understand . The freedom becomes that of comparing strangers to parasites ; democracy becomes the dictatorship of one opinion , that of the “ true patriots ”; defending Europe amounts to “ re-establishing old paternalistic values ” from a time when people “ didn ’ t venerate human rights ”.
Hatred is disguised as “ freedom of speech ”, anti-Semitism as “ freedom of opinion ”, authoritarianism as “ illiberal democracy ”. The unacceptable is masked to become acceptable . How many see in populist rhetoric the chance to pass off their frustrations as courage , their resentment as resistance against “ political correctness ”? How many adopt the same provocative and simplistic discourse to hide their ignorance in the face of the complexity of the world ?
It is so reassuring to be part of a self-proclaimed chosen people , a white , Christian and heterosexual club with strict rights of admission – so tempting to wield control without possessing any other merit than that of one ’ s origins or skin colour . The Third Reich was a master in this : it flattered the narcissism of non-Jewish Germans by calling them the master race and at the same time worked to undermine their moral values . Evil became good and good became evil . “ Empathy is a weakness ” was a motto of the SS .
This reversal of the moral compass is all the easier when minds are confused , as at present . We are going through a period of multiple crises – pandemic , climatic , political , technological , economic – where it is difficult not to lose our perspective . Demagogues of all stripes are exploiting this fertile terrain to spread false information , to discredit the facts , to denigrate scientific reasoning and argumentation , to impose the irrational and the emotional , and to disseminate aberrant conspiracy theories . The purpose is to undermine our values and our knowledge . The lie was already at the heart of the totalitarian system . The aim of that strategy , wrote political scientist Hannah Arendt , is not for a society to believe these lies but to lose the ability to distinguish right from wrong and to judge or act . And a society which doesn ’ t share anymore truths and values disintegrates and can be easily manipulated .
The German philosopher Theodor W . Adorno analysed how the confusion between belief and knowledge can lead to a delusional representation of the world and translate into acts of madness . In Dialektik der Aufklärung ( 1944 ) he describes the various stages . We begin by refusing to confront our opinion – by definition subjective , and so with limited validity – with others , to verify their origin and justification . Opinion then becomes conviction , that is / means , a simple explanation of the world that requires no reflection . We then take refuge in the stubborn rejection of any argument , any reality , any evidence that might contradict this conviction , which is often nothing more than a mixture of rumours , conspiracy theories , emotions , and amalgamations . Then , Adorno goes on , from conviction one passes into
EUROPE INSIGHT
37