Ordinary People Are The Ordinary Men

In the book Ordinary Men, Christopher Browning tackles the question of why German citizens engaged in nefarious behavior that led to the deaths of millions of Jewish and other minorities throughout Europe. The question of what drove Germans to commit acts of genocide has been investigated by numerous historians, but unfortunately, no overarching answer for the crimes has yet been decided upon. However, certain theories are more popular than others. Daniel Goldhagen in his book, Hitler’s Willing Executioners, has expounded that the nature of the German culture before the Second World War was deeply embedded in anti-Semitic fervor, which in turn, acted as the catalyst for the events that would unfold into the Holocaust. It is at this

Christopher Browning describes how the Reserve Police Battalion 101, like the rest of German society, was immersed in a flood of racist and anti-Semitic propaganda. Browning describes how the Order Police provided indoctrination both in basic training and as an ongoing practice within each unit. Many of the members were not prepared for the killing of Jews. The author examines the reasons some of the police members did not shoot. The physiological effect of isolation, rejection, and ostracism is examined in the context of being assigned to a foreign land with a hostile population. The contradictions imposed by the demands of conscience on the one hand and the norms of the battalion on the other are discussed. Ordinary Men

Christopher R. Browning’s “Ordinary Men” chronicles the rise and fall of the Reserve Police Battalion 101. The battalion was one of several units that took part in the Final Solution to the Jewish Question while in Poland. The men of Reserve Police Battalion 101, and other units were comprised of ordinary men, from ordinary backgrounds living under the Third Reich. Browning’s premise for the book is very unique, instead of focusing on number of victims, it examines the mindset of how ordinary men, became cold-hearted killers under Nazi Germany during World War II. Christopher Browning’s “Ordinary Men” presents a very strong case that the men who made up the Reserve Police Battalion 101 were indeed ordinary men from ordinary background, and

The men of Reserve Police Battalion 101 were just ordinary men, from a variety of backgrounds, education, and age. It would appear that they were not selected by any force other than random chance. Their backgrounds and upbringing, however, did little to prepare these men for the horrors they were to witness and participate in.

In the movie Ordinary People, the Jarrett family is faced with traumatic events that provoke situations of crucial communication. The family members, Conrad (son), Beth (mother), and Calvin (father), have to deal with the loss of their beloved older son and brother. The loss of Buck hit Conrad, especially hard, resting displaced guilt on his shoulders. Conrad buckles under the guilt and pain, allowing him to draw in the dark emotions that fill his heart and mind attempting to end his life and end the agony. The opening of the movie is set in the time following Conrad’s release from the hospital when he returns to a quiet home with little love and compassion released from his mother's heart. He returned to a place of more pain. Beth, the mother,

Patriarchy is a social system where men dominate and govern most of the world’s economical, educational, familial, health, political, and religious systems. This political social system that insists that males are inherently dominating, superior females, has been taking it toll on different demographics. To maintain dominance, men exude their sensitive, inferior “masculinity” through various forms of psychological control, manipulation, violence, and terrorism. The subservient role-playing woman has to orchestrate to patriarchal chime by being nurturing, obedient, passive, and weak

In the film Ordinary People, we see the main protagonist, Conrad, suffer from major depressive disorder. Throughout the film, he shows symptoms of depression through challenges regulating sleep, depressed mood, thoughts of death and suicide, along with multiple other symptoms. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders or the DSM-V, lists the symptoms of depression as: depressed mood most of the time, reduced interest or enjoyment in most activities, challenges regulating appetite and weight, challenges regulating sleep, physical agitation or lethargy, having much less energy, unwarranted guilt, problems thinking, concentrating, or making decisions, and thinking of death and suicide (Meyers, 629).

"There are no extraordinary men... just extraordinary circumstances that ordinary men are faced to deal with" (William Halsey). The same can be said about volatile men. This is the quote Christopher R. Browning thought of when he named this book. The men of the 101st battalion were rarely faced with decisions. Even if it had been proposed by Trapp the morning of Jozefow that "any of the older men who did not feel up to the task that lay before them could step out" (Browning, chapter 7, pg. 57), he didn't actually allow them any time to truly think about it. He brought it up moments before they were about to go out to the slaughter. They were blind-sided and the men who didn't want to risk the future of their jobs as policemen or the men

The attempted attack by an armed individual on a high-speed train in Europe has concerned the United States about vulnerability of rail passengers and whether present security measures are acceptable. Airports are guarded with several layers of security including airport police and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) personnel using metal detectors and full-body scanners, but a lot of railroad stations have nominal scrutiny for passengers boarding trains. Bigger stations have armed Amtrak officers and bomb-sniffing dogs. Passengers and baggage are randomly searched at a few of the chief rail centers, like Union Station in Washington and Pennsylvania Station in New York. Even so, these measures would hardly

The practices of a collective society such as the one in this book disregard all belief in the individual. By doing this, the society and its leaders brainwash the people into having no personal priority or authority. Everything is done with the betterment of the entire group in mind, no sense of self involvement. Their life is fated in almost every

Preference and feeling are different when compares to one’s judgement because they are a more personal opinion. The example Regan gives in his article is that one person likes to drink bourbon; whereas, the other person does not like to drink bourbon. The claim here is that the preference of the second person does not affect the preference of the first person who likes to drink bourbon. By her saying she does not like to drink bourbon, she is just stating her personal preference and feeling for that drink. Judgement on the other hand is more complicated because you are now making a statement that is a point of view on a vast topic. The example given was abortions, john did not support abortions, whereas jane sees nothing wrong with them.

If one were to take anything from Christopher Browning’s Ordinary Men it is that even the most ordinary, normal men have the capacity to kill. The 101st Reserve Police Battalion executed at least 6,500 Jews at the Polish cities and villages of Jozefow, Lomazy, Serokomla, Lukow, Konskowola, Parczew, Radzyn, Kock, and Miedzyrzec and participated in the deportation of at least 42,000 Jews to the gas chambers in Treblinka (Browning, chapter 14, page 121). There were most likely even more killings that were never documented and much less remembered by the members of the 101st. These men had their first taste of death at Jozefow where they massacred 1,500 Polish Jews (Browning, chapter 8, page 74). It was a brutal and harrowing event where men,

To start, the picture has a man who is a giant whilst there are three individuals who are looking up to him. Both the man in power that is the dominant elite and the three individual can be interpreted as myself. I feel as though I am powerless because of the concepts shown in class. The ideas that are present in the image shows that the dominant elite controls almost the entire population. The three individuals looking up to the man who is a giant seem to be in scared of him, which also signifies my feelings

Futhermore, ordinary should be considered extraordinary. While others argue that ordinary, run-of-the- mill occurrences have become boring, and thus not important. it has always been my firm belief that every day is extraordinary because of the experiences one has with the people in their life. Paige Koch says, “I have a belief that life is the sum of small moments, rather than one general picture. That things which are commonplace can become the most significant”. People should encourage themselves to see everything as extraordinary because the small moments make a person’s life.

With proper time and attention something ordinary can evolve into a masterpiece of extraordinary nature. For example, creme brulee is one of my favorite deserts. Usually I enjoy creme brulee from a local supermarket. But I most prefer when our family travels to the Fresh Market franchise near the South Hills Mall and I’m able to purchase their organic creme brulee. It is made fresh in their own bakery and then chilled in individual serving containers. However, when you purchase one a member of the bakery staff uses a mini-blow torch to heat the creme brulee and carefully melt its crunchy sugar topping. It is then packaged to go and when we arrive home the desert has cooled to room