All mass atrocities have an element of neurotic superstition. From the Slaughter of the Innocents to communist genocide and Jim Jones, the perpetrators acted from a misdirected fear and a great deal of self-delusion. It is almost necessarily so, since Satan is worshiped in all such undertakings, but there is a specific example that illustrates the point in a timely manner. In a 1949 essay titled “Medical Science Under Dictatorship,” Leo Alexander, one of the U.S. medical advisers at the Nuremberg Trials, detailed the genesis of the holocaust from a technical perspective. That is, he examined how the medical profession, which was traditionally aimed at healing, could have been weaponized toward the torture and death of millions.
Dr. Alexander, having interviewed many of the perpetrators themselves, reached two major conclusions. First, changes to the medical profession had come about gradually, by small shifts and compromises; shifts in medical language and the prioritization of different kinds of patients. Second, the trajectory towards brutal mass murder was set in motion when respectable medical professionals accepted as their aim, the benefit of society (utility), rather than the compassionate care of suffering individuals. This shift in aim entailed the acceptance of a host of new procedures that had never before been considered under the name “medicine.”
The horrors which followed this utilitarian turn are shocking, but what may be even more surprising is how un-useful the utilitarian medical experiments turned out to be. Dr. Alexander recounts in detail how Nazi Doctor Hallervorden received hundreds of brains preserved in formalin for research. These specimens were extracted from the clinically butchered inmates of prisons and mental institutions, whose useless lives were ended in order that they might at least prove useful post-mortem. What followed were years of poking and prodding that contributed approximately nothing to the field of neurology
Dr. Hallervorden’s experiments are a precise example of what I mean by the superstition of atrocity: pickled brains in jars, electric shock-therapy, and all the ethnic or religious pseudo theories which contributed to massacres throughout history. The human pursuit of knowledge and order always sits dangerously close to such occurrences whenever the hierarchy of values is rearranged and names are misused.
Now, listen carefully to the medical babble around you: Have you ever heard cosmetic plastic surgery referred to as a medical procedure? I intentionally point to a rather tame and innocuous example. It represents a small shift; a harmless compromise in terminology.
“brutal mass murder was set in motion when respectable medical professionals accepted as their aim, the benefit of society (utility), rather than the compassionate care of suffering individuals” - well spake sir. How often do we see this confession to some pseudo-moralistic religion of the greater good for society. The nuanced and compassionate care of individuals is lost in the cause of “progress”, or whatever word they wish to adopt for abuse.
Great example to use, as sinister as it may be, and I agree with Peter--very well said. I am curious, however: you write, "the perpetrators acted from a misdirected fear and a great deal of self-delusion"...the latter part seems apparent, for the most part, but could you explain what you believe the object was of the perpetrator's misdirected fear?