Viktor Frankl, author of "Man's Search for Meaning" speaks out against the concept of "collective guilt" as a continuation of Nazi-ideology. A seminal speech held in 1988 on the occasion of Austria´s annexation by Nazi Germany 1938.
He was a fraud who lobotomized suicidal jews and fabricated accounts of his time in Auschwitz, claiming he spent 3 years there when he really spent 3 days
still around us mate; I am muslim and its the holy ramadan for us muslim and I just discovered mr Frankl through his Man search for meaning; his voice around us in 2021; decent people minority but everywhere
This man is my lifetime hero! He showed me almost everything I needed to know about the field of Psychiatry. Dr. Avni D. Ozkhan M.D. taught me the remainder through many months of psychotherapy, during the late 1970s. In 1980, then I began my university education which lasted through the decade of the 1980s. During that time, I also volunteered to work in my community in a clinic for suicide prevention. Finally, I learned very much about the human condition and how to reason through much of this: in my English and Philosophy majors, as well. I am eternally grateful for all the people involved in my years of formal learning. All of it is priceless, to be sure. Thank you.
When Dr. Frankl was in the concentration camps he had a vision which sustained and oriented him. He imagined himself a free man, after the walls came down, speaking at a podium exactly like this. He closed his eyes and seized it and so can you.
If this gentleman was alive today he would be horrified at the crimes that are being committed by the Israeli government. A collective punishment in Gaza and plain war crimes supported by other governments that also turned their back on Jewish people in the IIWW. Humanity does not learn, it repeats itself over others.
He's absolutely right. Or, to put it another way, there is collective potential guilt, one could say, simply by being a human being. Everyone has the potential to be a Nazi or a saint or somewhere in between--at least the vast majority. Sure, specific historical circumstances can push this or that polity or society into fascism, but all societies have that potential. To forget that fact is the first step down the road to fascism. For more, see the US today. And many other places, too. A corollary suggests itself, too: collective pride is also a figment, ultimately. I don't feel better about myself because Einstein was Jewish. I don't feel worse because Netanyahu is Jewish. Neither has a thing to do with me: I feel good or not about myself based on what I do or don't do, say or don't say. I mean, if you don't take it too seriously, sure, you can be "proud" of your state (or country) or baseball team or football club or alma mater or hometown. But you let that get out of control and you're one funny mustache away from trouble.
You forgot that in the process of fighting what you fear the most you're very likely to turn into just that. Check the BAM movement in the Berkeley - By All Means Necessary. America is turning into a Totalitarian state and is NOT from the side everyone is afraid of. America is like the household with the scary dog who killed the snake that crawls into the baby's cradle and gets it's snout red with blood. As it welcomes its neurotic master with its bloody snout it gets misjudge and executed on the spot for doing what was right because its master was too unwise to proceed with caution. Then the another snake comes and kills the baby for good.
Doug Tarnopol . I think you have grasped the essesnce of what Viktor Frankl has been saying all along . I always believe that we must grasp the reins of responsibility if we are to live as we should.
Yes. It is very difficult for most people to know their fundamental values in detail & then consistently apply them to their actions even against the group/authority. Tribalism, the desire to fit into the group & as part of that, blindly bowing to a vile authority, has a very powerful influence on what people will do. The famous Milgram experiments partly illustrate that.
"There are means which will desecrate any purpose". That is what we see today. Our politicians use means, which will desecrate any purpose. This leads to the worst sort of actions, some of which are here, some of which are still coming.
I renember he was harshly criticized by a woman for choosing to work in the Gernan language ... He responded by asking if she does not prefer very sharp knives when preparing meals...
exactly bro! The only reason they want to publicly shame everyone who makes a mistake is because they want exercise their natural urge for violence, and being jealous. They are jealous and have nothing going on with their lives so they have to join a crowd to feel better about themselves.
@@magicw7338 No to be woke is to embrace collective guilt and to approve or enact collective punishment on other people. The problem is active participation. You are playing with words without respect for the underlying meaning. It makes you look like an ass.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Matthew 23:29-31 NIV
diejenigen , die Opfer waren kannten ihre Täter auch nicht; denn keiner hat sich Ihnen vorgestellt.Keiner hat die Taten begangen und keiner ist schuldig geworden.
Yes....and today we face the threat....but the decent ones will rule the day.....the popularity of a leader does not always bode well for the world or the nation the leader leads....WW2 was prime example...listen to General Patten's description of the Germany his armored division drove through when giving a speech in Los Angeles after the war ...people must always be vigilant
You fool, you have been under threat since 1936 and just TODAY that threat has actually started to unfold. That is what happens when you learn nothing about the real history of WWII. Study Molotov-Ribbentrop pact.
anyone who takes this as reason to despise the current movements in america to dismantle the broken political system is missing the point entirely. i expected to see it in the comments and i have.
As there are 3 types of responsibilities, individual, collective and ontological, there is then a collective guilt. Any society, any country, any group that allowed such atrocities to happen is responsible. So what to do then? Teach and educate so that every individual decries even the thought
Collective guilt by a group of criminals is one thing. Assigning collective guilt to innocents is another (and is a crime). You can take collective responsibility if a group decides to do something responsible or irresponsible but the "son isn't responsible for the sins of the father"
The idea of collective guilt is as Frankl says, crazy. It in itself is permission to act evil out wrongly on groups and justify evil behavior and attitudes/character in other groups. Humility about our own potential as human beings that should always be the proper response, not trying to change the past. "Teaching and educating" for this is now clearly seen in Critical Race Theory as a totalitarian temptation toward evil in itself, that increases, rather than decreases, evil.
