Conscience is the feeling inside one 's self that alerts them that something is wrong. This can sometimes be overpowered by stronger external forces such as a powerful authority figure, surrounding circumstances, or the belief that what they did was correct. Through, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, Hannah Arendt argues that for the first time the world has encountered a different kind of criminal- - one that blindly followed orders from superiors and was made to believe the anti-Semitic ideology, although it could have been any ideology. Similarly, in her work, A Human Being Died That Night, Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela claims that the actions of ordinary citizens could be influenced by surrounding practices and drive people …show more content…
De Kock did have a conscience, but the line of work that he was in and the tasks he was assigned required him to desensitize himself and subdue his inner conscience - something the society in general also did (52). He was able to convince himself that the apartheid ideology was morally correct and what he was doing was justified. While convincing himself that what he was doing was right, his conscience was silenced and numbed every time his "trigger hand" shot at any anti-apartheid supporter. Initially, Gobodo-Madikizela was surprised to find herself regarding to de Kock as a regular man because to the rest of the world de Kock was a cold-hearted killer responsible for the deaths of hundreds of ANC members (CITE). After meeting with him, she asserted that de Kock was someone who was caught in the system and did have a conscience, but instead chose to ignore it during the apartheid. Gobodo-Madikizela gave an example of someone being astonished by how normal de Kock looked, going as far as to compare him to their own brother, contributing to the fact that any ordinary citizen could very well take part in atrocious, evil acts
According to Canadian philosopher Bernard Lonergan, these three mental abilities define the human spirit. Thus, the Nazis brutally challenged the very humanity of the Holocaust writers.
A conscience is known as an inner feeling or voice that acts as a guideline for the morality of one’s behaviour. In Lorna Dueck’s “Why conscience (or lack of it) is in the news”, she portrays the purpose of a conscience in an individual’s decisions and actions. Dueck questions individual’s conduct then provides solutions to achieve a better world. She includes other sources to strengthen her argument on how one’s conscience reflects their behaviour. As well, Dueck uses a logical perspective to convince the audience the importance of a morally shaped conscience.
The book Night by Elie Wiesel shows how suffering and witnessing the painful deaths of many innocent lives can be the cause of loss of faith in the benevolent god. This book is taken in a horrible, inhumane place called the Holocaust. It all started when Moshe the Beadle stopped talking about God after he had witnesses the massacre of Jews by the German Gestapo; at that time no one believed him but time would prove them wrong. When Elie witnesses the horror of the concentration camps and what they do to people especially children he feels as if his God has been murdered right before his eyes. In the camp he sees an atrocity after atrocity, death after death.
A memoir of the holocaust written by Ellie Wiesel, “Night” is a summarization of Wiesel’s personal experience as a young Jewish boy during World War II. Though the fear, anguish, and sorrow of the Holocaust may never truly be depicted properly from all angles, this short novel provides reader’s with a further look into the Holocaust from a Jewish prisoner point of view. Learning about this dark time in history is not ideal for many people, nonetheless it is very important that we must be aware of the world we live in. Learning through words written directly from a Holocaust survivor is a different experience than learning through statistics and books based on information released. Wiesel’s interpretation of the holocaust is factual information
In the memoir Night, the narrator Elie Wiesel recounts a moment when the ss officers were transporting all the prisoners from buna to another camp and whenever somebody couldn’t keep running the ss officers shoot them. “They had orders to shoot anyone who couldn’t sustain the peace”(Wiesel 85). The ss officers cruelty to the prisoners led them to give up, they stopped trying. If someone stopped and the officers didn’t noticed, he would probably die under the feet of all the people behind them. As the author describes his experiences, many other examples of inhumanity are revealed.
