Sentamentalilty & Cruelty

Matthias Staab (Matthias.Staab@DM.KRINFO.CH)
Wed, 9 Apr 1997 16:30:35 +0100

A few things which came to my mind while following the discussion:

WP said in an interview: "Weimar leads to Auschwitz". I always took that as
pointing in a parallel direction as the "Tenderness ..." piece.

In Germany a few years ago, we had a public discussion on 'secondary
virtues': punctuality, orderliness, tidiness etc. which generally are
considered as typically German virtues (also by the Germans themselves) and
which a German politician said were the virtues you need to effectively
organize a concentration camp. From what I read I wonder whether tenderness
too is one of these virtues which is free of intrinsic values and therefore
doesn't protect its bearer from slipping down the slope. It is reported that
many of the Nazi and SS people were tender husbands and fathers... Heinrich
Himmler praised his men of always having remained 'anstaendig' (decent,
correct, respectable)!

I as a German with an inclination to sentimentality find it perfectly
convincing - as I experience the danger in myself, in my fellow countrymen,
in my country's past - that FREE-FLOATING TENDERNESS decreases the willingness
to resist evil and gives room to all who are prepared to exploit that
tenderness for their purposes. I am aware that this is no (let alone:
philosophical) argument but only a personal experience. But when I read
TS first, I knew WP expressed something I had seen in myself and around me.

Matthias