Theodor W. Adorno Quotes
Only a humanity to whom death has become as indifferent as its members, that has itself died, can inflict it administratively on innumerable people.
Adorno, Theodor W. Minima Moralia: Reflections from Damaged Life. Translated by E. F. N. Jephcott, Verso, 1974, p. 233.
Although Bolivar is generally seen as a great idealist and humanitarian, he had his brutal and immoral aspects. This quotation proves that Bolivar ordered the bloody massacre of helpless Spanish prisoners of war including those in the hospital. Also the beheading illustrates the bitterness and barbarity of the wars for independence from Spain. See {632671} for Bolivar’s rationale for massacring helpless prisoners of war.
Einstein had changed his mind. He like almost everyone else at the time favored the death penalty, but in 1927 came to the new conclusion for the same reasons that many American politicians stated 70 years later. He had no compunctions against capital punishment for murderers who were dangers to society, but the potential error of the justice system led him to oppose state sanctioned execution. At the time the number of errors in capital cases that had been demonstrated were few. But as a scientist, Einstein knew that all human endeavors were prone to error. He was a strong law and order supporter however—see {588606}.
Commenting on U. S. policy on Bosnia:
Nathaniel Gordon was the first American slave trader to be executed after the slave trade was made illegal. The Erie was his slave ship where, as was typical, many of the captured Blacks, died as a result of the inhuman conditions. Although Gordon was the first person executed in America, the act making the slave trade an act of piracy dated from 1820. See {68753} .
{627488} is an earlier quotation by a French Diplomat of very similar sentiment, but it is not known if Stalin had ever seen it. Also See Beilby Porteus {627489} for an 18th century variation. This is a puzzling phenomenon. In the United States if there is a plane crash and a hundred people are killed, it is page one and television lead news. But between 40,000 and 50,000 Americans die each year, one or two at a time in auto crashes, and it does not seem to be news. More American college students commit suicide (about 1200 a year) then are killed in mining or other industrial accidents, but the former we rarely hear about.
This may have been the origin of the famous Stalin later quotation of very similar sentiment {616657}. No one is certain if Stalin had ever seen this work. Or he might have come upon it independently. The original source does not mention Massigli by name. However the description of the “Diplomat vom Quai d’Orsay” fits Massigli and his expertise so we attribute it to him. However, he was not the first to express this idea. The Anglican Bishop of London, Beilby Porteus, appears to have been the earliest—See {627489}.
encouraging liberation movements in Eastern Europe Referring to Hungary
Slovenia was an unenthusiastic part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and whose young males were required to serve as soldiers in the Empire’s armies. See {641812} for more on Conrad’s part in the war.
Kozinski was a supporter of captial punishment, but beileved it important that society was very slear about what it was doing. Executing a man is a very brutal process, and shen society determines that it is necessary, it shoud face the fact and the reality of the decision it is making. Hence he favored public executions
Theodor W. Adorno was a German philosopher, sociologist, psychologist, musicologist, and composer known for his critical theory of society.
