Contemporary History Issues

1. Of all the mass killings that the world has ever experienced, the Holocaust will always be remembered as the greatest of them. In a period of four years from 1941-1945, more than six million Jews were killed in somewhat skewed genocide and ethnic cleansing that was planned by the German Nazi, In general, the period saw more than 17 million people dead alongside the Jews and they were inclusive of the groups that were not desired by the German Nazi. The was widespread abuse of not only fundamental disregard for human life fuelled religion and ideology differences (Isherwood 4).  It was well conducted by Hitler who was the leader of the Nazis and the epitome of the killings is where mass killing centers were constructed such as the concentration camps that were located in Poland. To understand the Holocaust, there is a need to understand different issues that brought about the Holocaust need to be understood. 

The Holocaust was brought to be by an authoritarian government that had no regard for the rights of the people. Fascism was a common practice in Europe in the 21^st century. Almost the entire continent was led by authoritarian leaders who never cared for the rights of other people. There was devastating oppression of people under the various national leaders who were operational in most parts of the continent (Frasheri 146). In Germany for instance, a sadist by the name Hitler was the chief executive of the nation. He was however opposed to anything associated to Jews, their language at their practices not because they had ever wronged him or Germany but fundamentally because he was opposed to their beliefs. 

The Holocaust was also a display of issues that concern modern people which involve freedom and nationalism for the wrong affairs. The Nazi Germans and the allies to Hitler are some of the individuals who can be seen to make such a false account of nationalism and modernism (Isherwood 212). They were a group of people who thought that being nationalists meant doing anything that was directed by their leaders such as their presidents. The fact that a nation is free however does not mean that the government is allowed to engage in any activity to prove their nationalism. Killing six million Jews was not an adequate way to display nationalism for the countrymen. While nationalism is about having an unbowed love for your country, killing other people for the case of enhancing the ideology of the state is not only inhuman but a wrong display of nationalism which ought not to have happened. 

Observing the Holocaust with ultimate sobriety, there is a need to see that it was merely a battle of ideology. It was a massacre of people that could not have happened if rationalism was applied as opposed to nationalism. The worst thing about the Holocaust is that it was not just a militarized war. It was a war that involved a fight between people who had a different view of ideology even though they some were somehow civilized. Different professionals had already been swallowed in the battle of ideologies such that they lost the very essence of their civilization (Frasheri 151). Artists, lawyers, teachers, and intellectuals in most of Nazi Germany could not have been involved in the war but some kept silent while others actively supported the mass killings. It is, therefore, the responsibility of everyone to reflect on how issues such as differences in beliefs and ideologies could lead to deaths of such a significant number of people and how the silence of professionals can sponsor such violence. 

2. 

Non-white adaptation or assimilation to the western behaviors could be evaluated in a wide array of issues. In the essential manner that can be used to asses western civilization is that it is something that changes the way that people view things away from the cognitive understanding. Western civilization and the assimilation of Non-Whites, for instance, led to the spread of religion, education, new methods of handling economic affairs as well as the creation of a path for a government that is more practical and functional. On the other hand, it is clear that assimilation of non-whites was a direct alienation of the cultural rights of the people (Zunguze 3). It led to such effects such as colonization; it fostered the view of the western culture as a superior culture that deserved to be emulated by all and sundry and to an extent, brought the issue of racial contests which has to a great extent spit the world in diverse manners.

In view of some of the best things that have been fostered by the assimilation of non-westerners to the cultures and behaviors of the westerners is the fact that the west came with a whole different approach of such matters such as politics that were into the same way before. The adaptation of liberalism, the spread of capitalism and the spread of nationalism, for instance, are some of the greatest stances where the non-white population could be said to have adapted to in such an effective manner. The three institutions have taken effect in different countries which are not western especially in most parts of Africa. They are equivocal practices that have seen the non-white people become more democratic and patriotic to their nation (Grydehoj 12). The institutionalization of capitalism as the underlying ideology in most of the countries has also given everyone in the societies the ability to determine their economic destinies, and economic improvement in the cultures is quite high. The assimilation of non-whites to the white way of life is in this aspect therefore beneficial. 

