paranoia : our opinion becomes an integral part of our personality , and any contradiction is felt as a personal attack . One ends up projecting one ’ s inner feelings onto the outside world and taking one ’ s opinion as truth . Paranoia can lead to acts of madness , as delusional anti-Semitism led to the Holocaust .
Adorno ’ s analysis is very topical at a time when beliefs and conspiracy theories threaten to replace the words of experts . How did we come to this ? Triumphant individualism has exacerbated the idea that everyone is entitled to defend , without limits , their particular rights , desires , opinions , beliefs . If at first sight this may seem to serve democracy , in reality it threatens it because no collective project can emerge from the juxtaposition of a multitude of diverse demands , often divergent , even antagonistic , alongside the rejection of the principle of representation . This danger is amplified by social networks , which , far from encouraging Internet users to exchange their ideas and points of view and to build nuanced theories , actually radicalizes them and locks them in their own certainties , due to the logic of personalization algorithms . Little by little , users can end up regarding their opinions as universal truths .
However , there is no inevitability about this . The demagogues use the means of today , but the methods of yesterday , and so we can identify them . The socio-psychological mechanisms that make us so vulnerable have not changed since the French sociologist Gustave le Bon published “ The Crowd : A Study of the Popular Mind ” in 1895 , a reference work for Benito Mussolini and Hitler ’ s Propaganda minister Josef Goebbels . Therefore memory can be a powerful weapon against manipulators and can help us to know ourselves better and sharpen our awareness of our malleability .
But to reach that , countries must have the courage to face the shadows of the past and transmit the memory of their own fallibility to their citizens . Unfortunately , few in Europe have had this courage . Germany has been a pioneer in placing the role of Mitläufer at the heart of its task of coming to terms with the past . After twenty years of amnesia , in the 1960s a younger generation forced society to face its responsibilities for the crimes of the Third Reich . This reflection made it possible to transform collective guilt into democratic responsibility . It allowed something positive to grow from a negative legacy : the building of one of the world ’ s soundest democracies .
This model could inspire certain societies which persevere in denying their past responsibilities as Mitläufer in criminal systems – Fascism , Stalinism , or colonialism – They have trouble understanding that to transform the weight of the past into wealth , one must not ignore its shadows but rather confront them . A repressed history always returns at a gallop , in the form of community and international tensions , racism , and populism .
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Observing Memories ISSUE 4