The Nazis killed people in concentration camps. I did not kill my mother. My friends and relatives did not kill their mothers. But for me, that is where the difference ends. The American form of socialist dictatorship in the 30s was FDR. The American form of concentration camp is the nursing home.
The original purpose of German concentration camps was to remove from society those deemed undesirable. The death camps, which were far fewer and more notorious, were set up explicitly as death camps only after the German defeat in Russia in December 1941. The great majority of concentration camps were just that- a place to centralize and isolate the undesirables, and/or they were labor camps. That many people died in these camps was a salubrious (from the Nazi view) but secondary result. A non-trivial number of political prisoners spent as many as 12 years in camps, and a smaller number were released (!). Take a look at 'The Theory and Practice of Hell' for a description first hand of camp organization and operation.
In the US, socialism wears a smile. They are always going to 'help' you, and always by redressing social inequalities by taxing the wealthy and supporting the poor. There are, at least to date, no police or guns used to enforce these policies. Take a look at the modestly written but strongly thought out book 'Liberal Fascism' by Jonah Goldberg to understand this argument better.
Just like socialism, in the US concentration camps wear a smile. They are medicalized. They are there to 'help'. We call them nursing homes. And just like German camps, they take out of society those who are deemed undesirable. In the US that means those who are not young, who do not consume, who cannot walk or move. Good Germans were called upon to send their mentally retarded, psychiatrically ill and physically disabled relatives to special centers where they were quietly killed, and then overtly killed. 100,000 German families VOLUNTARILY sent their retarded, disabled and mentally ill relatives to death rather than care for them at home.
Of course, we are not Nazi Germany. We do not ask anyone to 'dispose' of their aged relatives. We do not use them for experiments and we do not subject them to deliberate pain. Well bully for us. Instead, we just leave them there alone, concentrated into communities where they are cared for by strangers so we do not incur the cost and burden of caring for them ourselves. That lets us take bigger vacations, keep our houses odor-free, drive fancier cars and in general live a 'freer' life. Who doesn't support a freer and better life, that better being measured materially as always in the US?
And while we do not inflict overt pain, I think it is disingenuous to say we do not torture these elderly. To paraphrase 'The Matrix', I have seen them, sitting in common rooms in wheelchairs, pointed at a television to pretend they are with someone and doing something. Head on chest, bulge of diaper around middle, withered, crippled forms folded in unnatural postures into chairs. Or placed into horrible, uncomfortable beds with plastic mattresses and pads to absorb their incontinence. No activities, no visitors, no familiar surroundings. 'Nurses' and 'charts' to make the whole thing look like a hospital (and let's conveniently forget that horror has always been concealed as medicine- anyone at Auschwitz want a shower?). Doctor visits to make the whole thing 'care'. It was doctors who put to death the first people killed by the Nazis.
We gussy up all this further with 'salons' where hair may be cut and set, comfort ourselves with the good cooking at these establishments, the holiday meals, the activity planners. We tell ourselves these professionals will be much better at feeding, clothing and entertaining our elderly.
And when we don't or can't pay for this out of our own pocket our government will pay for it. We do this voluntarily and are encouraged when unable or unwilling. Just like the Nazis. But we do not inflict pain! We do not torture! We are better than the Nazis.
But it is not necessary to directly inflict pain to create suffering. Consider solitary confinement- no one is tortured, they are simply isolated. They die in their own mind long before they die bodily in solitary confinement prisons. Solitary confinement was ended as a routine part of our prison system over a hundred years ago. But not for our 'elderly care'. Most of these women (and nursing homes are overwhelmingly filled with women) are different from prisoners serving a life sentence only in that they are not buried in a grave beside their final abode. And tell me what is a worse whole life torture than to be placed immobile before a TV, speechless, without companions, without family, sitting in a dirty diaper. Tell me that's better than the Nazis.
1.5 million people lived in nursing homes in 2004. The average stay was 835 days. 2.29 years. That means that 50% stayed longer than that. That is 0.5% of our population. Stories of concentration camps lump together Jews, POWs and political prisoners, and emphasize horror rather than evolution of horror. Before deliberately setting out to kill Jews and POWs, however, the concentration camp system had about 40-80,000 detainees, or about 0.5-1% of the German population. Germans were delighted to be rid of the presence of prostitutes, Gypsies and homosexuals on their streets. And we are delighted to be rid of the daily presence of our elderly.
We do not deliberately kill, maim or inflict bodily pain on nursing home occupants. Instead we provide 'care', food, a bed, etc, etc. But no one wants to live and die like that. Ask anyone- do you want to be put in a nursing home at the end of your life? The answer is always no. What ultimately separates us from the Nazis is not what we have done or our overt reasons but our most basic motive. Both we and the Nazis want our 'undesirables' off the streets and out of our lives. The Nazis, however, were willing to kill to do it. We are not. We provide care.
I wonder how many nursing home residents, if able to articulate a choice, would choose painless death over their horrific existence. In a combination of unctuous sanctimony about sacredness of life and a fear of death, we create horror not by killing but by not killing. We have the strength of character and morals to neither care for the elderly ourselves nor to allow them a quick painless death.
I am sorry I ever participated in that system. Like all ordinary Germans, I bear the guilt and shame of having done wrong voluntarily. And I think we as individuals should be allowed to choose a quick, painless death over being left to rot and die in nursing homes.
