contradictio.de

Kritik an Ideologien, Aufklärung über populäre Irrtümer, Kommentare zum Zeitgeschehen

Ruthless Criticism (Winter 2014)

Von • Jan. 17th, 2014 • Kategorie: International

Ruthless Criticism (Winter 2014):

 

Where does racism come from and how does it work?

[Translated from GegenStandpunkt 1-95]

 

When fanatical xenophobes throw blacks from subway trains, attack Turks or set fire to the homes of refugees, responsible modern citizens from left to right agree: this is a moral aberration that does not fit the image of our glorious democracy and in no way reflects the attitudes of the “vast majority.” Leftists warn of a transgression of the prevailing moral standards and evoke – “never again!” – the experience of Auschwitz, although the general sense of justice must recoil from this conclusion. The parties on the right and those in office proclaim that racism is incompatible with the democratic consensus, so that the nation and national sentiments are shielded from any ugly conclusions. They stress the difference between an understandable “fear of being overrun by aliens” and a more reprehensible “ethnic cleansing” which they only see in far away countries or the distant past. They insist that the transition to racism and the persecution of those from different national backgrounds today – which is considered fundamentally inexplicable since the end of the second world war – eludes any explanation. If one searches for reasons why normal and decent citizens in certain cases see the persecution of aliens and concentration camps called for, one learns that this can’t do justice to the unique immorality of such events. One is suspected of being a “rationalist” who shows understanding for the inhumane and is ultimately even ready to participate in genocide himself.

Neither party is justified. Knowing the roots of racism is the prerequisite for fighting it, for “nipping it in the bud!” whenever it turns up, instead of fearing the next step – which is apparently entirely conceivable – and nostalgically considering the preceding normal citizen’s mindset still innocent. In any case, such an explanation can not be shamed by the rules of democratic morality because it deals precisely with the relation between good morals and perverse versions of the same. (…)

 

http://www.ruthlesscriticism.com/where_does_racism_come_from.htm

 

cf:

 

http://www.gegenstandpunkt.com/gs/1995/1/gs19951008h2.html

 

Comments are closed.