The Cognitive Dissonance of the Fuhrerdammerung

I just finished Anthony Beevor's The Fall of Berlin 1945, his account of the final major European battles of World War II. The Russian soldiers--enraged by Nazi German atrocities in the Soviet Union, whipped into a fury by Soviet propaganda, and undoubtedly driven by the brutalization of war itself--overwhelm the hopelessly outnumbered and equipment and ammunition poor German troops and rape every woman they can get their hands on. (The German civilians attribute the attacks to Slavic bestiality, of course.) On the other side, lunatic Nazi leaders continue to believe that they will prevail. During the last days of the fight in Berlin, with the remaining German forces driven back into the city center and fighting from cellars, of course there are still military police who are executing anyone they suspect of cowardice. One might think that, at that point, they might as well join the fight against the Soviets themselves. But no. Along with Hitler and his other fanatics, there are other officers and soldiers who still believe in the cause. All of which suggests that, despite evidence otherwise, there's always someone who won't acknowledge reality. At times, our delusions don't necessarily harm us--especially if we have the assets (money, wealth) to recover from them or if they simply don't put us into a position to harm ourselves. This is especially true for the upper and, to a degree, middle-classes--or in a racialized society whatever group that designates itself as the elite. But if a true crisis hits, then even privilege can't protect us from its consequences. Any number of people oppose universal health insurance in America--and for some of them, they will never have to face the consequences of their attitudes. But there will be some. They may not recognize it--but that will be the reason.

Attention Deficit Disorder

One standard ploy of politicians is to flatter the American people by referring to their inate wisdom--this despite the fact that, time and again, the American people have been and continue to be fooled by nonsense and obfuscation, lies and fantasies. Nowadays, we have fools coming out of the walls in America, people who really have no idea what they're saying or doing--and they're running in primaries and winning. And if they get into power, they would be unable to do anything in a crisis--beyond bombing someone somewhere. That is my nightmare image: there's a crisis, and they're frozen into a Bambi pose because they simply have no idea what to do. Yet we also have the corporate politicians who remain in power by placating the rich, whose reflex action is to protect great wealth. Is this any way to run a society?

On a more local note, we have fools who run educational institutions into the ground. I read an article saying that at one fancy liberal arts college, 70 percent of its employees were non-teaching. It would be interesting to know what the percentage is at my school. This occurred incrementally--year after year--without much or any comment, so that now it seems "normal." We can't remember how it used to be--in American politics, we seem to be able to go back a few months, no more. Is it an attention deficit disorder or just some kind of historical amnesia? Is it inherent in human beings, an evolutionry necessity? Or do we have rituals that ask us to remember the wrong or pointless things? Is that the function of religion?