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Development of science and technology in middle age
Influence of the Enlightenment
How modern society is different from traditional societies
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Modern Western Civilization
European Enlightenment period often marks the start of modernity. Modernity refers to a phenomena and an age linked to a wide array of associated process such as the introduction of secular and nation-state government, the rise of capitalism, gender and race base differences, rise of classes. The basic assumption of modernity is that man with science and technology was able to understand and influence the world. However, the dark side of the desire of modern for progress and improvement is a tendency towards exclusion and categorization. The phrase genocide was not in existence before the 20th century. According to Hinton(6) similar to Genocides concepts such as human rights, race
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As a result, Holocaust amongst other genocides is usually interpreted as a breakdown of the social order. Similarly, the Rwandan genocides are perceived to be an outbreak of the hatred amid the two fighting ethnic groups. According to Freeman (207) it is the role of the social institution to produce and uphold moral behavior. The lack of these institutions would lead to the entire community being depicted by war and chaos. Through this view, the contemporary society is both moralizing and humanizing device. The immoral behavior that leads to violence and war is thought to be an impact of the malfunctioning of the normal and the established social process. Modernity and civilization brought with it the regulation of violence and wars and to prevent unnecessary losses of human life and to safeguard the populace. As a result, Holocaust leads to a reversion of the society to one that was barbaric. Some of the researchers in reference to holocaust refer to it as an event that was abnormal linked to pre-modern and ancient hatred. Others argue that it was an abnormal event sprung from the violent human nature; As such trying to hide the concept of modernity. However, modernity has in fact been a core prerequisite for the Holocaust. Modernity and modern values, institutions, values enabled …show more content…
The Nazi mass murder was not only the technological attainment of a society that was becoming industrial but the organization attainment of a bureaucratic society (Bauman, 32). Modernity has also seen an improvement in technology. Technology in recent decades has implied that it was possible for one nation to make use of the murder methods that distance the victim from the killers. Techniques were often sought to help reduce the physical proximity amid the victims and the perpetrator. The introduction of the gas chambers reduced the role of the killer to being named as the sanitation officer. As such the modern bureaucracy has served an integral role in facilitating holocaust. Nonetheless, bureaucracy alone does not lead to the start of the genocide. For bureaucracy to lead to the holocaust, it required interconnecting with another significant aspect of modernity named as the racism ideology. The source of race as an as scientific notion is a modern occurrence established during the Europen 19th century as the Darwinian thought of evolution and was applied to account for the differences between the societies. As such, Racism is an ideology that cannot exist without the modern science and the prevailing notion of progress. However, modernity not only enabled racism but required racism. With the start of the equality one of the Enlightenment ideals, the race,
Throughout the Holocaust, the Jews were continuously dehumanized by the Nazis. However, these actions may not have only impacted the Jews, but they may have had the unintended effect of dehumanizing the Nazis as well. What does this say about humanity? Elie Wiesel and Art Spiegelman both acknowledge this commentary in their books, Night and Maus. The authors demonstrate that true dehumanization reveals that the nature of humanity is not quite as structured as one might think.
Goldhagen's book however, has the merit of opening up a new perspective on ways of viewing the Holocaust, and it is the first to raise crucial questions about the extent to which eliminationist anti-Semitism was present among the German population as a whole. Using extensive testimonies from the perpetrators themselves, it offers a chilling insight into the mental and cognitive structures of hundreds of Germans directly involved in the killing operations. Anti-Semitism plays a primary factor in the argument from Goldhagen, as it is within his belief that anti-Semitism "more or less governed the ideational life of civil society" in pre-Nazi Germany . Goldhagen stated that a
... the disbelief of the inhumane actions of the Nazis. Today, some people do not believe that the Holocaust ever happened. Society should accept the fact that the Holocaust happened and prevent it from happening in the future. By focusing on the traits that led to the Holocaust and society must prevent it from happening again. Poland’s tragedy claims to be a small proportion of the total number of people killed during the entire Holocaust. If the society decides not to survey for the trait, the Holocaust can always stir up again.
"Victims of the Nazi Era: Nazi Racial Ideology." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Council, 10 June 2013. Web. 05 May 2014.
The Holocaust tends to be a bitter memory and an unpleasant subject to discuss. Although this event took place many years ago, repercussions are still present in the twenty first century. Especially in Germany, the Holocaust not only influences patriotism, but it also influences education and immigration policies. In contrast to other countries where nationalism is common, Germany has been forced to lessen the sense of nationalism in order to dispose false beliefs some individuals have of German racism. By allowing people from other countries to become German citizens, Germany avoids transmitting the sense of being a better and a cleaner race. A further sector influenced by the Holocaust is the education system. Approaches to teach about this event are difficult since the Holocaust is a sensitive issue and continues having vital importance in numerous families. Although the Holocaust continues conveying negative influences, the Holocaust also led to positive medical and technological improvements. In fact, numerous improvements are unknowingly implemented in societies today. Therefore, the Holocaust is one of the most horrific and influencing events in history whose repercussions are still felt in Germany today. However, in spite of the horrific occurrences, the associated medical findings and technological improvements make it intricate to look at the Holocaust as plainly evil. Thus, societies should view the Holocaust with a broader perspective.
The atomic bombings of Japanese cities and the genocides of the Holocaust are horrific events in human history. Although these events have their differences, they influence the world greatly today because they differ from each other to provide comparisons for history, have significance because of the survivors who tell their personal story, and achieve significance morally as well as immorally.
