Persecution is inseparable from the system of order itself, whose essence is force

Evidence

Let us remember that the only case in which traditionally, following Le Bon, we used to admit this (that is, the perpetration of indecent things by otherwise decent people) to be possible, was a situation in which normal, civilized, rational patterns of human interaction have been broken; a crowd, brought together by hatred or panic; a casual encounter of strangers, each pulled out of his ordinary context and suspended for a time in a social void; a tightly packed town square, where shouts of panic replace command and stampede instead of authority decides the direction. We used to believe that the unthinkable may only happen when people stop thinking: when the lid of rationality is taken off the cauldron of pre-social and uncivilized human passions. Milgram’s findings also turn upside-down that much older image of the world, according to which humanity was fully on the side of the rational order, while inhumanity was fully confined to its occasional breakdowns. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 435 (#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 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Order, by contrast, is explored territory. That’s the hundreds-of-millions-of-years-old hierarchy of place, position and authority. — Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life An Antidote to Chaos, 198 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Rationality and order produce inhumanity, not merely contain it — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 435; Order provides structure and security in society. — Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life An Antidote to Chaos, 198; Extreme evil can stem from meticulous order rather than its breakdown — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 430

Broader Connections

• Rationality and order produce inhumanity, not merely contain it #expands (0.85) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 435
• Extreme evil can stem from meticulous order rather than its breakdown #corroborates (0.82) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 430
• Order provides structure and security in society. #contradicts (0.80) — Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life An Antidote to Chaos, 198