We are not any smarter, kinder, wiser, or more moral than people who lived ninety years ago. We are just as likely to needlessly give up our political power and to remain willfully ignorant of darkness as it’s dawning. But we know something they didn’t know: we know that the Holocaust is possible.
“Mere opposition finally blinds us hopelessly from our opponents, who no doubt are caricaturing us while we are demonizing them. We lose, in short, the sense of shared humanity that would permit us to say even to our enemies, “We are working, after all, in your interest and your children’s. Ours is a common effort for the common good. Come and join us.” - Wendell Berry
Trying to avoid Holocaust:
“Mere opposition finally blinds us hopelessly from our opponents, who no doubt are caricaturing us while we are demonizing them. We lose, in short, the sense of shared humanity that would permit us to say even to our enemies, “We are working, after all, in your interest and your children’s. Ours is a common effort for the common good. Come and join us.” - Wendell Berry
Thank you for this. Where would one find it?
His book The Way of Ignorance in the essay The Purpose of Coherent Community. It’s a particularly convicting read right now.