Sociology after the Holocaust.pdf

Sociology after the Holocaust

Author(s): Zygmunt Bauman

Source: The British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 39, No. 4 (Dec., 1988), pp. 469-497

Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The London School of Economics and Political

Science

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/590497

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ZygmuntBauman

Sociologyafter the Holocaust*

ABSTRACT

Sociologists have so farfailedto explorein full the consequencesof

the Holocaustfor the extant modelof moderncivilizationand the

logicof the civilizingprocess.While some attentionhas been paid

to illuminatingselectedaspectsof the Holocaustby the application

of availablesociologicalconcepts,the possibilitythatthe Holocaust

experiencedemands a substantive re-thinking of the concepts

themselveshas not been seriouslyconsidered.Such an omissionis

as regrettableas it is dangerous,in as faras the historicalstudyof

the Holocausthas provedbeyondreasonabledoubt that the Nazi-

perpetratedgenocidewas a legitimateoutcomeof rational bureau-

craticculture.This fact suggeststhe needof importantcorrections

to our understandingof the historical tendencyof modernsociety,

as it revealscertain potentialitiesof modernrationalitywhich are

not visible, or not salient enough, under normalconditions.The

one posthumous servicethe Holocaustcan renderis to serveas the

laboratoryin which those potentialitiescan be observed and

investigated.Among the processeswhich the Holocaustbrought

into reliefand allowedto explore,the rarelydiscussedfunctionof

the civilizing process as that of the social productionof moral

indifference,and the social production of moral invisibility,

deservesparticularlyclose attention.

materialand spiritualproducts.

(RichardRubenstein andJohnRoth,Approaches

amongits

Press 1987,p. 324.

toAuschwitz,

SCM

Thereare two ways to belittle,misjudge,or shrugoff the significance

of the Holocaust forthe theoryof civilization,of modernity,of modern

. * . .

ClVl lZatlOIl.

One way is to presentthe Holocaustas something whichhappened

to the Jews; as an event in the Jewish history. This makes the

Holocaustunique, comfortablyuncharacteristic, and sociologically

TheBriti.shJournalof Slociology Volumet5;5;1\ Nuznber

Civilizationnowincludesdeathcamps and Muselmanner

470

ZygmuntBauman

- in itselfa unique phenomenonwithnothingto

compareit with in the largeanddenseinventoryof ethnic or religious

prejudicesand aggressions. Among all other cases of collective

antagonisms,antisemitism

resilience,

forits ideologicalintensity,forits supra-nationalandsupra-territorial

spread, for its unique mix of local and ecumenicalsources and

tributaries.In as faras it is definedas, so to speak,thecontinuationof

antisemitismthroughothermeans,the Holocaustappearsto be a 'one

item set', a one-offepisode,which perhapssheds some light on the

pathology of the society in which it occurred, but hardly adds

anythingto ourunderstandingof this society'snormalstate.Lessstill

does it call forany significantrevision of the orthodoxunderstanding

of the historicaltendencyof modernity,of the civilizingprocess,the

constitutivetopicsof sociologicalinquiry.

Anotherway - apparentlypointingin an oppositedirection,yet

leading in practice to the same destination- is to present the

Holocaustas an extremecaseof a wideand familiarcategoryof social

phenomena;a categorysurely loathsomeand repellent, yet one we

can (andmust) live with- becauseof its resilienceand ubiquity,but

above all because modern society has been all along, is and will

remainan organization designedto roll it back- if not to stamp out

altogether.Thus the Holocaust is classified as another (however

prominent)item in a wide class whichembracesmany'similar'cases

of conIlict,or prejudice,or aggression.At worst, the Holocaustis

referredto the primevaland culturallyinextinguishable,'natural'

predispositionof the human species - as in Lorenz's instinctual

aggressionor Arthur Koestler'sfailureof the neo-cortexto controlthe

ancient,emotion-riddenpartof the brain;las pre-socialand immune

to culturalmanipulation,factors responsiblefor the Holocaustare

effectivelyremovedfromthe areaof sociologicalinterest.At best, the

Holocaust is cast inside the most awesome and sinister, yet still

theoreticallyassimilablecategoryof genocide;or, simply,dissolvedin

the broad, all-too-familiarclassof ethnic,culturalor racialhatredan

oppression ('AngelaDavis is transformed

standsaloneforits unprecedented

into a Jewish housewifeen

route to Dachau;a cut in the food stamp programme becomesan

exercisein genocide;the Vietnameseboatpeoplebecomethe hapless

Jewishrefugeesof the 1930s'9).

Whicheverof the two ways is taken- the effectsareverymuchthe

same.The Holocaustis shuntedinto the familiarstreamof history:

when viewed in this fashion, and accompaniedwith the proper

citation of other historical horrors (the religious crusades, the

slaughterof the Albigensianheretics,theTurkish decimationof the

Armenians,and even the British inventionof concentrationcamps

inconsequential.The most common exampleof such a way is the

presentationof the Holocaustas the culminationpointof European-

Christian antisemitism

Sociology

aftertheHolocaust

471

during the Boer War), it becomes all too convenientto see the

Holocaustas 'unique'- but normal,afterall.3

Or the Holocaustis tracedbackto the only too familiarrecordof the

hundredsof years of ghettos, legal discrimination,pogroms and

persecutionsof Jews in Christian Europe- and so revealedas a

uniquely horrifying,yet fully logical consequenceof ethnic and

religioushatred. One way or the other,the bombis defused;no major

revision of our social theory is really necessary, our vision of

modernity does not requireanotherhardlook,methodsand concepts

accumulated by sociologyare fullyadequateto handlethis challenge

- to 'explain it', to 'makesenseof it', to understand.The overallresult

is theoretical complacency.Nothing, really, happenedto justify a

thoroughcritiqueof that modelof modernsocietywhichhasservedso

well as the theoreticalframeworkand the pragmaticlegitimationof

sociologicalpractice.

