We Are Taught Everything

While watching The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, I was thinking about how wrong it was to treat any human being in such a way, as anyone in this modern day would. Then this thought occurred to me: it is only wrong to me because I was taught that it was wrong.

Now in school students are taught that the Holocaust was a horrific event in time and people should never be treated so poorly, to say the least. But it was quite the opposite during World War II. This is shown during the movie when Gretel, a 12 year old daughter of a Nazi soldier, was given a tutor. This tutor taught her that Jewish people are "evil, dangerous vermin," and people are fighting in this war to take them out and make the world a better place. She then replaces the dolls in her room with pro-Nazi soldier posters and begins to educate herself about the war. Her eight year old brother, Bruno, has not been taught to develop this notion yet, seeing nothing wrong with the Jews. He only sees them as farmers in striped pajamas, and he even befriends one in a concentration camp. The question is: why are we taught to develop such notions?

It all comes down to a point of social acceptance. It wouldn't be socially acceptable for me to glamorize the Holocaust, nor would it be acceptable for someone living then to speak out against the killing of the Jews. Most have a desire to fit in, so most conform to the "normal" standard of living. It is only when a group of people who decide to create a new normal that society changes what is acceptable.

This is only a theory, however. It has shown me where to start my studies of the human brain and how it affects our everyday lives, and I'm exited for where it will take me.

Until Next Week,
Factual Faith