5 ms·
Yes? Think of it as the downside of the Enlightenment idea that governments acquire their legitimacy solely from the support of the governed. If the people of
by mcguire 5y ago
Yes?
Think of it as the downside of the Enlightenment idea that governments acquire their legitimacy solely from the support of the governed. If the people of a nation do not approve of the actions of their government, they have both the right and the responsibility to change those actions.
Or, think of it as basic ethics: no one who eats meat can be more saintly than a butcher. Everyone who benefits from citizenship in a nation gets to share responsibility for the actions of the nation.
- fleshdaddy 5y agoFollowing that logic it sounds like we would need to blame German Jews for the holocaust committed against them.
- mcguire 5y agoI'm not sure of the politics in the Wiemar Republic. How many Jews supported the National Socialist party? How many of them voted for the National Socialists during the Great Depression economic crisis? (Not many, I suspect. Voting against a group is, by definition, not supporting them.) (https://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%207794.pdf https://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%2077...) Once the National Socialists had achieved power, in 1933, German Jews protested the actions of their government, leading to the Civil Service law and further restrictions on Jewish activities. (At this time, there were many German non-Jews who probably didn't like their government's activities but benefited a great deal from those activities.) By 1935-36, Jews in Germany had essentially no power, either to support or oppose the government. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Germany#Jews_under_the_Nazis_(1933%E2%80%9345) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Germany...) Thus, those who could left.