Cara Greene

Modern Abstract Sacrifice in Robespierre’s Terror and Hitler’s Holocaust

Introduction

Modern abstract sacrifice in robespierre’s terror and hitler’s holocaust. Explore "modern abstract sacrifice" in Robespierre's Terror and Hitler's Holocaust using Hegel, Adorno & Horkheimer's analyses. Examines instrumental destruction and victims reduced to abstract categories.

Abstract

In “Modern Abstract Sacrifice in Robespierre’s Terror and Hitler’s Holocaust,” I use Hegel’s analysis of Robespierre’s Terror in the Phenomenology and Adorno and Horkheimer’s analysis of the Nazi Holocaust in the Dialectic of Enlightenment to identify what I term “modern abstract sacrifice” as the dominant kind of instrumental destruction that took place during these nation-building mass-sacrifices. As I show, these events relied upon a justificatory instrumental logic—a sacrificial story—even if that sacrificial story broke down or was abandoned in practice, in which case the destruction became indiscriminate rather than targeted. First, I analyze Hegel’s critique of the Reign of Terror, which he sees as a product of the immediate identity of the general will and the individual will: the revolutionaries collapsed the will of all and the will of each, rendering individuality as such logically impossible. As a result, all individuals became objects of suspicion worthy of sacrifice by guillotine, for the sake of guaranteeing the triumph of the state based on reason. Next, I analyze Adorno and Horkheimer’s critique of the fascist sacrifice of the Jewish people using their political-economic and pathological theories of antisemitism. Adorno and Horkheimer see fascist antisemitism as a manifestation of the logic of substitution, operative in both liberal capitalist ideology—in which the Jewish people represent the forces of capital, obsolete pre-modern tradition, and statelessness—as well as fascist ideology—in which the Jewish people represent the metaphysical forces of evil and “negativity as such.” Finally, I assert that the principal commonality between modern abstract sacrifice in the Terror and the Holocaust is the fact that the victims were all reduced to exchangeable representatives of an abstract category, in spite of the fact that their unique identities were indispensable for the ideological justification of these mass-sacrifices.

Review

This paper, "Modern Abstract Sacrifice in Robespierre’s Terror and Hitler’s Holocaust," proposes a compelling conceptual framework, "modern abstract sacrifice," to analyze the instrumental destruction inherent in two pivotal historical episodes of state-sponsored violence. Drawing judiciously on Hegel’s *Phenomenology* for the Reign of Terror and Adorno and Horkheimer’s *Dialectic of Enlightenment* for the Nazi Holocaust, the author aims to illuminate the "dominant kind of instrumental destruction" that characterized these "nation-building mass-sacrifices." The introduction of "modern abstract sacrifice" promises a rigorous theoretical lens through which to examine the justificatory instrumental logic—a "sacrificial story"—that underpins such atrocities, even when this logic ultimately falters in practice, leading to indiscriminate violence. The paper systematically unpacks its central argument by first delving into Hegel's critique of the Reign of Terror. Here, the author highlights how the revolutionary state's collapsing of the general will and individual will rendered individuality logically impossible, transforming all citizens into potential objects of suspicion and sacrifice for the sake of a rational state. Subsequently, the analysis shifts to Adorno and Horkheimer's examination of the fascist sacrifice of the Jewish people. This section elucidates the "logic of substitution," wherein the Jewish people are posited as abstract representatives of capital, tradition, statelessness within liberal capitalist ideology, and even metaphysical evil and "negativity as such" within fascist ideology. This dual application of critical theory provides a robust foundation for the comparative framework. Ultimately, the most significant contribution of this work lies in its assertion of a principal commonality: the reduction of victims to "exchangeable representatives of an abstract category." This core insight powerfully demonstrates how, despite the indispensable role of the victims' unique identities in the ideological justification of these mass-sacrifices, their individual humanity was systematically negated. The comparative approach, grounded in sophisticated theoretical analysis, offers a profound understanding of the shared philosophical and political mechanisms at play in seemingly disparate historical events. This paper is a valuable contribution to understanding the intellectual underpinnings of modern political violence and the persistent dangers of abstract ideological justification.

Full Text

Comments

You need to be logged in to post a comment.