Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Spectrum?

after watching the film on Hitler Youth, and discussing groups at lick and beyond, i thought i would ask a couple of follow up questions...

1. what exactly does it mean to have a "choiceless choice?" i know this is something that has come up a lot, but can anyone relate to being in such a position of a "rock and a hard place?"

2. when talking about how to categorize the Hitler Youth in terms of perpetrators, bystanders, or upstanders, we decided that there must be a spectrum of perpetrators. What does this spectrum look like to you? How would you factor in the fact that many of the Hitler Youth were a) vulnerable to the extensive and invasive Nazi propaganda, and b) facing a "choiceless choice?"

3. Groups at Lick: Did the open dialogue about the social groups in our class bring up anything for you that you didn't get the opportunity to share in-class? If so, what? Despite the slightly awkward/uncomfortable nature of the conversation, did you think it was productive and/or interesting?

Thoughts?

1 comment:

Melissa said...

In terms of groups at Lick, I thought that conversation was really interesting and I think it would have been cool to hear from everybody, even though it was uncomfortable or awkward. I think it was productive and interesting because sometimes you get so sucked into a Lick state of mind, and unless you really talk about it you forget about the bubble you can enclose yourself in, whether in friends, school, city, or political or religious views etc.

I don't think there is such a thing as a "choiceless choice". There's always a choice, and even if the choice other than conformity is being an outcast and maybe even punishment or death, it is still a choice. Blaming participating in a genocide on "choiceless choice" is like saying you were "just following orders" and I don't think it's a very acceptable justification.