Would You Have Stood Up Against Authoritarianism in Nazi Germany? — Jordan B. Peterson
The evil within, are you up for the task? I find this quote by the famed Professor Jordan B. Peterson to teach an invaluable lesson that everyone should take deadly serious. It’s not for the faint of heart, you have to be willing to face the evil within you and consider it with integrity, honesty, and careful deliberation.
I wrote down this quote while listening to one of Peterson’s many online lectures and interviews. He is definitely one of the great minds of our time and people can learn so much about the world and themselves by taking him seriously. His careful deliberation of every point is unparalleled and fiercely impressive. This one stood out to me as profoundly accurate about something most people ignore or have never considered. Let’s dive in…
Nazi Germany — 1942 — Would you have stood up to the Nazi party?
“It was pretty much everybody who got tangled up in it, and one of the things you might be thinking about, and this is worth thinking about, is that if you were there for anyone of you there’s a 90% chance that you would have got tangled up in it. You know you wouldn’t have been the person who rescued the gypsies. It’s like forget that. It’s like unless you think that you know you’re heroic far beyond the average, and I would be very very careful about assuming that, you could assume instead that you would have been swept along with the crowd just like everyone else.” — Jordan B Peterson
It slaps you right in the face with the reality of the situation on the ground in Nazi Germany. In all likelihood, you would have been swept away into the party and committed acts of horror. The vast majority of people would have. The vast majority of people did. They reciprocated the fervor of radical authoritarianism. This is something that I think everyone should be taught when they are mature enough to handle it. It’s a very dark corner of our psyche and very hard to admit to yourself. Many people in Germany were good people. They did not agree with the atrocities of the party, but the vocal minority radicals pressured good people into the fervor at rallies and some times outright forced them into committing these heinous acts. Once you commit the act, then you are locked into a new moral reality.
The best way to illustrate this with the following hypothetical. I call it a hypothetical only because it involves an imaginary self. However, the scenario is very real and occurred many times during the Nazi regime. Imagine you’re a 20 y/o soldier. You’ve only joined the military because everyone else your age was doing it and you felt you had to or be ostracized. They all wanted to be accepted and you are no different. Pressured into service by the propaganda campaigns and rallies occurring around the country and you are, if not anything, a patriotic person. So far you have avoided committing anything overtly amoral in your duties, but tonight is different.
Tonight, you and one other soldier are ordered by your commanding officer to escort 5 prisoners outside. You tremble as you do. Once outside your commander instructs you to line them up in front of a previously dug grave. A large grave with dozens of dead prisoners already lining the bottom. You force your prisoners to stand in front of the grave in a line as you were ordered. Your commander instructs your counterpart to execute the first prisoner. He is visibly shaken by the order, quaking as he raises his pistol to the back of the first prisoner’s head. The young soldier, about your age, quivering in fear drops the weapon and exhales ‘I can’t’. A shot rings out in the night and the soldier drops to the ground. Your commander executed him without hesitation or remorse. He then turns and orders you to push your fellow soldier’s corpse into the grave. As you comply tears roll down cheeks. You know what is coming next. He then orders you to execute the prisoners. You are now faced with the dilemma of ending someone’s life you don’t even know or immediate death.
This is how many soldiers got inducted into their authoritarian roles. Once they committed the first act, command knows they will comply with follow-up orders. They weed out the soldiers with strong moral cores and tear down the morals of the rest. Now you were just following orders and that becomes the mantra in your head. “I am just following orders.” Each life you are ordered to take is met with compliance and each one erodes your moral foundations further. How many does it take before you begin become uncaring and emotionless like your commander? After all, if the party is right, then you are right, and if the party is wrong, then you are a monster.
So yes, you very likely would be part of the Nazi party had you lived during that point in time. Those that abstained were killed as examples to motivate those they could corrupt through manipulation. Evil is part of the human experience. We carry it inside all of us and when pushed it can become the prevailing ideals. Now consider this lesson carefully and most important honestly. Then apply it to the ongoing riots and political landscape we face today. Who is the authoritarian? Who is pushing morals beyond the breaking point? Who is enabling them, bailing them out, dropping charges, and equipping them with ammunition to use in the streets? Who is espousing violence and hatred and who is advocating for law and peace?
