Corpse-like obedience

Corpse-like obedience (German: Kadavergehorsam, also translated as corpse obedience, cadaver obedience, cadaver-like obedience, zombie-like obedience, slavish obedience, unquestioning obedience, absolute obedience or blind obedience) refers to an obedience in which the obeying person submits unreservedly to another's will, like a mindless, animated cadaver.

Jesuit origin

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The term originated with the Jesuit work by Ignatius of Loyola from 1553, the Letter on Obedience.[1] It has also been dated to 1558.[2] That text said, in Latin: "Et sibi quisque persuadeat, quod qui sub Obedientia vivunt, se ferri ac regi a divina Providentia per Superiores suos sinere debent perinde, ac si cadaver essent" which can be translated as "We should be aware that each of those who live in obedience must allow himself to be led and guided by Divine Providence through the Superior, as if he were a dead body".[1][2][3][4][5] The concept, described in the Jesuit context as "fabled and misunderstood",[6] has since been criticised by detractors of the Jesuit order as blind obedience.[7][8][9][10] Jesuit supporters, in turn, refer to it as the "perfect obedience".[1][9]

Modern use

[edit]

The term is often associated with Germany (where it is known as Kadavergehorsam), where it refers to "both obedience and loyalty until death"[11] or simply "absolute obedience"[12] or "blind obedience".[13] It has been associated with the discussion of German military and administration of the Prussian[14][15][16] and Nazi eras and their passive adherence to carrying out orders, including those later judged to be war crimes (see also Prussian virtues, German militarism, Befehlsnotstand, Führerprinzip, and superior orders).[2][13][17][18][19][20][21][excessive citations] The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service of 1933 has been credited with enforcing this idea in the Nazi German civil administration.[21] Adolf Eichmann, one of the major organisers of the Holocaust, invoked this concept in his defence during his post-war trial.[20][22][23]

The term has also been used in the context of other totalitarian regimes, such as communist states and parties.[24][25][26][27][28][29][excessive citations] The concept has been described as promoted by works such as The Communist Manifesto or Mein Kampf.[24]

The concept has also been mentioned in the context of extreme interpretation of military discipline.[5][30]

