Again With the Banality of Evil

[willendorf5761]

Here's Bob Herbert in today's NY Times, talking about torture of prisoners by U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan:

Lawlessness should never be an option for the United States. Once the rule of law has been extinguished, you're left with an environment in which moral degeneracy can flourish and a great nation can lose its soul.

I've been reading

Comments

[eeminy]

Yabbut, they were Nazis. We're not. It's, like, different.

I wish the National Socialist German Worker's Party had had a less catchy nickname. It's far too easy to ascribe the evil to the group, rather than to the mindset that created that group (among others).

[willendorf5761]

The mindset that created the group, and also, even more scary in my view, the mindset that went along with it because it seemed like the only thing to do.

[eeminy]

Along those lines, have you ever seen the quite wonderful movie, The Nasty Girl (Das Schreckliche M&228;dchen)?

[eeminy]

(Oops, I was trying to get all fancy with the umlauts. That should have come out Das Schreckliche Mädchen.)

[willendorf5761]

Haven't seen it, but heard it was really good.

[eeminy]

I didn't study for a final once in college, because I happened to be walking through the commons room when someone put it in the VCR. I was hooked in the first five minutes. It tries to be two things at once -- a searing examination of German amnesia about wartime collaboration, and a quirky coming-of-age movie. Amazingly, it mostly succeeds as both. I'll warn you that the ending is weak, though.