I’m currently reading Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman.

It’s fiction, and yet it’s not. No writer can set down a word without the business of life passing before his eyes, stirring up thoughts, emotions, memories, conundrums.

It’s a book for our time. I would rather it were not so, but I would also rather eat my fill of Thin Mints.

The passage quoted below struck me pretty hard. Why? Check out the news link after the quote.

Emphasis added by me.

“Before slaughtering infected cattle, various preparatory measures have to be carried out; pits and trenches have to be dug; the cattle must be transported to where they are to be slaughtered; instructions must be issued to qualified workers.

“If the local population helps the authorities to convey the infected cattle to the slaughtering points and to catch beasts that have run away, they do this not out of hatred of cows and calves, but out of an instinct for self-preservation.

“Similarly, when people are to be slaughtered en masse, the local population is not immediately gripped by a bloodthirsty hatred of the old men, women and children who are to be destroyed. It is necessary to prepare the population by means of a special campaign. And in this case it is not enough to rely merely on the instinct for self-preservation; it is necessary to stir up feelings of real hatred and revulsion.

“It was in such an atmosphere that the Germans carried out the extermination of the Ukrainian and Byelorussian Jews. 1 And at an earlier date, in the same regions, Stalin himself had mobilized the fury of the masses, whipping it up to the point of frenzy during the campaigns to liquidate the kulaks  as a class and during the extermination of Trotskyist—Bukharinite degenerates and saboteurs.

“Experience showed that such campaigns make the majority of the population obey every order of the authorities as though hypnotized. There is a particular minority which actively helps to create the atmosphere of these campaigns: ideological fanatics; people who take a bloodthirsty delight in the misfortunes of others; and people who want to settle personal scores; to steal a man’s belongings or take over his flat or job. Most people, however, are horrified at mass murder, but they hide this not only from their families, but even from themselves. These are the people who filled the meeting-halls during the campaigns of destruction; however vast these halls or frequent these meetings, very few of them ever disturbed the quiet unanimity of the voting. Still fewer, of course, rather than turning away from the beseeching gaze of a dog suspected of rabies, dared to take the dog in and allow it to live in their houses. Nevertheless, this did happen.

“The first half of the twentieth century may be seen as a time of great scientific discoveries, revolutions, immense social transformations and two World Wars. It will go down in history, however, as the time when — in accordance with philosophies of race and society — whole sections of the Jewish population were exterminated. Understandably, the present day remains discreetly silent about this.

“One of the most astonishing human traits that came to light at this time was obedience. . . . Millions of people lived in vast camps that had not only been built by prisoners but were even guarded by them.

“And it wasn’t merely tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, but hundreds of millions of people who were the obedient witnesses of this slaughter of the innocent. Nor were they merely obedient witnesses: when ordered to, they gave their support to this slaughter, voting in favour of it amid a hubbub of voices. There was something unexpected in the degree of their obedience.

“There was, of course, resistance; there were acts of courage and determination on the part of those who had been condemned; there were uprisings; there were men who risked their own lives and the lives of their families in order to save the life of a stranger. But the obedience of the vast mass of people is undeniable.

“What does this tell us? That a new trait has suddenly appeared in human nature? No, this obedience bears witness to a new force acting on human beings. The extreme violence of totalitarian social systems proved able to paralyse the human spirit throughout whole continents.

“A man who has placed his soul in the service of Fascism declares an evil and dangerous slavery to be the only true good. Rather than overtly renouncing human feelings, he declares the crimes committed by Fascism to be the highest form of humanitarianism; he agrees to divide people up into the pure and worthy and the impure and unworthy.

“The instinct for self-preservation is supported by the hypnotic power of world ideologies. These call people to carry out any sacrifice, to accept any means, in order to achieve the highest of ends: the future greatness of the motherland, world progress, the future happiness of mankind, of a nation, of a class.

“One more force co-operated with the life-instinct and the power of great ideologies: terror at the limitless violence of a powerful State, terror at the way murder had become the basis of everyday life. . . .

“Another fact that allowed Fascism to gain power over men was their blindness. A man cannot believe that he is about to be destroyed. The optimism of people standing on the edge of the grave is astounding. The soil of hope — a hope that was senseless and sometimes dishonest and despicable — gave birth to a pathetic obedience that was often equally despicable. . . .

“Everything gave rise to obedience — both hope and hopelessness. . . .

“Having established man’s readiness to obey when confronted with limitless violence, we must go on to draw one further conclusion that is of importance for an understanding of man and his future.

“Does human nature undergo a true change in the cauldron of totalitarian violence? Does man lose his innate yearning for freedom? The fate of both man and the totalitarian state depends on the answer to this question. If human nature does change, then the eternal and world-wide triumph of the dictatorial State is assured; if his yearning for freedom remains constant, then the totalitarian State is doomed.”

Now, why do I care about this sort of thing? Because this attitude is taking hold in several nations, including mine.

Photo credits:

Cattle: PeterThoeny on VisualHunt.com

Sculpture w/ suitcases: Joanbrebo on Visualhunt.com

Zyklon B canisters: Paularps @ https://visualhunt.com/f6/photo/14136070000/870cc9a1e6/

  1. “Ultimately, the participation of Ukrainians in the extermination of the Jews was a result of the Nazis’ recruitment of them to this end.  The Nazis used persuasion and force to facilitate recruitment.  They took advantage, too, of the Ukrainians’ opposition to and brutalization by Soviet rule.  And they, or rather the destruction process they initiated, activated whatever could be found in general human nature or in specifically Ukrainian tradition that would reduce inhibitions to or even motivate complicity in murder.” https://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/Brody/ukrainian_collaboration.htm