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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (61638)	10/8/2002 2:26:13 PM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

So your answer is to ignore the terms of the dilemma? By the way, there was no such thing as a reformist commandant of an extermination camp. You either were deeply enmeshed in the system, or you were shot. No one wants to be a victim, but sometimes it is better than the alternative. There is too big a difference between accidents and intentional or negligent transgressions. Think of it this way: you steal something, you are caught, you experience a little embarrassment and give back the 5 dollars. What is there to motivate anyone to reform their ways, if they have been malicious or negligent? Nothing. First, there is no real risk, since even if you are caught, it comes to little; second, society has just said to you that it doesn't take stealing very seriously. Well, it is nice that you make funerals.

To: Lane3 who wrote (61638)	10/8/2002 4:38:59 PM
From: The Philosopher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

No, it would not be possible for me to be a commandant who supports the system. For the you who you are now, true. But if you had been brought up (impossible, I know, but this is a hypothetical) in a very militaristic Prussian family in Germany in say 1910 and been a schoolchild during WWI and lived through the glory and then the agony, and had the shame of the WWI defeat to live with and the poverty of your country after it for which obviously some scapegoat had to be responsible, and joined the military and all that, I can imagine you could easily have been a very successful commandant. You have the competence, the intelligence, the administrative ability to run a very successful camp. Of course I'm arguing here a bit of Neo's position, that morality is learnt at your mother's knee, and so your ethics and morals would have been so drummed into you that the very idea that the Fuhrer could be wrong would be anathama to you. But even if you take the self-interest position, our view of what is in our best interests is also shaped by society to some extent, and you might well have seen your best interests lying in following your country's leaders where they sent you.