On Mon, 21 Feb 2000, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
> Actually, no extreme analogies are needed, historical examples will do.
> The Nazis were very efficient utility maximizers - the extracted golden
> teeth, the gassing trucks utilizing exhaustion fumes, human bodies made
> into soap
Actually the Nazis never made the Jews into soap. That's a propaganda myth by our side, just like the lampshades. And as far as utility maximizing is concerned, my friends in holocaust studies assure me that the prevailing opinion is that the camps were not rational, especially when you consider the opportunity cost of herding together and transporting all these people. It was an extra war that the Nazis would have given up if they were rational, especially when resources got tight and they were threatened with defeat. But even then, when it was endangering their ability to fight the Allies, they continued and intensified it. This is in fact often held up to show that the Nazis' hatred of the Jews was neither window dressing nor something that can be explained in terms of even the most brutal rationality. Rather it was deeply and fiercely irrational.
Michael _________________________________________________________________________ Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com