Violence and Civilization by Fletcher Jonathan;

Author:Fletcher, Jonathan;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Polity Press

CHAPTER SIX

Nationalism and Decivilizing Processes in Germany

The path to National Socialism in Germany is dealt with by Elias in a broadly sweeping developmental analysis which integrates psychological and sociological insights. While this chapter considers Elias’s comments on the historical roots of the Nazi disaster, the following chapter focuses on the Nazi era itself. In the first section Elias’s comments clarify the dynamics of his sociological process models through considering national and group we-images and ideals in the context of German state formation. This forms a historical backdrop to a more detailed discussion of violence and social habitus among the imperial German establishment. Elias traces the continuity of a culture of violence stemming from the imperial German bourgeoisie, through the Weimar era to the formation of the Nazi state. This and the following chapter make frequent and detailed reference to The Germans in particular, in which Elias elaborates further upon interweaving themes of violence and civilization, but this time with more of an emphasis on decivilization, or what he sometimes calls ‘breakdowns’ of civilization.1 The three main criteria of decivilizing processes introduced in chapter 4 will help to clarify the directional trends Elias seeks to highlight. Some of the quotations from Elias’s work in this and the following chapter include words like ‘barbarism’ or ‘barbarity’. I will comment on his use of these terms in the concluding chapter.

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