Talk:Issues in Interdisciplinarity 2018-19/Truth and Power: Education under Hitler

Foucault
Lack of judicial body meant the ability to assess the truth of a statement or an accusation were only in the hands of the most powerfuls, the monarchs. Change occuring only at the time of Montesquieu with the rise of judicial power as a balance to exectutive power. --> nowadays, questionned division of these two powers in some governments.

Justice is not longer dispute between two parties about what is true but a truth vertically imposed on the parties, there + truth in justice at time negletced for power in trials where the winner of a fight won the trial without having to tell the truth - feudal justice gives a binary aspect to true, either fail or win

Choice between two systems to settle judicial disputes --> one with common interventionism, people seeing an offence reporting it to the power. Otherwise was preferred, discovery of truth had to come from the power not brought to them, calling people to build the case --> but questionning not forced onto people, free to come and testify about what one thinks is true to build a common opinion

Inquiry is introduced by ones in power and a way to excert their power --> search for truth, by putting themselves in the position of victims, able to impact on what is perceived as the true offence -- religion very powerful in Middle Ages, pushed sin to be considered as an offence to the one having judicial power. Manipulation of the true nature of an offence by power, causing a shift in the perception of what is considered as truth

Power led research can also lead to discovery of new truths, geographically for example discovery of the Americas. Applying inquiries to knowledge in general leads to discoveries. Inquiry on the intersection of a kind of power and some contents of knowledge

Inquiries are ways of exerting power and search for knowledge and truth

" The inquiry is precisely a political form, a form of management and exercising power which Ð through the judicial ins titution Ð has become a way in Western culture of authenticating truth, acquiring things which will be true, and transmitting those things . The inquiry is a form of power-knowledge. It is the analysis of these forms which must lead us to the strictest analysis of the relationships between the conflicts of knowledge and their politico-economic determination" - Foucault - Article 58 of Russian SFSR penal code --> repression of those criticizing URSS, introducing the notion of "enemy of worker", power in action to acquire the truth about so called enemies and use it as excuse to exert more power with repression (could lead to 10 years in prison or death penalty)

Orwell
Ce qui caractérise l’État totalitaire, c’est qu’il régente la pensée, mais ne la fixe pas. Il établit des dogmes intangibles, puis les modifie d’un jour à l’autre. Il a besoin de dogmes parce qu’il a besoin de la soumission absolue de ses sujets, mais il ne peut éviter les changements, dictés par les impératifs de la politique de la force. Il se proclame infaillible et, en même temps, s’emploie à détruire l’idée même de vérité objective4.

Censure
The power silencing dissenting truth to only show what they want to be apparent

Education
In the Soviet Union, education was controlled and inflexible. The social sciences were dominated by Marxist-Leninist ideologies and supervised by the Communist Party. There therefore was a controlled access to truth, only to the truth serving the ones in power

Education in Nazi Germany

 * Hitler had laid out plans to exert control through the education system in "Mein Kampf"

Key quotes and ideas from "Education in Nazi Germany" Lisa Pine
 * Hitler's main concerns were to "reshape values, create a national identity and create racial awareness" pg13
 * Hitler hated intellectualism and scholastic academics: "Put young men in the army, whence they will return refreshed and cleansed of eight years of scholastic slime" (4) pg 13
 * Hitler: "The curriculum must be systematically built up... so that when a young man leaves school he is not a half-pacifist, democrat or something else, but a whole German." (3) pg13
 * "The NSLB had two main functions... to provide reports on the political reliability of teachers for appointments and promotions... to ensure the ideological indoctrination of teachers." pg15

misc
 * By 1939, 7 million people joined the Hitler Youth (HJ) movement
 * By 1939, most young people did not oppose the nazis . However, there were also rival groups like Edelweiss Pirates that opposed HJ and nazi Germany.