This is the 7th installment of “white rabbit”, the almost-weekly presentation on matters pertaining to escalatory (or escalatory) accumulative technological change. Read the synopsis of “white rabbit events” here please before you proceed. I will hold this presentation at the “Sunkilller Citadel” owned by Miss Ivy Sunkiller, at 1200 SLT on Sunday the 29th of May 2011.
Have you? Cool. Then I’ll proceed.
In Germany we had a fine example of criminal psychopathy in charge, around 1930-1945 last century. If I violate the very tendency of this article and attribute pure malignancy in the human spirit, it was visible in the governance of Nazi fascism. The “Nazi’s” used a mythology of scapegoating their sworn political adversaries as a simple comprehensible narrative to explain to their followers why they would choose to take drastic actions. This, highly simplified, is the “Dolchstosslegend“, and it entails an arguably horrific mechanism in humanity, or in human governing elites, to simplify existing issues “by finding someone to blame” and then dealing with the guilty parties. Quite often finding of truth is not an issue here, and once the idea of demonization has started, it is used as a mechanism for purging opposing ideas, power and eventually unwanted categories of people. It tends to culminate in mass-killings.
What is the functionality of this mechanism? How did such a mechanism emerge? Does such a mechanism still have functionality, does it have reduced functionality, or has it become to some degree a dangerous urge in humanity? Can academic science find unambiguous tests to ‘prove’ such mechanisms are ongoing, and can we call on academia to develop such criteria?
Finally, what are the risks as technology accelerates in the next decades?
This presentation may contact shocking topics, such as genocide. Visitor discretion beware.
Landmark you can find here.