I wish to thank all three reviewers of the CBS mini-series "Hitler: The Rise
of Evil" for all were stimulating and had instructively different emphases.

I think it should be said, however, that the use of Edmund Burke's warning
about the passivity of the do-nothing good men could use further comment,
for this statement is frequently deployed by conservative reformers who like
to associate the Nazi "revolt of the masses" with the Jacobin reign of
terror. While pinning blood lust (the will to power) on the rising
bourgeoisie/the People, those intellectuals with a predominantly
aristocratic outlook (i.e. social democrats following Bismarck's strategies
to contain the Left) have used irrationalist arguments to further their
goals. For them, "evil" is separated from concrete action and exists as an
independent force that inhabits all of us, but most obdurately in
"narcissistic" anti-social moderns in rising groups.

Such irrationalism suffuses popular treatments of Hitler's personality and
his appeal. (The implicit warning is easy to read: in the interest of
moderation and stability, the new bourgeoisie must curb its selfishness by
making concessions to workers, and the lower orders should clean up their
act. All this is embedded in a communitarian discourse.)

For that reason, I think we might look beyond the formulations of
irrationalists and examine long-term trends in the humanities that have
brought materialist analysis into bad odor, to the detriment of a rational
politics.

Clare Spark

Humanities & Social
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