On the other hand, the manner in which the western ideologies were taken into most of the nations that are not made of whites was way appalling. Ultimate sacrifices inclusive of the cultures of the indigenous were experienced (Zunguze 6). People were therefore taught new approaches of life that humiliated their cultures; a remorseful view of the damage that the assimilation to the western practices brought to the world, for instance, is in the depiction of the religious ways of the other cultures as weak and consequently, increased racial completion arising from the assimilation of non-whites.

Most of the non-European countries revolted the entry of Western practices because western practices were way different from theirs and that they were brought in a manner that humbled the traditional cultures of the concerned parties. In that essential view, they were humbling of the traditions of the people in such an instrumental manner. In a rather different perspective, however, the assimilation of the western culture and the institutions thereof has helped to make the non-white societies more modernized. 

3. 

The contemporary world is such a world that requires the consideration of everyone that has a voice to air their views. An Outsider perspective is a voice that aims at counteracting the natural or the inward needed focus. They are a people that are experienced in some filed and thus their input concerning a particular issue in the society comes quintessentially along their knowledge in the particular field where they lay their concentration on. The value of outsider perspective is that in the long run, they do not just support matters of the contemporary world from an inner focus. Rather, the concentrate on airing the voices of some insiders who lack the space to air them.

The consideration of the outsider’s perspectives who should be listened issues that they are as many outsiders who hold perspectives considering modern society as they are the number of professionals and also people of interest. In that consideration, we would think that the very first people who should be listened are those who directly criticize the modern way of doing things. The reason for their consideration is all along, they table their facts based on the way that the modern life and the consequences of it according to their concentration. Some of them could be antiracists or even people who are opposed to colonialism in the first place (Bancroft 35). There is, therefore, an undeniable reason to listen to the opposition of everything about modernity as part of the outsiders’ perspective as it can be a way to navigate around the negativities around modernism and change their view.

Professionals are the other outsider group to consider when thinking about modernity. Professionals are people who have articulate experience in the modern issue that have been brought by modernity. They are people who have had a direct touch of modernity on the ground and how it has been received all along. Therefore, professionals do not just articulate some vague essence of modernism. They are also considerate of some deeper meaning of modernity. In fact, most professionals will talk without fear of the defects of modernity and why certain things should not be practiced the way that they are done (Lenin 5). Professionals are therefore quintessential when thinking about the essence of modernity. They are core as their arguments are based on experience and not vague. When thinking about contemporary thinking about the views of professionals who have been in the field for a couple of years, but still opposed to some issues should come in handy.

The affected population that is affected by modernism or that which has adapted to modernism in the recent past should be considered. It is the same group that is directly affected by modernism which defines the way that they lead their lives, the manner in which they do things, the way that they respond to situations among others. In this essential view, listening to the affected individuals whether they are artists, whether they are politicians and even if they are the common citizens is an important outsider perspective (Bancroft 46). They are the same people who are affected by modernism and hence their experience with it can be worth considering. Outsider views are essential are they can lead to the redefining of some perspectives of modernism as a way to make it more suitable for the people.

Works Cited

Bancroft, Angus. “Roma and Gypsy-Travellers in Europe: Modernity, Race, Space and Exclusion.” (2017).

Frasheri, S. S. “Transferring the New Civilization to the Islamic Peoples (M. Sukru Hanioğlu, Trans.).” Modernist Islam 1940 (1840): 149-151.

Grydehoj, Adam. “Hearing voices: colonialism, outsider perspectives, island and Indigenous issues, and publishing ethics.” Island Studies Journal 13.1 (2018): 3-13.

Isherwood, Christopher. “A Berlin diary.” The Berlin Stories(1954): 1-207.

Lenin, Vladimir Ilich. Imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism: a popular outline. Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1920.

Zunguze, Jeremias. “Debunking the Myth of the Doctrine of Discovery of Africa”