Some scholars have translated the term as zombie-like obedience.[26][29][31] A similar variation occurs in Nigerian afrobeat artist Fela Kuti's song "Zombie" (from the album of the same name), in which Kuti calls Nigerian soldiers zombies as a critique of the country's military government.[32][33]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Pólit, Manuel María Espinosa (1947). Perfect Obedience: Commentary on the Letter on Obedience of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. Newman Bookshop. p. 2.
  2. ^ a b c Pieri, Veronica De (20 June 2023). "Wird irgendetwas mit mir geschehen? Psycho(patho)logical perspectives on Hannah Arendt's The Banality of Evil". Dive-In. 3 (1): 7–42. doi:10.6092/issn.2785-3233/17278. ISSN 2785-3233.
  3. ^ Miller, J.R. (September 1978). "The Jesuit-Mail Libel Case: An example of nineteenth-century anti-Catholicisml". Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses. 7 (3): 295–303. doi:10.1177/000842987800700304. ISSN 0008-4298.
  4. ^ Friedrich, Markus (1 January 2014), "Ignatius's Governing and Administrating the Society of Jesus", A Companion to Ignatius of Loyola, Brill, pp. 123–140, ISBN 978-90-04-28060-1, retrieved 27 March 2024
  5. ^ a b Clooney, Francis Xavier (2006). Jesuit Postmodern: Scholarship, Vocation, and Identity in the 21st Century. Lexington Books. p. 124. ISBN 978-0-7391-1401-8.
  6. ^ Nelles, Paul (12 June 2019), Županov, Ines G. (ed.), "Jesuit Letters", The Oxford Handbook of the Jesuits, Oxford University Press, pp. 43–72, doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190639631.013.3, ISBN 978-0-19-063963-1, retrieved 27 March 2024
  7. ^ Healy, Roísin (1 January 2003). "The Moral Critique: Infiltrators of the Private Sphere". The Jesuit Specter in Imperial Germany. Brill. p. 159. ISBN 978-0-391-04194-3.
  8. ^ Miller, J. R. (September 1978). "The Jesuit-Mail Libel Case: An example of nineteenth-century anti-Catholicism". Studies in Religion. 7 (3): 295–303. doi:10.1177/000842987800700304. ISSN 0008-4298.
  9. ^ a b Hopfl, Harro M. (September 2000). "Ordered Passions: Commitment and Hierarchy in the Organizational Ideas of the Jesuit Founders". Management Learning. 31 (3): 313–329. doi:10.1177/1350507600313003. ISSN 1350-5076.
  10. ^ Bjork, J. (1 October 2006). "Book Review: The War Against Catholicism: Liberalism and the Anti-Catholic Imagination in Nineteenth Century Germany, The Jesuit Specter in Imperial Germany". German History. 24 (4): 631–634. doi:10.1177/0266355406070353. ISSN 0266-3554.
  11. ^ Krüger, Michael (December 1996). "Body culture and nation building: the history of gymnastics in germany in the period of its foundation as a nation-state". The International Journal of the History of Sport. 13 (3): 409–417. doi:10.1080/09523369608713957. ISSN 0952-3367.
  12. ^ Ströhle, Andreas; Wrase, Jana; Malach, Henry; Gestrich, Christof; Heinz, Andreas (May 2008). "Karl Bonhoeffer (1868–1948)". American Journal of Psychiatry. 165 (5): 575–576. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2008.07061031. ISSN 0002-953X. PMID 18450939.
  13. ^ a b Barnett, Bernard (2001), "The Holocaust, its aftermath, and the problem of the superego", Within Time and Beyond Time, Routledge, pp. 94–107, doi:10.4324/9780429485152-7, ISBN 978-0-429-48515-2, retrieved 27 March 2024
  14. ^ Dwyer, Philip G. (11 June 2014). Modern Prussian History: 1830–1947. Routledge. p. 268. ISBN 978-1-317-88700-3.
  15. ^ Forner, Sean A. (23 March 2017). German Intellectuals and the Challenge of Democratic Renewal: Culture and Politics After 1945. Cambridge University Press. p. 126. ISBN 978-1-107-62783-3.
  16. ^ Pflanze, Otto (10 November 2020). Bismarck and the Development of Germany: The Period of Unification, 1815-1871. Princeton University Press. p. 19. ISBN 978-0-691-22157-1.
  17. ^ Visser, Max (1 August 2008). "Learning under conditions of hierarchy and discipline: the case of the German Army, 1939–1940". Learning Inquiry. 2 (2): 127–137. doi:10.1007/s11519-008-0031-7. hdl:10818/35080. ISSN 1558-2981.
  18. ^ Toro, Alfonso de (1 May 2016). "Lo indecible, lo irrepresentable: Topografías: terror e intertextualidad El desierto de Carlos Franz / La vida doble de Arturo Fontaine". Iberoromania. 2016 (83): 35–55. doi:10.1515/ibero-2016-0004. ISSN 1865-9039.
  19. ^ Finney, Gail (2006). Visual Culture in Twentieth-century Germany: Text as Spectacle. Indiana University Press. p. 238. ISBN 978-0-253-34718-3.
  20. ^ a b Dinstein, Yoram (25 October 2012). The Defence of 'Obedience to Superior Orders' in International Law. OUP Oxford. p. 133. ISBN 978-0-19-164983-7.
  21. ^ a b McKale, Donald M. (17 March 2006). Hitler's Shadow War: The Holocaust and World War II. Taylor Trade Publishing. p. 47. ISBN 978-1-4616-3547-5.
  22. ^ Larsen, Øjvind (1 November 2017). Administration, Ethics and Democracy. Routledge. p. 95. ISBN 978-1-351-76885-6.
  23. ^ Loiacono, Fiorenza (1 January 2016), "The Capacity to Empathise as a Basis of Ethics: Educational Implications", Promises, Pedagogy and Pitfalls: Empathy’s Potential for Healing and Harm, Brill, pp. 99–109, ISBN 978-1-84888-428-1, retrieved 27 March 2024
  24. ^ a b Mazurkiewicz, Piotr; Gierycz, Michał; Wielecki, Krzysztof; Sulkowski, Mariusz; Zarzecki, Marcin (13 October 2021), "Introduction: Why Totalitarianism?", Totalitarianism in the Postmodern Age, Brill, pp. 1–9, ISBN 978-90-04-46505-3, retrieved 27 March 2024
  25. ^ Mazurkiewicz, Piotr; Gierycz, Michal; Wielecki, Krzysztof; Sulkowski, Mariusz; Zarzecki, Marcin (29 June 2023), "Totalitarianism in the Postmodern Age: A Report on Young People's Attitudes to Totalitarianism", Totalitarianism in the Postmodern Age, Brill, ISBN 978-90-04-46505-3, retrieved 27 March 2024
  26. ^ a b Pundeff, Marin (1986). "Dimitrov at Leipzig: Was There a Deal?". Slavic Review. 45 (3): 545–549. doi:10.2307/2499057. ISSN 0037-6779. JSTOR 2499057.
  27. ^ Häberlen, Joachim C. (February 2013). "Between Class War on All Fronts and Anti-Political Autonomy: The Contested Place of Politics in the Working-Class Movements of Leipzig and Lyon during the Inter-War Years". Contemporary European History. 22 (1): 33–63. doi:10.1017/S0960777312000471. hdl:11858/00-001M-0000-0024-EA6A-F. ISSN 0960-7773.
  28. ^ Dallin, Alexander (May 1958). "The Soviet Stake in Eastern Europe". The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 317 (1): 138–145. doi:10.1177/000271625831700118. ISSN 0002-7162.
  29. ^ a b Lih, Lars T. (1 January 2006), "After the Second Congress", Lenin Rediscovered, Brill, pp. 489–553, ISBN 978-90-474-1787-3, retrieved 27 March 2024
  30. ^ Plowman, Andrew (2007). ""Staatsbürger in Uniform"? Looking back at the Bundeswehr in Jochen Missfeldt's Gespiegelter Himmel and Sven Regener's Neue Vahr Süd". Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies. 43 (2): 163–175. doi:10.1353/smr.2007.0036. ISSN 1911-026X.
  31. ^ Lih, Lars T (2003). "How a Founding Document Was Found, or One Hundred Years of Lenin's What is to Be Done?". Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History. 4 (1): 5–49. doi:10.1353/kri.2003.0008. ISSN 1538-5000.
  32. ^ Jones, Owen (10 November 2017). "The Story of Fela Kuti 'Gentleman' & 'Zombie'". Classic Album Sundays. Retrieved 28 April 2024.
  33. ^ Lalwani, Vijayta (1 January 2020). "The Art of Resistance: 'Zombie' by Nigerian musician Fela Kuti questions repressive governments". Scroll.in. Retrieved 28 April 2024.
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