The film, The Reader (2008),
captures a frame of mind that may be so frequently overlooked when it is observed
because it is so bizarre in its impact on reasoning that it difficult to explain,
let alone grasp for what it is. The phenomenon is not of artifice; rather, it is
a natural vulnerability of the human mind, or brain, due to its susceptibility
to ideology that is highly unethical in its content, including a circumscribed
and even warped mental framework and very unethical prescriptions for conduct. The
ideology at issue in the film is that of the Nazi Party in Germany from 1933 to
1945. The truism that absolute power
corrupts absolutely does not fully account for the cognitive warping that is
evinced by Hanna Schmidt during her trial in the film.
The full essay is at "The Reader."
