The Holocaust is a by-product of runaway modernist design

Evidence

Emphatically, this does not mean that we all live daily according to Auschwitz principles. From the fact that the Holocaust is modern, it does not follow that modernity is a Holocaust. The Holocaust is a by-product of the modern drive to a fully designed, fully controlled world, once the drive is getting out of control and running wild. Most of the time, modernity is prevented from doing so. Its ambitions clash with the pluralism of the human world; they stop short of their fulfilment for the lack of an absolute power absolute enough and a monopolistic agency monopolistic enough to be able to disregard, shrug off, or overwhelm all autonomous, and thus countervailing and mitigating, forces. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 272

Categorization

• DEFINE: Precise causal statement: modernity enables but does not necessitate genocide; pluralism is the brake.
• XREF: connects to: All Holocaust scholarship is ultimately a debate over modernity’s self-image. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 631; Nazi design treated Jewish absence as instrumental to a perfect world — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 220; The Holocaust is a possibility modernity contains, not its paradigm — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 49 (+6 more)

Related

• The Holocaust was a product of modern civilization, not merely its failure (similarity 0.90)
• All Holocaust scholarship is ultimately a debate over modernity’s self-image. (similarity 0.89)
• The Holocaust must be read as integral to modernity, not as its aberration. (similarity 0.89)
• The Holocaust reveals civilization’s capacity for industrialized destruction as inseparable from its progress. (similarity 0.89)
• The Holocaust is a possibility modernity contains, not its paradigm (similarity 0.88)
• The Holocaust was a product of modernity, not pre-modern barbarity. (similarity 0.88)
• Modernity’s institutions actively enabled and supplied the Holocaust (similarity 0.88)
• The Holocaust combined long-festering social tensions with the rational instruments modernity created (similarity 0.88)
• The Holocaust is a product of modern rational society, not a Jewish problem alone (similarity 0.88)
• Modern civilization was a necessary but not sufficient condition of the Holocaust. (similarity 0.87)
• The Holocaust functions as a laboratory test revealing modernity’s hidden capacities. (similarity 0.87)
• The Holocaust resulted from distinctly modern social and political conditions (similarity 0.87)
• Genocide is a normal potential of modernity, not its malfunction. (similarity 0.87)
• Every ingredient enabling the Holocaust was normal for modern civilization (similarity 0.86)
• The Holocaust resulted from an unchained state wielding violence and engineering ambitions (similarity 0.86)

Broader Connections

• The Holocaust was a product of modern civilization, not merely its failure #corroborates (0.90) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 256
• The Holocaust is a possibility modernity contains, not its paradigm #qualifies (0.85) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 49
• The Holocaust was rational social management in scientific dress #expands (0.82) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 207
• The Holocaust combined long-festering social tensions with the rational instruments modernity created #qualifies (0.82) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 32
• Social engineering ambition combined with concentrated power produced the Holocaust #expands (0.80) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 224
• The Holocaust functions as a laboratory test revealing modernity’s hidden capacities. #expands (0.78) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 68
• The Holocaust demonstrated how to liquidate minority and statelessness problems #exemplifies (0.75)