Fellow travelers
As followers are persons referred to in a group , movement or flow connect without really get involved. The use of the word is usually associated with a negative moral assessment of the person so characterized.
history
The term has been in common usage since the 17th century. The personal designation received a decidedly political use after the Second World War .
Use after 1945
In the denazification procedure , “fellow travelers” was the fourth of five categories into which those affected were divided in the arbitration chamber procedure . According to Art. V of the Control Council Directive No. 38 , followers were “those who only participated in or supported the National Socialist tyranny as nominal partisans”, in particular “who, as a member of the NSDAP or one of its branches, only pays membership fees, attending meetings that are mandatory was, participated or insignificant or ongoing obligations, as they were prescribed for all members, has "or" who, as a former member of the Wehrmacht, could endanger the goals of the Allies due to his abilities. " Art. XI of Directive No. 38 certain registration requirements and residence restrictions, the loss of the right to stand as a candidate, certain restrictions on professional activity and the obligation to make payments to a reparation fund.
In Austria the followers in the course of denazification were officially referred to as “less polluted”.
The negative connotation of the term “fellow travelers” remained after the denazification. In literary or artistic works or contemporary historical treatises and essays that deal with the time of National Socialism , the term is used to critically characterize a type of person who is apparently not time-bound.
Usage today
Today's usage emphasizes above all the point of view that a follower lets everything happen passively or simply joins in without being accountable for his behavior or taking responsibility. Depending on the situation, followers are assessed as harmless, thoughtless or restricted or negatively characterized as egoistic, opportunistic, senseless or conscientious, irresponsible or uncritical.
Instead of followers, the expressions follower , partisan , sympathizer , conformist , opportunist are also used. The term “sympathizer” emphasizes the ideal correspondence of a person with other people or groups and the willingness to stand up for them. It has recently also been used to mark people with strong negative judgment who are believed to have a benevolent attitude or support from militant or terrorist groups. “Conformist” emphasizes an attitude of people who adapt to existing conditions and prevailing opinions and norms based on rational considerations. “Opportunist” is always negative and emphasizes the point of view of a quick, unscrupulous or unscrupulous adjustment to the respective situation due to personal advantages or selfishness.
Follower effect
The follower effect (also music wagon effect or bandwagon effect, people want to be there “where the music is playing”) is a communication effect that describes how people adjust their behavior to the environment they perceive. The effect was introduced into science by Paul Felix Lazarsfeld . It is very different from the network effect , since a common benefit is not the goal. An example of the follow-up effect is the price effect observed in consumers . Especially people who want to be part of a collective align their behavior - possibly unconsciously - according to the follower effect. The effect is therefore usually much more widespread in nations with a collectivist society than in individualistic societies.
The complementary counterpart to the music wagon effect is the spiral of silence that looks at the non-followers. The spiral of silence arises due to the follower effect, because those who hold a contrary opinion decide, according to theory, to remain silent instead of expressing their opinion publicly.
One possible cause is the looking glass effect (mirror image effect ). This states that people develop through a (suspected) evaluation of others.
literature
- Gerhard Strauss, Ulrike Haß , Gisela Harras: explosive words from agitation to zeitgeist. A lexicon for public use of language (= writings of the Institute for German Language. 2). de Gruyter, Berlin / New York NY 1989, ISBN 3-11-012078-X , pp. 254–258, ( limited preview in Google book search).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Control Council Directive No. 38: Arrest and punishment of war criminals, National Socialists and militarists and internment, control and surveillance of potentially dangerous Germans ( Memento of the original from September 4, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of October 12, 1946. verfassungen.ch