Ted
The original purpose of German concentration camps was to remove from society those deemed undesirable. The death camps, which were far fewer and more notorious, were set up explicitly as death camps only after the German defeat in Russia in December 1941. The great majority of concentration camps were just that- a place to centralize and isolate the undesirables, and/or they were labor camps. That many people died in these camps was a salubrious (from the Nazi view) but secondary result. A non-trivial number of political prisoners spent as many as 12 years in camps, and a smaller number were released (!). Take a look at 'The Theory and Practice of Hell' for a description first hand of camp organization and operation.
In the US, socialism wears a smile. They are always going to 'help' you, and always by redressing social inequalities by taxing the wealthy and supporting the poor. There are, at least to date, no police or guns used to enforce these policies. Take a look at the modestly written but strongly thought out book 'Liberal Fascism' by Jonah Goldberg to understand this argument better.
Just like socialism, in the US concentration camps wear a smile. They are medicalized. They are there to 'help'. We call them nursing homes. And just like German camps, they take out of society those who are deemed undesirable. In the US that means those who are not young, who do not consume, who cannot walk or move. Good Germans were called upon to send their mentally retarded, psychiatrically ill and physically disabled relatives to special centers where they were quietly killed, and then overtly killed. 100,000 German families VOLUNTARILY sent their retarded, disabled and mentally ill relatives to death rather than care for them at home.
Of course, we are not Nazi Germany. We do not ask anyone to 'dispose' of their aged relatives. We do not use them for experiments and we do not subject them to deliberate pain. Well bully for us. Instead, we just leave them there alone, concentrated into communities where they are cared for by strangers so we do not incur the cost and burden of caring for them ourselves. That lets us take bigger vacations, keep our houses odor-free, drive fancier cars and in general live a 'freer' life. Who doesn't support a freer and better life, that better being measured materially as always in the US?
And while we do not inflict overt pain, I think it is disingenuous to say we do not torture these elderly. To paraphrase 'The Matrix', I have seen them, sitting in common rooms in wheelchairs, pointed at a television to pretend they are with someone and doing something. Head on chest, bulge of diaper around middle, withered, crippled forms folded in unnatural postures into chairs. Or placed into horrible, uncomfortable beds with plastic mattresses and pads to absorb their incontinence. No activities, no visitors, no familiar surroundings. 'Nurses' and 'charts' to make the whole thing look like a hospital (and let's conveniently forget that horror has always been concealed as medicine- anyone at Auschwitz want a shower?). Doctor visits to make the whole thing 'care'. It was doctors who put to death the first people killed by the Nazis.
We gussy up all this further with 'salons' where hair may be cut and set, comfort ourselves with the good cooking at these establishments, the holiday meals, the activity planners. We tell ourselves these professionals will be much better at feeding, clothing and entertaining our elderly.
And when we don't or can't pay for this out of our own pocket our government will pay for it. We do this voluntarily and are encouraged when unable or unwilling. Just like the Nazis. But we do not inflict pain! We do not torture! We are better than the Nazis.
But it is not necessary to directly inflict pain to create suffering. Consider solitary confinement- no one is tortured, they are simply isolated. They die in their own mind long before they die bodily in solitary confinement prisons. Solitary confinement was ended as a routine part of our prison system over a hundred years ago. But not for our 'elderly care'. Most of these women (and nursing homes are overwhelmingly filled with women) are different from prisoners serving a life sentence only in that they are not buried in a grave beside their final abode. And tell me what is a worse whole life torture than to be placed immobile before a TV, speechless, without companions, without family, sitting in a dirty diaper. Tell me that's better than the Nazis.
1.5 million people lived in nursing homes in 2004. The average stay was 835 days. 2.29 years. That means that 50% stayed longer than that. That is 0.5% of our population. Stories of concentration camps lump together Jews, POWs and political prisoners, and emphasize horror rather than evolution of horror. Before deliberately setting out to kill Jews and POWs, however, the concentration camp system had about 40-80,000 detainees, or about 0.5-1% of the German population. Germans were delighted to be rid of the presence of prostitutes, Gypsies and homosexuals on their streets. And we are delighted to be rid of the daily presence of our elderly.
We do not deliberately kill, maim or inflict bodily pain on nursing home occupants. Instead we provide 'care', food, a bed, etc, etc. But no one wants to live and die like that. Ask anyone- do you want to be put in a nursing home at the end of your life? The answer is always no. What ultimately separates us from the Nazis is not what we have done or our overt reasons but our most basic motive. Both we and the Nazis want our 'undesirables' off the streets and out of our lives. The Nazis, however, were willing to kill to do it. We are not. We provide care.
I wonder how many nursing home residents, if able to articulate a choice, would choose painless death over their horrific existence. In a combination of unctuous sanctimony about sacredness of life and a fear of death, we create horror not by killing but by not killing. We have the strength of character and morals to neither care for the elderly ourselves nor to allow them a quick painless death.
I am sorry I ever participated in that system. Like all ordinary Germans, I bear the guilt and shame of having done wrong voluntarily. And I think we as individuals should be allowed to choose a quick, painless death over being left to rot and die in nursing homes.
Ted
we have no viable legal option in most of the county. Like many, our family was faced with the decision of living with someone who was unsafe for herself and for others unless overseen 24 hours a day. I did not want to be a prisoner of her care, nor did she want me to be. Her wish was death, but was written unsigned and unwitnessed. We were all trapped. We were not and are not Nazis, we are fools.
ReplyDeleteOur society is being bankrupted financially and morally by the limbo of extenuated death. As a culture and a nation we must stop being foolish and begin to be loving. Death is a gift when brought at the right time.
Thought provoking post!