We welcome in the IF-BLog Dr. Klaus-Jürgen Grün (KJG). Here comes his first contribution:
„Es ist in der Welt nicht schwer zu bemerken, daß sich der Mensch am freisten und am völligsten von seinen Gebrechen los und ledig fühlt, wenn er sich die Mängel anderer vergegenwärtigt und sich darüber mit behaglichem Tadel verbreitet.“ – “It is easy to see that in our world, men feel most at ease and totally free from pain when they dwell and expand on other people’s shortcomings”.
It was not the much-scolded Nietzsche who came to this conclusion about the mechanisms of ethics and morality, but the German’s favourite poet Goethe. As you can easily imagine, most admirers of Goethe are rather reluctant about citing it.
Goethe’s insight might shed an unexpected light on a question frequently asked these days because of the scandals involving Zumwinkel and VW: Can we morally excuse the behaviour of more and more German managers? Based on Goethe, we would have to say: “Yes”.
He calls it “a rather pleasing sensation” whenever we elevate ourselves by “disapproving and disparaging others”. Nothing can rival the “comforting satisfaction it gives us to sit in judgement over our superiors and kings”. According to this theory prevailing among people, the wrong-doing managers are doing us a great favour, because they are acting poorly as our substitutes; and they bear the brunt playing the same role. Once in a while, our moral sentiments need an object on which to unload. Thus, it stills our hunger for great deeds without demanding from us to do them.
The temptation that some of the rich, beautiful and powerful in our country found it impossible to resist at a huge scale is something the common man is quite familiar with: cheating on the tax declaration, extra motivation through bribes, joy-rides paid for by the company. Who would resist the temptation – if the opportunity arises? And what about the enjoyment for those who resist, sometimes feeling the pain of paying the price for their honesty? They get the catharsis: the cleansing, agreeable feeling of being able to discredit people to whom in most respects they can not hold a torch to.
„It is wisdom to back down“- with this famous proverb, you manage to turn the experience of helplessness into a gesture of power in no time. Our narcissism gets a huge boost whenever we can tell ourselves that the reason for backing down was not our own weakness, but a higher power, namely superior wisdom.
By giving the masses an opportunity to feel good, those who create taboos for the people are doing a great service to their moral.
It is not the ill-doers alone who represent what went wrong in our society. As Adorno said, there is no correct life hidden behind a wrong life. What is incorrect and wrong is based on the double-moral of an entire people. Once in a while they need scapegoats at whom to point their fingers in order to get “a rather pleasant feeling”. By “comfortably reprimanding others”, as Goethe said in “Dichtung und Wahrheit”, we redeem ourselves from all the small temptations and sins. The great and powerful receive the punches.
KJG
Starting now, Klaus-Jürgen Grün will regularly write for our IF-Blog. Thanks a lot!
Translation by Evelyn Gemkow
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