Moral degeneration is the persistent aspect or propensity in a person’s character that results in any wrong idea, feeling, willingness, or action harmful to an individual or group. Although it only occasionally or sporadically appears, such degeneracy exists from birth until death. Technical rationality describes a corporate culture that values objective analysis in making decisions and believes technological progress is generally beneficial. The progress in science and technology throughout the Industrial Revolution lent support to this type of company culture. Formalized transactions, objective behaviors and results, and individual behavior regulation are all bolstered by a rational worldview. I think any modern government bureaucracy can create sufficient safeguards against moral degeneration because of depression caused by Racism; democratic countries fight against totalitarianism and encourage moral tolerance.
First, depression is caused by Racism. Germans were classified as Aryans by Hitler and the Nazis. Aryans were at the pinnacle of the racial hierarchy, according to the Nazis. Because of this, German Aryans were referred to by the Nazis as the master race. Aryans were portrayed as blonde, blue-eyed, tall, and athletic by the Nazis. People who embodied this ideal were shown in Nazi propaganda posters, images, and movies (Arendt et al., n.d.). However, many of the individuals the Nazis identified as Aryan Germans did not resemble this. Adolf Hitler, for instance, stood about normal in height and had dark hair. The Nazis didn’t target or execute anyone purely because of their hair or eye color. The Nazis had the idea that they needed to defend the German people from lesser races. They believed that to endure, they needed to maintain their racial purity. Jews were the greatest threat to the Aryan race, according to Hitler and the Nazis.
Secondly, democratic countries are fighting against totalitarianism. Hitler had put a stop to the Great Depression, he opposed Marxism, protecting Germany from Communism, and he was prepared to take decisive action to protect Germany from detested elements like the Treaty of Versailles. Nazi Germany’s dictatorial nature was demonstrated by the propaganda and essentially false portrayal of the country. Hitler discovered a valuable lesson in 1923; he needed to use legal means to amass power and popularity (Glassman, 2021). Hitler officially expelled any parties with any means of opposition from the framework of Nazi Germany after the events that led to his appointment as Chancellor, leaving no room for individuality. Another evidence that Nazi Germany was a totalitarian regime is the army’s oath of personal allegiance to Hitler. Nazi Germany is not regarded as a totalitarian regime in certain conceptions.
Lastly, moral tolerance is encouraged; Hannah Arendt provides a peculiar scenario in the epilogue to her report on the Adolf Eichmann trial in Jerusalem. As Hannah Arendt suggests, we might compare Adolf Eichmann’s claim that he was just a part of the Third Reich’s bureaucratic machinery to the criminal who uses murder statistics as a defense. However, drawing parallels between the hypothetical murderer’s use of statistics and Eichmann’s defense reveals the flaw in the latter. Arendt worries about Eichmann in Jerusalem that this form of inhuman detachment, which she saw in Eichmann’s defense, has become more common in the modern world.
Conclusively, this essay has discussed the link between Racism and melancholy and highlighted the efforts of democracies to combat authoritarianism and promote moral tolerance. Hitler’s racial purge of Germans into the Aryan race is just one piece of proof that Nazi Germany was a totalitarian state.
Reference
Arendt, H., Granzow, B., Meyer, T., & König, H. Eichmann in Jerusalem.
Glassman, R. M. (2021). From Tyranny to Totalitarianism in the Twentieth Century: Communism—Utopian Dreams and Totalitarianism Reality. Can Democracy Survive in the 21st Century? (pp. 159-172). Springer, Cham.