Thus far,dissentwith this complacent,self-congratulating

amongbothChristianand Jewishtheologians,

the contributionof professionalsociologiststo the Holocauststudies

seemsmarginaland negligible.Suchsociological studiesas havebeen

completedso farshow beyondreasonable doubtthat theHolocaust

thestate ofsociology

thansociology

initspresent

shape

is able

has

tosayabout

and that this alarmingfact has

not yet been faced (much less respondedto) by the sociologists.

The way the sociologicalprofessionperceivesits taskregardingthe

event called 'the Holocaust', has been perhaps most pertinently

expressedby one of the profession'smost eminent representatives,

Everett C. Hughes

of theHolocaust;

The National Socialist Governmentof Germanycarriedout the

most colossal piece of 'dirty work' in history on the Jews. The

crucialproblemsconcerningsuchan occurrenceare (1 ) whoarethe

people who actually carry out such work and (2) what are the

circumstancesin which other 'good' people allow them to do it.

Whatwe needis betterknowledgeof the signsof theirriseto power

and betterways of keeping them out of power.4

factorswhichcouldbe sensiblyconnected

(as the determinant)with peculiarbehaviouraltendenciesdisplayed

by the 'dirtywork'perpetrators;of listinganotherset of factors which

detractfrom the (expected, though not forthcoming) resistanceto

attitude

hasbeenvoicedby historiansand theologians.Little, if any, attention

hasbeenpaidto thesevoicesby thesociologists. Whencomparedwith

the awesomeamountof workaccomplishedby the hzstoriansand the

volumeof soul-searching

toaddtoourknowledge

True to the well established principles of sociologicalpractice,

Hughes defines the problems as one of disclosing the peculiar

combinationof psycho-social

472

ZygmuntBauman

knowledgewhichin

therationallyorganizedworldofours,ruledas it is by causallawsand

statisticalprobabilities,will allow its holdersto preventthe 'dirty'

tendenciesfromcominginto existence,fromexpressingthemselvesin

actualbehaviourand achievingtheirdeleterious,'dirty'effects.The

lattertaskwill be presumablyattainedthroughthe applicationof the

samemodelof actionwhichhas madeourworldrationallyorganized,

manipulableand 'controllable'.Whatwe needis a bettertechnology

fortheold- andin no waydiscredited- activityof socialengineering.

In what has been so far the most notable among the distinctly

sociologicalcontributionsto the studyof the Holocaust,Helen Fein5

hasfaithfullyfollowedHughes'advice.She definedhertaskas thatof

spellingout a number of psychological,ideologicaland structural

variableswhich most stronglycorrelatewith percentagesof Jewish

victims or survivorsinside various state-nationalentities of Nazi-

dominatedEurope. By all orthodoxstandards,Fein producedan

impressivepiece of research. Propertiesof national communities,

intensityof local antisemitism,degrees of Jewish assimilationand

accommodation,the resultingcross-communalsolidarity- have all

beendulyand correctlyindexed,so thatcorrelationsmaybe properly

computed and checked for their relevance. Some hypothetical

connectionsare shown to be non-existentor at least statistically

invalid;some other regularitiesare statisticallyconfirmed(like the

correlationbetweenthe absenceof solidarityand the likelihoodthat

'people would become detached from moral constraints'). It is

preciselybecauseof the impeccablesociologicalskill of the author,

and the competencewith which they are put in operation,that the

fatal weaknessesof the orthodoxsociologyhave been inadvertently

exposed in Fein's book. Without sapping the very foundationsof

sociologicaldiscourse,one cannot do anythingelse than Fein has

done: conceive of the Holocaust as a unique, yet fully determined

productof a particularconcatenationof social and psychological

factors,whichled to a temporarysuspensionof the civilizationalgrip

in which human behaviour is normally held. One thing which

emergesfromthe experienceof the Holocaustintactand unscathedis

the humanizingand/or rationalizing(the two concepts are used

synonimically)impact of social organizationupon inhumandrives

which rule the conductof pre- or anti-socialindividuals.Whatever

moralinstinctis to be foundin humanconductis sociallyproduced.It

dissolvesoncethe societymalfunctions.

'In an anomiccondition- free

fromsocial regulation- people may respondwithoutregardto the

possibility of injuring others'.6 By implication, the presence of

effectivesocialregulationmakesuchdisregardunlikely.The thrustof

socialregulation- and thus of moderncivilization,prominentas it is

forpushingregulativeambitionsto the limitsneverheardof before-

suchtendencieson the partof otherindividuals;andof gainingin the

resulta certainamountof explanatory-predictive

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