On The Highs and Lows of Human Nature

Anything on human nature has always fascinated me. Why do we do the things we do, is the question that arises in my mind as I read about feats of bravery as well as cruelty. As happened recently with two incidents - one which left me in utter awe and the other with a feeling of revulsion. 

The High

Monument to William Hartley

Let me begin with the story I found profoundly touching and inspiring. It was a snippet in the Economic Times about how the band on the Titanic played on to lift the spirits of the passengers - even as the ship was sinking. Every one of the seven musicians went down with the ship. On researching more, I discovered that Bandmaster Wallace Hartley, just 33, and the others knew full well that they were doomed. By all accounts, not a one of them ever even donned a life jacket.

We'll never know what was in their minds. But play they did. And played, and played. At first, they played upbeat tunes in the first class lounge. Later, they moved out on deck and played as passengers desperately tried to escape. Finally, they played one last song, and shortly after . . . they were gone forever.

The Low

Adolf Eichmann

Soon after having read this moving story - and the contrast was striking - I read about Eichmann of the Holocaust notoriety. Eichmann was an extermination administrator for the Nazis, in charge of transporting Jews, and in this capacity deported 430,000 Hungarians to their deaths in gas chambers.

He continued to do so even after the official order from Heinrich Himmler, the German Chief of Police to halt the extermination and to destroy all evidence of it. He did this to avoid being called up for active combat duty! Eichmann, it appears,  had abdicated his will to make moral choices, and thus his autonomy. Eichmann claimed he was just following orders, and that he was therefore respecting the duties of a "bureaucrat".Before they joined the Nazi Party and rose through it's ranks, Adolf Eichmann, a school dropout was a sales clerk and his boss Himmler a chicken farmer. What could have made these two perfectly ordinary human beings do such monstrous things? 

To Question or Not to Question. That IS the Question

Hannah Arendt, a cultural theorist has an explanation believes that the great evils in history, including the Holocaust particularly, were not perpetrated by by rabid fanatics and sociopaths. Rather, they were  ordinary folk, who unquestioningly accepted twisted theories and political propaganda of a state or an organization as being perfectly normal.

Even if this theory were true (she has been attacked by critics as being extremely naive), what could have prompted Wallace Hartley and his team of brave musicians to play as the Titanic sank? Hartley, (he planned to stop working on ships after his Titanic gig) and his band were no victims of political or any other propaganda. Nor were they moved, affected or influenced by the power of the panicking passengers. They just played on and went down with the ship. They were not under orders nor did anyone tell them to.

In the corporate arena, one often hears of executives kowtowing to bad business practices (Satyam, Enron, Lehman Bothers etc.). They, like Eichmann, appear to have abdicated their will to make moral choices, and thus their autonomy. On the other hand we have the brave service staff of the Taj in Mumbai, who during the terrorist attack, went beyond the call of duty to escort guests to safety. In doing so, many of them gave up their lives.

What prompts either behavior? God alone knows!