern practices of Muslim exclusion? — connects to: Modern history shows grotesque disparities between causes and effects; The evil capitalism unleashed predates and exceeds Nazism — Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism, 183; Adiaphorization alone cannot explain the novelty of Gulag, Auschwitz, Hiroshima — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 617 (+10 more)

Related

• Genocide is a normal potential of modernity, not its malfunction. (similarity 0.87)
• Modernity’s admired and genocidal faces belong to one inseparable body (similarity 0.84)
• Modernity’s institutions actively enabled and supplied the Holocaust (similarity 0.83)
• Modern genocide functions as social engineering toward a perfect society (similarity 0.83)
• The Holocaust is a by-product of runaway modernist design (similarity 0.82)
• Genocide required replacing collective rage with bureaucratic obedience (similarity 0.82)
• Genocide combines ordinary modern factors that are usually kept apart (similarity 0.82)
• The Holocaust was a product of modernity, not pre-modern barbarity. (similarity 0.82)
• Heterophobia and boundary anxieties do not directly cause genocide. (similarity 0.82)
• Nazi extermination was a legitimate offspring of the modern spirit, not a regression (similarity 0.82)
• The Holocaust was a product of modern civilization, not merely its failure (similarity 0.82)
• Modern rational society enabled systematic genocide and discredited impulsive mass violence (similarity 0.82)
• Genocide kills for non-fit with the perfect society’s scheme (similarity 0.81)
• The Holocaust must be read as integral to modernity, not as its aberration. (similarity 0.81)
• Modern civilization was a necessary but not sufficient condition of the Holocaust. (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Totalitarianism is inherently, not just contingently, connected to modernity #corroborates (0.95) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 401
• Modern genocide functions as social engineering toward a perfect society #expands (0.92) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 264
• Genocide combines ordinary modern factors that are usually kept apart #expands (0.90) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 274
• Modern genocide requires bureaucracy meeting a rationally engineered social design #expands (0.90) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 309
• Genocide is creative weeding, not destructive hatred #expands (0.85) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 268
• Civility coordinated the genocide and prompted bystander passivity rather than resistance #expands (0.80) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 320