Zitat: ............ wurden er, seine Frau und seine Eltern am 25. September 1942 ins Ghetto Theresienstadt deportiert. Am 27. April 1945 wurde er in Türkheim von der US-Armee befreit.
Sir..It's not about Collective Responsibility..It is about Collective Greed...and the Responses of Collective Greed..and Loot History has a way of Repeating.. Believe you me that...Sir I respectfully Share my comments.. RIP ⭐🙏🕯️ And Yes to a Humane and Just..NEXT Gen... Never Forgotten Never Again SHALOM NAMASTE.. from INDIA🕉️✡️
Collective greed is another wording of collective responsibility. Individuals decide and have responsibilities, collectives do not. Saying otherwise is exactly what drives hatred in my opinion.
Ok, let's end inheritance and all forms of national pride as well: the olympics, public statues, VE day, Independence Day, Patriots' Day, medals of honour, knighthoods, damehoods, commemorative postage stamps and coins, national anthems, the British monarchy ...
So because a jew doesnt hate all germans you think we should destroy every aspect of our culture? I have a simple question would you ask ANY eastern nation to do the same or is it just your own culture you have this hatred for? PS PEOPLE LIKE YOU ARE WHO THIS MAN FEARED!
Good idea lets replace them with universal human pride so we all feel like brothers. If we all shared holidays and celebrations im sure we'd find it harder to shoot eachother
@@CoupDerToro But chauvinist countries still experience lethal violence domestically. Perhaps we ought learn to stamp out competition itself and work together for the common good.
I think you are confusing responsibility and guilt here, mate. As a British person born in 1977, how can I be guilty of the atrocities of the British Empire? However, we equally can't choose to both be proud of the likes of Faraday, Maxwell, Watt, Lews, Darwin, Shakespeare, British humour, etc and simultaneously refuse to take responsibility for the dark side of British history. That responsibility might have practical consequences, such as accepting reparations. If we want to keep the good, we will have to accept responsibility for the bad. In a way, both the right ("let's all pretend everything about British history is great and we did nothing wrong") and a certain section of the left ("there's nothing good about Britain, all the bad stuff was uniquely British and any good ideas were plagerised") make taking responsibility less likely. The former denies reality and the latter is self-defeating: why would or should anyone take responsibility for something they wholeheartedly reject in its entirety? So TL;DR: responsibility? Maybe. Guilt? Never!
@@martinhartecfc I do believe shame to be the opposite of pride; to my mind responsibility is more related to duty. You may not be personally culpable for the British empire's atrocities, but you undoubtedly do reap the incalculable benefits on a daily basis. But (reparations aside) the issue here is one of 'collective guilt', national shame of: global reputation and conscience.
Anyway, one may or may not believe in collective guilt, but the sins of the father fall on the children. You cannot escape your identity and there is such a thing as group karma. As an individual you may be able to limit or exacerbate some of it, but escape it altogether, no.
What is it that keeps a child of sinful parents to be possessed by 'group karma' ? Isn't it the people that think this child deserves it? Its obvious that this is what Frankl is pointing out. Frankl didn't blame the children of the nazis for what their parents did, but other jewish or victims of the nazis might never come to this realization and keep finding these children responsible. They are keeping the collective guilt alive, it would not exist without their resentment. Of course, not many people are enlightened as Viktor Frankl was, so it is very hard to see this happening on a larger scale.
There will always be a moron who has no experience spouting what they taught them in school because they don't learn anything from their own lives and can't think critically.
Short-sighted. Individualism is disease of our time. If Mr. Frankl were right, Willy Brandt should have never kneeled before the victims. And yet his deed is historic, and this speach is lame. You cannot deny your heritage - celebrating only good deeds of your fathers. Every people must accept its history. You must not deny your fathers, your own blood. T. S. Eliot found the perfect poetic way to express it: But here upon earth you have the reward of the good and ill that was done by those who have gone before you. And all that is ill you may repair if you walk together in humble repentance, expiating the sins of your fathers; And all that was good you must fight to keep with hearts as devoted as those of your fathers who fought to gain it.
@Fabian Kirchgessner On the contrary. Willy Brandt is the perfect example that collective guilt does exist. He was a resistance fighter, but he was also a German. If he hadn't felt guilt, his act would be shallow and sad. It is pointless to apologize in the name of state - you can only apologize in the name of the people knowing that you are one of them. He apologized as a German because Hitler could not, because his friends, colleges and neighbours committed terrible crimes for which he felt shame and guilt that they couldn't, shame and guilt that German nation has to bare. Not only German nation, but all nations in the world have to expiate for their crimes. As a German he was guilty, not as Willy Brandt. There lies the distinction which should be recognized. And finally, you can't move on just like that. After so much blood. There can be no peace without truth. And the truth for Germans after WWII was hard and bitter. And they had and still have to face it.
Who has ever sad that the born after nazi-regime germans were collectively guilty for the crimes commited before they were born? I think this was never the case. If there is a responsability for the "after-borns", it's the goal to not let the crimes repeat.
I think it's strange. Some historians have pointed out that Frankl's logotherapy was actually already formulated before he went to the camps, when he was working for the Nazis. The notion that you could survive the Holocaust by positive thinking is insane. Frankl lied about his stay in Auschwitz, made it seem like he was there for months, but he was there for only 3 days according to historical evidence. Frankl lobotomized and performed experimental brain surgeries on his fellow jews in the '30s. He has admitted this. Frankl was a Kapo himself in one of the camps where he stayed. These facts are often ommitted when talking about Frankl. If he survived the holocaust, it was not due to logotherapy, but by sheer luck and/or having connections. I like Primo Levi a lot more.