dwutygodnik - strona kultury

BY Joanna Tokarska-Bakir

In his book, Bauman writes: ‘Sociology in its current shape has less to say about the Holocaust than the Holocaust has to say about sociology.’

Modernity and the Holocaust

Students applying to the Master’s programme at my institute are required to read one of four books in preparation for their interview. The books are by Max Weber, Maria Ossowska, Irving Goffman, and Zygmunt Bauman’s Modernity and the Holocaust.

At a meeting held on 12 January, 2011, the Academic Council of the University of Warsaw’s Institute of Applied Social Sciences decided to strike Bauman off the reading list. The council explained their decision as follows: “Experience shows that the book by Bauman is very seldom chosen by candidates.”

In his book, Bauman writes: “Sociology in its current shape has less to say about the Holocaust than the Holocaust has to say about sociology.”

Yea yea, nay nay

Immanuel Kant famously stated that lies are always wrong, even if they can save a life.

Leszek Kołakowski agreed with him. Although lies have enabled some to survive (Kołakowski mentions Jews hiding under false identities during World War II), he writes “(…) neither is a lie morally good when it is permissible or even recommended in the name of a greater good.”

Bronisław Świderski has gone the furthest in his stance against lying. The price of surviving at the cost of lying, he says, can be the deterioration of one’s entire life. “Yes, they survived, but it was because they crept, pretended, and equivocated.”

Philosophical problems can never be solved, they can merely be deepened. The problem at hand is obviously not a philosophical one, seeing that Grzegorz Kwiatkowski solved it so easily in his poem, Mr. Cogito and Letter of the Scripture.

it’s the war and the Germans come to Mr. Cogito
asking whether he’s hiding Jews in his basement
and since Mr. Cogito values truth
and a lie is never his weapon
he says:
I am hiding fifteen Jews in my basement
including six children two men
and seven women

a chunk of plaster flakes off the wall
a light bulb goes out in the corridor

and a black cat
croons lovingly
rubbing up against his leg

Mr. Cogito descends into the basement
to get a new light bulb
which he proceeds to screw in
and turn on

and he stands in the window
watching the Germans
lead the Jewish family into the street

and then he opens his Bible
and underlines in pencil:
but let your speech be
yea yea
nay nay

translated by Arthur Barys