After some gruesome descriptions of the Holocaust, Hannity writes:
“I know this is painful to read, but the only way to come to terms with such
evil is to confront it directly. Rather than treating the Holocaust as dry
history, I believe we must pull something deeper from it, something
real — that can make us understand evil more intimately” (35).
Trouble is, upon more careful examination, most of Hitler’s henchmen performing their gruesome tasts weren’t “evil.” They were, as many of them later professed, simply following orders, and had been bombarded with propaganda all their lives. The power of authority is amazing. Consider this 1968 interview with an American Vietnam veteran:
Q. How many people did you round up?
A. Well, there was about forty, fifty people that we gathered in the center
of the village. And we placed them there, and it was like a little island, right
there in the center of the village, I’d say, …and…
Q. What kind of people–men, women, children?
A. Men, women, children.
Q. Babies?
A. Babies. And we huddled them up. We mand them squat down and Lieutenant
Calley came over and said, “You know what to do with them, don’t you?” And I
said yes. So I took it for granted that he just wanted us to watch them. And he
left and came back about ten or fifteen minutes later and said, “How come you
ain’t killed them yet?” And I told him that I didn’t think you wanted us to kill
them, that you just wanted us to guard them. He said, “No, I want them dead.”
So–
…
Q. And you killed how many? At that time?
A. Well, I fired them automatic, so you can’t– You just spray the area on
them and so you can’t know how many you killed ’cause they were going fast. So I
might have killed ten or fifteen of them.
Q. Men, women, children?
A. Men, women, children.
Q. And babies?
A. And babies.
…
Q. Why did you do it?
A. Why did I do it? Because I felt like I was ordered to do it, and it
seemed like that, at the time I felt like I was doing the right thing, because,
like I said, I lost buddies. … after I done it, I felt good, but later on that
day, it was getting to me.
Q.You’re married?
A. Right.
Q. Children?
A. Two.
…
Q. …How do you shoot babies?
A. I don’t know. It’s just one of those things. (qtd. in Milgram, pp. 183)
You’ll note that when asked why he did it, he doesn’t say, “Well, I have a firm belief in my duty to spread evil.” You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who would say that. Consider also Stanley Milgram’s famous study, showing that when given an order by a guy in a white lab coat, 65% of people will do what he says, even if it involves delivering electric shocks to an ordinary guy who can be heard screaming in pain and pleading for release. What Hannity chalks up to evil is a much more complicated psychological matter. Unfortunately, the real world isn’t in black and white.
