Modernity and the Holocaust

Author: Zygmunt Bauman
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-01-01
Features: This is a powerful work reflecting on modernity. Renowned sociologist Zygmunt Bauman argues that the Holocaust was not merely a tragic event in Jewish history, nor an abnormal behavior of the German nation, but rather an inherent possibility of modernity itself. The rational calculation spirit of science, the moral neutrality of technology, and the engineering trend of social management are these essential elements of modernity that make a brutal tragedy like the Holocaust a closely collaborative social collective action involving designers, executors, and victims. Moving from extreme rationality to extreme barbarism seems paradoxical, yet it is logically inevitable. The path to salvation may lie in: under any circumstances, the individual must unconditionally take responsibility for their moral duty.