Chapter 34 The world is only five days away from dictatorship

In today's world, most countries have achieved political democratization, and countries that have not yet achieved democratization are also trying to get out of the "post-totalitarian" pitfalls.Many people may think that when history turns a dark page, the bloody and ignorant era will never return.However, can you really sit back and relax? How far is the world from dictatorship? The 35-year-old German director Dennis Gansel gave a surprising answer through his outstanding film "Die Welle"-the world is only five days away from dictatorship. With cars swaying and people coming and going, the movie "The Wave" opened with a relaxing and enthusiastic rock music.This is an ordinary German middle school, and the protagonist Rainer Wenger is a teacher in the school.Unfortunately, today he was told that his favorite "Anarchism" class was taken one step ahead by another teacher, and there was no room for maneuver. During the event week, he spoke about "dictatorship" that he didn't like.

So the story unfolded around the next week: Monday.When Wen Geer came to the classroom, there was a free and undisciplined atmosphere in the classroom.Obviously, Wen Geer is not used to this class and the class he will teach. "If I were you you would be taking classes on anarchism instead of this hapless dictatorship," was his opening line.When he wrote "Autokratie (dictatorship)" on the blackboard, the students were still reading books, texting, and staggering, so that Wen Geer had to stop and hope everyone "response" "Anyway, this week is going to pass" past".However, Wen Geer fell into deep thought when everyone chattered and casually discussed the dictatorship.Obviously, he didn't believe what the students said, "The Nazis are far away from us, and we Germans don't have to always feel guilty."Or "Dictatorship cannot happen today because there is no popular base".After the break, Wen Geer asked the students to rearrange the tables, chairs and seats. He was going to do an experiment to let the students experience the charm of dictatorship.The main characteristic of a dictatorship, Wenger said, is "discipline."Through oral voting, Wen Geer finally became the "head of state" in the classroom.Next, he has to correct everyone's sitting posture, and must stand when speaking, and must honor him as "Mr. Wenger", and those who disobey can withdraw.

Tuesday.When Wenger walked into the classroom again, the students sitting upright greeted him "Good morning, Mr. Wenger". "Discipline forges strength, and unity forges strength." In this class, Wen Geer asked everyone to stand up and walk like a soldier, "It feels like everyone is integrated into one, and this is the power of the collective."Moreover, another purpose of stepping is to step down the "anarchism class" downstairs together, "let our enemies eat the ashes on the ceiling".Obviously, through this kind of collective action, Wen Geer tried to give the students in the "dictatorship class" a sense of superiority—"no matter how they behave, our class is better than the 'anarchist class' downstairs."Next, Wen Geer discussed with the students whether they needed to wear uniform clothing, and finally everyone agreed to set a cheap white top and jeans as their "uniform".

Wednesday.In class, only the girl Carol continued to wear her red shirt, while the other students put on white shirts as promised.The uniform isolates Carlo in an unprecedented way: she doesn't seem to belong to the collective.On the way to school, her boyfriend called her "selfish", but now Wen Geer almost ignores her existence, and her classmates don't discuss with her, and regard her as a heterogeneous and uncooperative person.Someone suggested a name for the class, and in the end "Tide" stood out from names such as "Terrorist Group", "Dreamers Club", "Tsunami", "Cornerstone", "White Giant", and "Core" and was successfully elected.The girl in red was left out in the cold, and no one responded to her "reformer".This class also set the "wave" logo.That night Wave members began posting their Wave signs in various corners of the city.

Thursday.The creativity of members who have gained a sense of belonging in the "wave" organization is also stimulated.Someone in the class suggested that since each group has its own gestures, Tide should also have its own unique gestures.This is a gesture of the right hand waving across the chest.More and more students join the "wave" and divide themselves with others by whether to make this gesture or not.Even Carlo's young and cynical little brother joins in, willingly guarding the door for "The Wave" and anyone who can't make the wave sign is barred from the school.Carlo felt more and more that the situation was not good, and she advised Wen Geer to stop the game immediately because he "has lost control of the situation."

