Abstraction and Isolation

The most important causal factor for the Holocaust, as I [Bammé] had quoted Zygmunt Bauman, was the specifically modern, technical-bureaucratic patterns of action and the mentality that determined them (op. cit., p. 110). For Bauman, the essence of bureaucracy, that which constitutes its strength and effectiveness, is that its instruments are subject to purely rational criteria and its goals are removed from any moral judgment. This is also the real explanation for the mobilizing and coordinating power and the rational capacity for action of our modern civilization. "The separation of purpose and morality is the consequence of two parallel processes of central importance for the bureaucratic course of action: on the one hand, the meticulously functional division of labor (...); on the other, the substitution of moral responsibility by technical-formal responsibility" (op. cit., p. 113).

Every form of division of labor creates a distance between those who collectively contribute to a certain result and the result itself. "This practical and mental distance of the actors from the result means that a functionary within the bureaucratic hierarchy can give orders without having to be fully aware of their effects or having them vividly before his eyes. The awareness of the practical effects is at best abstractly and vaguely present – just as it is reflected in statistics, which also measure the result without value judgments, especially not moral ones, flowing into them. Between the file covers and in the minds of bureaucrats, these results are reduced to mathematical curves and pie charts or endless columns of figures. In this strangely empty form of representation, it is only about quantitative changes – the nature of the measures or the effects on the target groups remain hidden. Statistical processing makes tasks of the most diverse nature comparable and interchangeable. When only measurable success counts, one task is like the others" (op. cit., p. 114).

This distancing effect stemming from any form of division of labour increases when the division of labour is functionalized by dissolving personal dependencies. In contrast to traditional hierarchical linear chains of subordination, their functional equivalent represents a further step of abstraction in the historical development of command structures, away from personal and towards factual dependency relationships.

Functionalization creates distance in two respects. Not only the individual's involvement, but also the content-related reference to the intended result of the actions is lost from view. "The distance of the person acting from the result of the activities of the apparatus to which he belongs becomes (...) greater, because not only is there no longer a direct personal reference to the result ordered by means of the hierarchical chain of command, but the respective special task also has no recognizable analogy to the mission of the apparatus" (ibid.). She is neither a miniature version nor an icon of the overall system.

The psychological effects of this distancing are serious and far-reaching. "In the functional division of labor, every action is in principle multifinal, that is, it can be combined and integrated with others in many ways and thus serve different purposes. Functionalized division of labour means that an action has no meaning in itself; it only acquires meaning in retrospect, detached from the actions of the functionaries. It will always be "the others" (far away in some anonymity) who at some point, somewhere, carry out this creation of meaning" (ibid., p.114f.) [⇒ Message in a Bottle ⇒ Future Self]. The distancing effect resulting from the functional division of labour is further intensified today by the increasing computerization of workplaces. It is no longer possible to tell from the keystroke alone whether it is a war game or a serious situation, for example.

⇒ Create Distance