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Lesson of history: No division!

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In his book "Täter: Wie aus ganz normalen Menschen Massenmörder
werden", social psychologist Prof. Harald Welzer explains the

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mechanism that led to exclusion and genocide in the Third Reich.

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This programme is not intended to be
scaremongering or to relativize past crimes.

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It should serve as a wake-up call to recognize the signs of the
times and act accordingly so that history does not repeat itself.

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(1.) First, generally accepted values and
social norms lose their validity in small steps.

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(2.) From an ideological and political point of view,
these individual steps appear harmless or even necessary.

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In this way, a small group of people are
increasingly excluded from social life.

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(3.) A majority increasingly sees itself as exclusive and
perceives the minority group or any of its members as a

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threat to the well-being and existence of the majority society.

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(4.) Because then it seems logical to render this
minority, which is perceived as threatening, harmless.

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(5.) According to Prof. Welzer, all
historically known extermination processes were

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preceded by the definition of a threatening group.

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(6.) Morally legitimized, normal people become perpetrators.

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What follows is an accelerating social, psychological, material
and legal devaluation and discrimination of the minority.

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Loss of valid values

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During the coronavirus crisis, previously valid
norms have rapidly given way to a "new normal":

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Man, a profoundly social being, is forced
into isolation by politically ordered measures.

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Left to his own devices, he loses
touch with his social environment.

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His thoughts and actions inevitably
become more and more self-centered.

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Sociologists speak here of
"atomization", i.e. the isolation of individuals.

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However, a society made up of such isolated
individuals is severely weakened and forms the ideal breeding

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ground for intolerance, blame, division and manipulation.

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Some people feel too helpless and too
powerless to take action against these abuses.

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This affects billions of people worldwide
who are not in a position to expose these

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undesirable developments and oppose them.

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Fear as a tool of manipulation

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Scientists such as neurobiologist Gerald Hüther
attribute a key role to fear in current events:

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Where a threat is constantly presented,
people can be manipulated most easily.

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The psychiatrist Dr. Raphael Bonelli also
refers to fear as an instrument of control in

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totalitarian regimes, as we already know from history.

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The problem of followers out of
fear is a huge one, he emphasizes.

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Crimes in the past could not have taken
place if there had not been so many hangers-on.

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In his lectures, historian and peace researcher Dr.
Daniele Ganser explains how people are repeatedly frightened,

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manipulated and divided according to the same pattern.

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One group is declared inferior and another is incited against it.

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Then the step to persecution, arrest
and even extermination is not far away.

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Fear makes you ill. Fear makes us evil.
Fear destroys truth and distorts reality.

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Fear prevents rational action and violates
human dignity. Fear makes lies credible.

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And fear is above all the most
effective way of making people dependent.

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If we now recognize the signs of the times so clearly, it is
surely urgent that we no longer allow ourselves to be

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isolated and divided, but instead see ourselves as a
human family again, as Daniele Ganser repeatedly emphasizes:

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"We all belong to the human family! Do not allow division!"