Friday.As the course draws to a close, Wen Geer hopes that everyone will write down their experience of participating in the "wave".Wen Geer's radical teaching methods are under increasing pressure from both the school and the family.Marco, who slapped his girlfriend Carlo because he lost control of his emotions, regretted it, begged Wen Geer to stop all this, and accused this so-called "discipline" of being nothing more than a fascist set.Wen Geer knew that everything should be over.All that is needed now is a beautiful ending as expected.That night, all Inspur members received a text message from Wen Geer: It is related to the future of "Inspur", and a meeting must be held in the school auditorium at 12 o'clock on Saturday.

Saturday.school hall.Wenger had the students close the auditorium.After reading several students' experience about "Namise", Wen Geer delivered an inspiring speech and incited the students to bring Marco, who raised objections during the period, to the stage.Amidst the shouts of "Traitor! Traitor!", Marko was lifted onto the stage by the students scrambling to accept punishment.This is the end of the matter, and what Wen Geer wants to tell everyone next is, "What we are doing now is what the fascists did back then", and announced the end of the dictatorship experiment, and the "wave" will be disbanded from then on!Unfortunately, however, things did not develop according to Wen Geer's wishes.Fanatic Tim pulls out a pistol he bought online and begs Wenger not to disband The Wave. "Tide" is his second life, and he will never allow betrayal, not even Wen Geer.The film thus reached its climax, when Tim shot a classmate and shot himself in despair, falling heavily.

This is the story of The Wave, or a "crash course on the Nazis."It is fast and fast, but everything is logical. "The Wave" is based on real historical events that happened at Copperley High School in Palo Alto, California.In a history class in April 1967, a student asked his teacher, Ron Jones, "Why do the Germans claim to be ignorant of the Holocaust? Why are farmers, bank employees, teachers, and doctors all claiming that they were unaware of the horrors that took place in the concentration camps”?In this regard, Jones did not know how to answer.Then he decided to make a bold experiment.He was going to rebuild Nazi Germany, a miniature Nazi Germany, right here in his classroom.He wanted his students to experience fascism first-hand, not only for its terror but also for its charm.And, as Jones expected, as The Wave shows, more and more people joined the experiment, falling into a kind of uncontrollable frenzy, and whistleblowers became popular.Five days later, when hundreds of students greeted Jones with outstretched arms in the auditorium, perhaps the first thing you thought of was Riffen Starr's "Triumph of the Will" ( 1934) of Germans cheering Hitler.All was well, though, as Jones eventually took control of the situation and cut it short—"We were so close to being good Nazis." At the final gathering, Jones then showed the students a film about the Third Reich : Reich party congress, collective, discipline, obedience, and what this collective does: terror, violence, gas chambers.Jones looked at the bewildered faces.That original question was answered.

Compared with Jones' teaching experiment, the ending of "The Wave" is obviously more dramatic, and the cruel steepness makes you have to think that director Ganssel got inspiration from the ending of "Dead Poets Society".Although this violent conflict has attracted some criticism.But in my opinion, the appearance of the fanatic Tim is precisely the key to the difference between "The Wave" and even surpassing Jones' teaching experiment.I even think that from the perspective of the ideological height that the film wants to achieve, the protagonist of "The Wave" is not so much Wen Geer as Tim.