...he human depravity one can imagine. Even though Genocide did not begin with the Holocaust, Germany and Adolf Hitlers’ heartless desire for “Aryanization” came at the high cost of human violence, suffering and humiliation towards the Jewish race. These warning signs during the Holocaust, such as Anti-Semitism, Hitler Youth, Racial profiling, the Ghettos, Lodz, Crystal Night, Pogroms, and Deportation unraveled too late for the world to figure out what was going on and help prevent the horrors that came to pass. The lessons learned from all of this provide a better understanding of all the scars genocide leaves behind past and present. In spite the ongoing research in all of these areas today, we continue to learn new details and accounts. By exploring the various warning signs that pointed toward genocide, valuable knowledge was gained on how not to let it happen again.
The Holocaust, the mass killing of the Jewish people in Europe, is the largest genocide in history to this date. Over the course of the Holocaust nearly six million Jewish people were killed by the Nazi Party and Germany led by Adolf Hitler. There are multiple contributing factors to the Holocaust that made it so large in scope. Historians argue which of these factors were most significant. The most significant contributing factor is the source of the Holocaust, the reason it occurred. This source is Adolf Hitler and his hatred for Jewish people. In comparison to the choices of the Allies to not accept Jewish refugees and to not take direct military action to end the Holocaust, the most significant contributing factor of the Holocaust is that Adolf Hitler was able to easily rise to power with the support of the German people and rule Germany.
One of the most destructive and arrogant persons in history was Adolf Hitler. The destruction that he and his regime brought on humanity has seldom seen its equal. In reality the Holocaust was a terrible horror, but in Hitler’s mind it was merely a brushstroke in the masterpiece that he believed he was creating. Hitler believed that the Aryan race was superior to all others and that it was only natural, and not cruel, that the higher would show no humanity toward the lower (296). This prejudiced belief predominated Hitler’s thinking. In his essay, On Nation and Race, his assumption that Aryans are superior to all others creates a type of logical fallacy called “Begging the Question” (Rottenberg 291).
The crime of genocide is one of the most devastating human tragedies throughout the history. And the word genocide refers to an organised destruction to a specific group of people who belongs to the same culture, ethnic, racial, religious, or national group often in a war situation. Similar to mass killing, where anyone who is related to the particular group regardless their age, gender and ethnic background becomes the killing targets, genocide involves in more depth towards destroying people’s identity and it usually consists a fine thorough plan prearranged in order to demolish the unwanted group due to political reasons mostly. While the term genocide had only been created recently in 1943 by Raphael Lemkin, a Polish-Jewish legal scholar, from the ancient Greek word “genos” meaning race and the Latin word “cide” meaning killing , there are many examples of genocide like events that occurred before the twentieth century. And this new term brings up the question as whether genocide is a contemporary description defined through current perspectives towards the crime act or is it just a part of the inevitable human evolutionary progress caused by modernity.
...iable consideration of western domination of the world. The reader obtains a deeper understanding of western civilization and how history ought to be taught. Ferguson also succeeds in warning the reader of the collapse of western civilization. The economic, political, and military rise of other countries such as China seems to cement the argument that the end of western domination is near. As such, the reader realizes that western domination may just be a subject of historical knowledge (Ferguson 29).
Books are an important part of learning. Books transfer knowledge from one generation to the next just like the other forms of art like painting, music, drama and dances. Book review is also important. Book reviews help readers know which books are best equipped with the information that they seek to know. It is therefore important that after reading a book, we write an accurate review of what we felt and learnt from a specific book. It would not be nice to review a book negatively because you have authored a similar book and want to divert reader attention to your book. Buyers want to see review for books before they buy or read. On the other hand, not many of them take time to review a book. Probably that one negative review is all it takes to make an otherwise worthy book look bad. It is important to understand what the books “the Malaise of Modernity” by Taylor and “Democracy on trial” by Elshtain are about. This will guide our understanding of what the issues are addressing, whether they have clearly articulated the issue satisfactory.
Adolf Hitler (the Führer or leader of the Nazi party) “believed that a person's characteristics, attitudes, abilities, and behavior were determined by his or her so-called racial make-up.” He thought that those “inherited characteristics (did not only affect) outward appearance and physical structure”, but also determined a person’s physical, emotional/social, and mental state. Besides these ideas, the Nazi’s believed tha...
The intentional murder of an enormous group of people is near unthinkable in today’s society. In the first half of the twentieth century, however, numerous authoritarian regimes committed genocide to undesirables or others considered to be a threat. Two distinct and memorably horrific genocides were the Holocaust perpetrated by Nazi Germany and the Holodomor by the Soviet Union. In the Holocaust, The Nazis attempted to eradicate all European Jews after Adolf Hitler blamed them for Germany’s hardship in recent years. During the Holodomor, Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union attempted to destroy any sense of Ukrainian nationalism by intentionally starving and murdering Ukrainian people. The two atrocities can be thoroughly compared and contrasted through the eight stages of genocide. The Holocaust and Holodomor shared many minor and distinct similarities under each stage of genocide, but were mainly similar to the methods of organization, preparation, and extermination, and mainly differed
Modern Western though has been shaped by emphasis on scientific thinking and reasoning from the time of Copernicus, Galileo and Newton. The scientific revolution gave birth to a new era of thought, in which observations were made to support an idea. This involved what man could prove through sense, not religion or superstition. Notable ancient Greek historians, philosophers and scientists, such as Thucydides, Socrates, Aristotle, and Hippocrates, laid down the seeds of modern Western thought.