The camps aim to eliminate spontaneity and reduce persons to things

Evidence

In any case this overgrowth of objective culture has been less and less satisfactory for the individual. Perhaps less conscious than in practical activity and in the obscure complex of feelings which flow from him, he is reduced to a negligible quantity. He becomes a single cog as over against the vast overwhelming organization of things and forces which gradually take out of his hands everything connected with progress, spirituality and value. The operation of these forces results in the transformation of the latter from a subjective form into one of purely objective existence. It need only be pointed out that the metropolis is the proper arena for this type of culture which has outgrown every personal element. Here in buildings and in educational institutions, in the wonders and comforts of space-conquering technique, in the formations of social life and in the concrete institutions of the State is to be found such a tremendous richness of crystallizing, depersonalized cultural accomplishments that the personality can, so to speak, scarcely maintain itself in the face of it. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 760 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Camps produce living men stripped of psyche and individuality; The metropolis reduces individuals to negligible cogs in an objective culture — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 760

Related

• Camps experimentally eliminate spontaneity to transform humans into mere things (similarity 0.80)
• The metropolis reduces individuals to negligible cogs in an objective culture (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Camps produce living men stripped of psyche and individuality #corroborates (0.95)
• The metropolis reduces individuals to negligible cogs in an objective culture #exemplifies (0.70) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 760