Tim is introverted, not good at communicating, and has little sense of achievement. He is often bullied at school and is called a "soft-legged shrimp".Perhaps for this reason, he always hoped to have a few "brothers" around him.For this reason, he often gives other boys some small favors, and flatters them with almost contemptuous eyes, saying: "It's for you, we are brothers." However, in fact, no one regards him as a coward. Each member has his or her own reasons for joining The Wave.Obviously, for Tim, "wave" means more of a coveted force, just like the pistol he held in his hand later.Wen Geer's intervention and the establishment of "Tide" obviously brought a turning point in the life of Tim, who has always been at the "bottom of the campus".Moreover, he was so wholehearted and willing to take risks and make troubles.In order to uniform, he burned all the brand-name shirts at home.The uniform does give Tim a magical sense of power.When he was bullied, he tried to resist, and the "wave" members who were in uniform with him also came to protect him.Because of the waves, Tim felt like he was no longer a worm, but part of a dragon.He defied the danger to climb the city government building while spraying the "wave" sign.Not only did he scare off the brawlers with a fake pistol, he even volunteered to be the bodyguard of the "head of state" Wen Geer, which made Wen Geer baffled.Tim sincerely wanted to preserve the strength of The Wave, to carry forward its glory.In his opinion, "Tide" is his dream empire, and Mr. Wen Geer is the leader who can lead him into the future.

