Reflections on `ethics', `morality' and `responsibility' after the Holocaust

How, after the Holocaust, can we make informed choices about policy and behaviour when many choices appear morally repugnant? Today, the needs of the state are generally placed before those of the individual ethical conscience; the notion of "responsibility" has been perverted; and there is no general agreement on what is a morally appropriate guide to conduct. Too often, immoral acts are "justified" in terms of a supposed higher good, and old religious and ethical traditions have given way to a rationalisation of virtually any form of human behaviour, however violent and sadistic.