<story><title>They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45</title><url>https://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/511928.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>heurisko</author><text>I like to think if I were alive during the Nazi era, I wouldn&amp;#x27;t have become a Nazi.&lt;p&gt;But I know, chances are, I would have most likely ended up as one of those German citizens who would have gradually become part of the Nazi machine.&lt;p&gt;I think it&amp;#x27;s perhaps safer to recognise the line between good and evil runs through every person, and not be presumptive to think of oneself as being part of a select group of virtuous people.&lt;p&gt;I can think of many recent occurrences where people who think they are acting virtuously, are in fact the perpetrators of harm, without knowing it; so convinced they are of their own virtue.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>cortesoft</author><text>This understanding of ourselves as being as flawed as everyone else is so important, I think.&lt;p&gt;One of my favorite sayings (even though I am not religious at all) is, “therefore but by the grace of god go I.” It is about realizing that so much of our behavior is dictated by circumstances. We don’t like to think of it that way, but it is true.&lt;p&gt;One of my favorite essays of all time is called “A muscular empathy” (&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theatlantic.com&amp;#x2F;national&amp;#x2F;archive&amp;#x2F;2011&amp;#x2F;12&amp;#x2F;a-muscular-empathy&amp;#x2F;249984&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theatlantic.com&amp;#x2F;national&amp;#x2F;archive&amp;#x2F;2011&amp;#x2F;12&amp;#x2F;a-muscu...&lt;/a&gt;). It is about using this idea, and thinking about why we would behave the same way as all these people who we would like to believe we would have been better than if we were in their shoes. My favorite quote from it:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; It is comforting to believe that we, through our sheer will, could transcend these bindings -- to believe that if we were slaves, our indomitable courage would have made us Frederick Douglass, or if we were slave masters, our keen morality would have made us Bobby Carter. We flatter ourselves, not out of malice, but out of instinct.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Still, we are, in the main, ordinary people living in plush times. We are smart enough to get by, responsible enough to raise a couple of kids, thrifty to sock away for a vacation, and industrious enough to keep the lights on. We like our cars. We love a good cheeseburger. We&amp;#x27;d die without air-conditioning. In the great mass of humanity that&amp;#x27;s ever lived, we are distinguished only by our creature comforts, and we are, on the whole, mediocre.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; That mediocrity is oft-exemplified by the claim that though we are unremarkable in this easy world, something about enslavement, degradation and poverty would make us exemplary. We can barely throw a left hook--but surely we would have beaten Mike Tyson.</text></comment>
<story><title>They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45</title><url>https://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/511928.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>heurisko</author><text>I like to think if I were alive during the Nazi era, I wouldn&amp;#x27;t have become a Nazi.&lt;p&gt;But I know, chances are, I would have most likely ended up as one of those German citizens who would have gradually become part of the Nazi machine.&lt;p&gt;I think it&amp;#x27;s perhaps safer to recognise the line between good and evil runs through every person, and not be presumptive to think of oneself as being part of a select group of virtuous people.&lt;p&gt;I can think of many recent occurrences where people who think they are acting virtuously, are in fact the perpetrators of harm, without knowing it; so convinced they are of their own virtue.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jl6</author><text>&amp;gt; I can think of many recent occurrences where people who think they are acting virtuously, are in fact the perpetrators of harm, without knowing it; so convinced they are of their own virtue.&lt;p&gt;Case in point is that nearly every terrible political act in history has been perpetrated by someone proclaiming to be fighting the good fight. They all had their rationalisations. I can’t think of any examples of political groups that declare themselves pro-evil.&lt;p&gt;In a sense, this is encouraging. It means there is widespread low tolerance for transparently evil ideas.&lt;p&gt;In another sense, this indicates we have widespread low capability to determine which ideas are actually virtuous, and which merely have a veneer of virtue (masking great harm).</text></comment>