Knowing Tim's almost ecstatic psychology, it is not difficult to understand why he finally drew his gun.It is not difficult to find that in an organization similar to "Tide", the process of joining the organization is actually a process of kidnapping each other.It advocates the elimination of aliens in the name of the organization, but does not allow members to voluntarily withdraw, because voluntary withdrawal is an uncontrollable behavior for the organization.Wen Geer is no longer himself, but the spokesperson of Inspur's interests.When he was added to the imperial robe by his subordinates like Zhao Kuangyin, he could only agree, but could not withdraw voluntarily. Voltaire said, "Everyone holds the holy banner in their hearts, and goes to sin with a red face."Holderlin said, "What always makes a country a hell on earth is precisely what people try to make into a paradise." It is not evil for a person to believe in utopia. The real evil is that this utopia is endowed with magical powers, which makes it offensive.Obviously, in The Wave, Tim is more of a metaphor, a monster awakened by a revolution, a Frankenstein created by a scientist, or whatever. "The Wave" gave Tim a "new birth," a growth far beyond Wenger's control.The growth of the organizational self also means the demise of the individual self. "Nazi Crash Course" not only shows the audience a miniature Nazi Germany, but also clearly shows how these students lead to the road to slavery.At the same time, how individuals are alienated by collectivization. In the first class, when asked "What is the basis of dictatorship"?Students answered questions about ideology, control, surveillance, a head of state, and more.Similarly, high unemployment and social injustice, inflation, political credit bankruptcy, nationalism, etc., are all conducive to the birth of dictatorships.However, this is all knowledge learned from books. When all this becomes a kind of daily drizzle, the members of "The Wave" seem to lose their vigilance, but are intoxicated by their comradeship and common ideals. In "The Wave", the audience can see almost all the typical elements related to independent planting: collectivism without principles, uniforms that eliminate individuality and eliminate differences, segregation of dissidents and abolition of freedom of speech, a head of state, a scapegoat, broad daylight Gestures similar to slang, inflammatory anti-government speeches, coercion in the name of altruism, promises of future benefits, ceremonies that flaunt unity, a sense of belonging, and so on. Moreover, "Tide" is not only an equal group, but also a healthy group. The first thing to stand up and answer questions is "to promote blood circulation."At the venue on Saturday, when Wen Geer accused Marko of being a "traitor" instigated by his girlfriend, a girl next to him said that Marko was "infected".In their view, whoever opposes the tide is the plague.Only those who embrace the "wave" are healthy.In order to maintain this health, Wenger accused Germany of being a loser in the process of globalization in his speech, and that politicians are basically puppets of the economy. "While we are pushing our own planet to destruction step by step, those rich people are gearing up, building space stations, and want to admire it from a height. Here and now, we want to make history. From now on, the wave It will sweep across the country, and whoever stops it will be swallowed by the wave." It is for this reason that the awakened Marco is regarded as an enemy to be cleared and swallowed by the "wave". Regarding why he joined and indulged in "The Wave", Wen Geer read some of the students' thoughts: "Life these days is very interesting. It doesn't matter who is the most beautiful or who has the best grades. "The Wave" makes us all equal It doesn't matter where we come from, what we believe in, what our family background is, we're all part of this movement, and 'The Wave' has given us meaning in our lives and given us an ideal to fight for." "Once upon a time, I always Mess up, 'The Wave' made me devote myself to a meaningful thing, and that's enough." "If we can trust each other to achieve such a great achievement, I would like to start a new life for it." However, if we say that democracy expands the scope of individual freedom, autocracy restricts it; democracy gives value to everyone as much as possible, while autocracy only makes everyone a tool, a number; democracy seeks freedom in freedom. Equality, while tyranny seeks equality in restraint and slavery, so it is obvious that the process of Tide seeking equality is actually a process leading to the road to slavery. As Wen Geer said when he finally opened the answer: "Do you remember the question I asked, whether dictatorship will be realized, and what we are doing now is fascism. We think we are superior and better than others, We excluded all those who opposed us from the collective, we hurt them, and we didn't know how bad things were going to happen." "Tide" is a neutral word, but when it becomes a kind of violence, it becomes Evil that devours all. When the Nazi Adolf Eichmann was brought back to Jerusalem for trial, a question troubled many. "Is it possible that Eichmann and the millions of other Nazi followers who participated in the Holocaust simply obeyed the orders of their superiors? Can we call them the murderers of the Holocaust?" famous totalitarian research The expert Arendt discovered an evil based on everyday obedience.In other words, the reason why Eichmann did so many evil deeds was not because he was evil in nature, but because he "did his duty" in an evil system, and behind this duty was a collective unconsciousness, or even a kind of virtue. For this reason, American psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted a very famous experiment in 1974: a group of experimental volunteers were invited to observe a group of experimental subjects under the supervision of a group of experiment organizers—psychologists. word memory ability.The body of each experimental subject was connected to an electric shock rod, which was controlled by volunteers. Every time the subject memorized a word wrongly, the volunteers would give him an electric shock once, and the voltage intensity was gradually increased by 15 volts. up to 300 volts.During the experiment, under the stimulation of high-voltage current, many subjects struggled repeatedly, screamed, and asked to stop the experiment. The situation at that time was like a nightmare. According to the logic of ordinary people, many volunteers would definitely Stop the electric shock and give up the experiment.However, the fact is that only a few of all the volunteers stopped, and the rest all completed the experiment, that is, the subjects were all given electric shocks, up to 450 volts.That is to say, when the authority is present, people will obey the authority, even if they do evil, they will not feel any psychological uneasiness. Francis Fukuyama believes that human history "has come to an end" when democratic politics is conquering cities and blooming everywhere in the world.In Fukuyama's view, liberal democracy is "the end of human ideological development" and "the last form of human domination."However, even so, no one can guarantee that human beings can sit back and enjoy the achievements of democracy once and for all, because "human nature has no end", because no system is as old as human nature, and it will die earlier than human nature.Whether it is independent planting, democracy, or other forms, it all comes from human nature.Otherwise, we wouldn't be reading gruesome news over and over again today. For example, on the evening of April 13, 2008, a small incident of missing underwear occurred in a university in Kunming, which intensified into a serious case of campus violence. 10 girls surrounded the other and kept beating her. Someone poured leftover instant noodle soup on her head, and someone wrote on her face with eyebrow pencil.What's worse, even in front of the boys, these people forced the girl to take off her pants to expose her lower body, and took photos and videos of the violence and humiliation with her mobile phone... Who can imagine that these evils are done by women who are regarded as symbols of goodness and beauty.I once said that if there is no bottom line for gregariousness, human beings will go crazy.There is a tyrant in everyone's mind, everyone is the seed of dictatorship, and has the potential to irrigate dictatorship.As long as the conditions are ripe, all of these will inevitably cooperate with a kind of evil collectivism, and the evil flowers of dictatorship will grow. The world is only five days away from dictatorship.Let's go back to the April 1967 experiment at Keberley High School.At the end of the experiment, Ron Jones said to his students: "Like the Germans, you have a hard time admitting that you have gone so far, you don't want to admit to being manipulated, you don't want to admit, Participated in this farce."