Hitler as misunderstood enemy
example · historical/WWII ·
retold in 3 talks
The 'stupidest wisdom' is multiculturalism's claim that 'the enemy is someone to whom we were not ready to listen.' If true, Hitler was our enemy only because we didn't understand him. Žižek contrasts this with Churchill, who listened carefully and immediately knew Hitler was more dangerous than Stalin.
As told 3
“the wisdom often proclaimed by multiculturalists the enemy is someone whom to whom we were not ready to listen to ... so Hitler was our enemy because we were not ready to understand him ... no fuck you”
“Would you also say Hitler was our enemy because we did not really try to hear his story?”
“the more i know about and understand hitler, the more he is my enemy”
What it carries
one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)
Its cast and sources
populated by
Gregor Gysi1Mary Shelley2Julius Rosenberg1Paul Robeson1Henry Farrell1Ágota Kristóf1Ruhollah Khomeini2Ratko Mladić1
alongside works
Every retelling 3
The 'stupidest wisdom' is multiculturalism's claim that 'the enemy is someone to whom we were not ready to listen.' If true, Hitler was our enemy only because we didn't understand him. Žižek contrasts this with Churchill, who listened carefully and immediately knew Hitler was more dangerous than Stalin., illustrating the fundamental lie (of inner experience),ideology
Žižek applies the liberal motto to Hitler to expose its bankruptcy: Hitler was probably kind to children (per his secretary), yet caused immense evil, humanizing the enemy is no ethical solution., illustrating inner authenticity as lie,limits of liberal empathy,Hannah Arendt's banality of evil
Against the claim that an enemy is just someone whose story you haven't heard, he answers that the more he knows and understands Hitler, the more Hitler is his enemy., illustrating ethics,ideology