Then by the same sign when a man kills ten others, his crime will be ten times greater and should be punished by death ten times…. Crime such as attacking another country is applauded as a righteous act, can this be said to be knowing the difference between righteousness and unrighteousness? (20)” this quote originated from Judy Grahn’s book, “blood, bread, and roses” and it is notable to mention for its truthfulness that people place blame to everything else unless notably acceptable in society. When it came down to it Ehrenreich had no qualm to point out humanities flaws and even mentions that it shows humans true nature. Ehrenreich brings a good thought to the table, “Which are we: beasts because we make war, or angels because we so often seek to make it into something
Secondly, the poem “I Can Stand Him No Longer” also incorporates and develops the thematic topic of guiltiness all along. In the poem, the man states “A heavy conscience will always make what’s hidden revealed” In this situation, the man means to say that a strong feeling, in this case, guilt, can make what 's hidden revealed to everyone. So, the author uses an Oxymoron which in this case, is “conscience” to convey to the reader that there is a deeper level of truth in this sentence. And that by saying “conscience,” the author does not mean any random feeling but instead, is trying to signal the reader that the man is referring to the specific feeling of guiltiness.
It is hard to understand the struggle of another person that is forced to live in a society where they are seen as inferior to the societal norm due to uncontrollable circumstances. How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon is a story about a young African American male that is shot by a white American male. The story is made up a multiple accounts of the people connected to the lives of Tariq Johnson and Jack Franklin. These are real life accounts of the person 's emotions and their point of view on the incident. The big question of the entire incident is whether Tariq was armed or not, and the more we are exposed to multiple stories the further we are from the truth.
Night, fire and death are things that occur many times throughout the book, death being a very big one. Death stands out the most because it happens so much in the book and people are so used to it, they act as if it 's a normal thing. For example, "Babies! Yes, I see this, with my own eyes... children thrown into the flames" (Wiesel 32).
Mahatma Gandhi often mentioned fear in his teachings: defining it, recognizing it, and overcoming it. He identifies fear saying, “The enemy is fear. We think it is hate; but, it is fear.” (Gandhi). Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night which is the story of Elie’s life in the Concentration Camps during the Holocaust reflects this statement.
In the light of the aforementioned characteristics of totalitarianism defined, Hannah Arendt claims that totalitarianism is incomprehensible since it is not possible to judge or predict its actions through any traditional, legal, moral or common sense (Arendt, 1953 : 303). Therefore, Arendt evaluates the regimes under Hitler and Stalin rule “not only wicked but also senseless, of a kind that could not be deduced from humanly comprehensible motives” (Canovan, 1999 : 25). Arendt aims to offer an intellectual constraints for the analysis of Hitler’s
Ellie Wiesel, an author who wrote about his near death experience of being sent to a Concentration Camp in his book , Night, named his book after the darkness found in those who captured and tortured over six million people. The Jewish, Gypsies, and the Homosexuals were the main groups who were captured by German Dictator Adolf Hitler and his soldiers. In 1944, Wiesel and his family was captured in their neighborhood and was sent to Auschwitz. Wiesel, who was fifteen at the time, lied about his age in order to stay alive and be sent to work instead with the able-bodied. The able-bodied were those who were not too young, anyone under eighteen, or too old, those who were over forty-five.
When placed in particular situations, humans rank which cultural or personal values they found the most essential. Consequently, certain ideals are not considered. During the infamous incident known as the Holocaust, this occurred frequently. As a result, the people that underwent these horrible situations nominated particular personal or cultural values over others. This selection determined the difference between life and death for several individuals.
‘You no look at me!’ This man, thought Tinker, is a psychopath. (Hillenbrand
Otto Adolf Eichmann was one of the most important members of the Nazi Party who was accused of crimes against the Jewish people and humanity during World War 2. After the war, he went to Argentina to escape prosecution but was captured there by Israeli agents and was transferred to Israel to be judged. During the trial, Eichmann’s defense was based on Kant’s duty-based ethical theory and categorical Imperative since he overstated many times that he was only following orders. By enouncing Kantian ethical theory, Eichmann acquitted himself from moral guilt. Kant’s categorical imperative as known as The Formula Of The End