Education after Auschwitz, A dialog
posted by karina on September 2nd, 2012 at 9:18AM
posted by karina on September 2nd, 2012 at 9:18AM
Adorno wrote Education after Auschwitz in 1967, not long time after the atrocities that had left the world perplex. His main point is to understand why common people with no particular training to be a torturer were able to do such things and also why society in general did nothing about it. At the time he and others from the Frankfurt school were very influenced by Freud, so in order to have a better glance at his text is important to know what Freud’s theory about civilization and also Adorno’s idea of education and love.
Adorno is convinced that there is something psychoanalyse can do in order to preclude Auschwitz from happening again, he believes that there is something within human nature that explains what happened. Adorno is trying to avoid the idea that evil can not be understood and hence ignored or naturalized. Evil is rational and once understood can be avoid, that is his hope.
He uses Freud’s theory of civilization and its discontents to understand why people leaving in the farms were more predisposed to work with the Nazis as tortures even if they were neighbours, friends, of those being tortured. Freud says that humans have certain instincts that are immutable: desire for sex and predisposition to violent aggressions towards authority figures and towards sexual competitors. Civilization is the oppressive entity that demands conformity and instinctual repression, and by always demanding repression it creates discontent citizens.
Adorno uses this notion to explain why people living in the farms were more predisposed to torture, because they were somehow less exposed to civilization and hence the "primitive" feelings usually repressed by civilization were actually less repressed. This could be discussed until today, with Internet available to almost everyone would Auschwitz still happen? The answer is yes, we just need to remember what happened to Rwanda, Bosnia, not so long time ago.
The solution he proposes is education and love. An education that is based on freedom and love, an education that provides the tools for the individual to be free and active, an active thinker capable of reflecting about society and about oneself. And love. Love would be the answer. The capability of feeling connexion to one another, being able to have compassion, but he also says that perhaps this kind of love does not exist. Perhaps we are not able to love but those close of us, otherwise Rwanda and Bosnia would never had happen.
I really like this libertarian education idea, the same that was develop years latter by Paulo Freire and expanded to the feminism realm by Bell Hooks. Adorno believes that if we understand what happened and why it happened we could prevent it form happening again. Education would be a tool to give people consciousness, since love is not something that can be taught, enlightenment would be the answer, awareness, so Auschwitz would not happen again.
I still believe it.
Adorno is convinced that there is something psychoanalyse can do in order to preclude Auschwitz from happening again, he believes that there is something within human nature that explains what happened. Adorno is trying to avoid the idea that evil can not be understood and hence ignored or naturalized. Evil is rational and once understood can be avoid, that is his hope.
He uses Freud’s theory of civilization and its discontents to understand why people leaving in the farms were more predisposed to work with the Nazis as tortures even if they were neighbours, friends, of those being tortured. Freud says that humans have certain instincts that are immutable: desire for sex and predisposition to violent aggressions towards authority figures and towards sexual competitors. Civilization is the oppressive entity that demands conformity and instinctual repression, and by always demanding repression it creates discontent citizens.
Adorno uses this notion to explain why people living in the farms were more predisposed to torture, because they were somehow less exposed to civilization and hence the "primitive" feelings usually repressed by civilization were actually less repressed. This could be discussed until today, with Internet available to almost everyone would Auschwitz still happen? The answer is yes, we just need to remember what happened to Rwanda, Bosnia, not so long time ago.
The solution he proposes is education and love. An education that is based on freedom and love, an education that provides the tools for the individual to be free and active, an active thinker capable of reflecting about society and about oneself. And love. Love would be the answer. The capability of feeling connexion to one another, being able to have compassion, but he also says that perhaps this kind of love does not exist. Perhaps we are not able to love but those close of us, otherwise Rwanda and Bosnia would never had happen.
I really like this libertarian education idea, the same that was develop years latter by Paulo Freire and expanded to the feminism realm by Bell Hooks. Adorno believes that if we understand what happened and why it happened we could prevent it form happening again. Education would be a tool to give people consciousness, since love is not something that can be taught, enlightenment would be the answer, awareness, so Auschwitz would not happen again.
I still believe it.
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posted by dennisn on September 2nd, 2012 at 7:02PM
I do not think that humans have a natural/instinctive predisposition to violence/aggresion against authority figures. (Unless, of course, those authority figures are evil and their power over us is illegitimate, but in that case a better word for them would be "oppressors" or "slave-masters", and in that case, yes, we have a natural aversion to that :p. But to legitimate authority (that is voluntarily respected), we have no such aversion.) And I don't think that was his explanation, for why rural areas allegedly generated more sadistic people. He mentioned a few cultural traditions throughout rural Germany at the time, which were very sadistic and violent. So it was actually "civilization" (i.e. the rural cultural traditions) that played a key role in the "barbarization" of rural people's, he claims. (Similarly, in modern times, I would similarly argue that it is "civilization" (i.e. the modern irrational beliefs/traditions surrounding statism, that we are constantly propagandized with) that constantly teaches us to be violent -- albeit in more sophisticated ways.)
I also think that although the Internet isn't an immediate 100%-guaranteed fix, it is by far the most incredible solution we have to such problems as Auschwitz. I'm pretty sure if Adorno was around today, he would have said that the Internet is exactly what is needed. The Bosnians and Rwandans that you mentioned for the most part did not have the internet. The Balkan war occurred in the early 90s, when the Internet barely existed. I doubt there were more than a few dozen Internet users there. And, I would bet that those that did have the net were not barbaric, saw the futility and brutality of violence, and probably got the fuck out of there fast. I don't think he actually proposed anything though, except for extremely vague ideas about actively going into the least educated areas, somehow voluntarily, and somehow making them aware of things. He doesn't really give any more details than that :P. Well, besides teaching them that perhaps their traditions are dangerous and worth exploring. But I think he's missing out on a tonne of other factors -- most importantly, all the other aspects in which violence is present in their lives, especially their childhoods. He doesn't really focus on childhood a lot, which is probably where the root of all these problems really lies. He doesn't mention religion or statism. The essay leaves us much work to do :p. |
