| Eliminating the Enemy |
Deportation. |
| Greatness must be restored. Violence is conceived as virtue. Hitler declared, “We may be inhumane, but if we rescue Germany, we have performed the greatest deed in the world.” |
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When a nation seems to be in a state of collapse—when society seems to be disintegrating—leaders often invent or construct an “enemy”— conceived as the source or cause of national collapse: loss of the “goodness” that once existed, but no longer exists.
Nations “come alive” through imagining an enemy: collective anxiety produces collective energy. There is something to “do battle” against: to restore what has been lost. |
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