Rex Bloomstein
The Roots of Evil: Ordinary People, Part 1
Summary
Documentary film maker Rex Bloomstein discusses and shows excerpts from his 1997 TV series on the anatomy of evil. Is it a malignant force outside of human control, or is it an integral part of every human being? Part 1 of 2.
Rex Bloomstein
Rex Bloomstein has produced films on human rights, crime and punishment, and the Holocaust. He pioneered the modern prison documentary with films such as Lifers (1983) and Strangeways (1980), which won two British Academy Awards. As well as other television productions such as Auschwitz and the Allies, and his three-part history of anti-Semitism, The Longest Hatred, he produced KZ, described as one of the first post-modern Holocaust documentaries. Other feature documentaries include An Independent Mind (2008), on freedom of expression, This Prison Where I Live (2010), on imprisoned Burmese comedian, Zarganar, and The World of Jewish Humor (1990), which traces the evolution of Jewish humor from New York’s turn-of-the-century Lower East Side to the present.
Yes. I think diagnosis is hugely important. And I’m sure if we had that awareness that those tools of that where we can detect violence in children. I mean there’s much done on this, then I think if, we can begin to do something about that. And you know, prevention I think is is is very much a key element of what we must do when dealing with violent acts by people, and I think it comes and stems from as I try to say in programme from an awareness of what we are capable of. So yes, prevention is important, and I think it can change people very much.
Oh, well, such a huge and important question that isn’t it? I don’t examine that in this one because I’ve looked at, you know, I’ve explored the Holocaust in a number of other films. And the reasons are complex. They’re to do with societal factors, ideology, they’re to do with psychology, they’re to do with people’s belief in a system. Their ability to ignore the worst aspects of it. They’re to do with the forces of repression to stop people thinking and make them frightened to think. They’re the fragility of democracy. And we can see that in our world today, the fragility of those democratic forces, which are under a foot I must say. So all these factors are part of the reasoning as to the German people. It’s an endless question, but discussed millions of times, and will go on being discussed. Why the Germans, were they particularly obedient? Were they particularly tuned into the Hitlerian worldview allowed the horror of Nazism to develop, and in the way that it did? So the answers are many and you know, the Hitler regime was able to call upon fear of the other, of racism of the Jew as the horrifying entity within our poisoning our society. So propaganda played a role, so many things played a role, and it’s part of our study of this to try and understand all these factors that came to pass, a very interesting question.
Yeah, it’s interesting, empathy. There’s quite a lot of work studies done on empathy. It’s vital isn’t it, to be able to empathise. I don’t know how you measure this. There may will be, you know, that psychologists and others are really delving into our ability to empathise. I think it’s crucial because our alternative ability to dehumanise is terrifyingly destructive. And I think one of the key elements in genocidal actions when you can dehumanise a group of people, the Jews could dehumanised as evil. So empathy is vital to our ability to live decent lives. And as soon as you begin or soon as a regime targets a group or a minority, and as as it were, undermines empathic feelings, then there is real danger there. As we’re predicting it, I don’t know, it’d be interesting to see what social science is doing about that, it’s very important.