Written in the late 1980s by the members of the band Chumbawamba The Day the Nazi Died tells us that despite the words of governments, historians and history books the Nazis did not simply vanish after WWII, it also encourages us to spread the truth that Nazis still live in our societies and still wield significant political power and encourages us to confront historians on this topic.
But the question remains. Why would governments, historians and history books lie about this? What would they gain from spreading such misinformation?
The answer is relatively simple; after (and even during) WWII high ranking Nazis were recruited by governments and knowledge institutions all over the world.
Most famously during the USA's Operation Paperclip wherein Nazi scientists were recruited to work for the US military (the most famous of which was Wernher Von Braun whose work for NASA was instrumental in the moon landing and whose recruitment was commemorated by American Satirist Tom Lehrer) but even here in Ireland Fritz Brase was Director of the Irish Army band School of Music, Dr Adolf Mahr was Director of the National Museum and Helmut Clissman was Head of Ireland's German Academic Exchange, all German citizens, all high ranking members of the Nazi Party, all working in knowledge institutions connected to the Irish Government, and all appointed to their positions by members of the Irish Government.
While this information is publicly available it is neither widely known nor widely taught. Most likely because doing so would damage the reputations of these instutitions.
But that reluctance to confront this fact (and similar situations across the globe) calls the superiority of Institutional Knowledge, particularly in the human sciences, into question.
And so where Institutions Knowledge is reluctant to inform us Community Knowledge must provide instead, as in the case with the song by Chumbawamba.
At this point I would like to clarify that I am not saying Institutional Knowledge is inherently bad. On the contrary Institutional Knowledge has given us excellent research and confirmation methodologies.In this essay I am arguing that Institutional Knowledge, particularly in the human sciences, has serious vulnerabilities that are an inevitable consequence of it's Institutionality, just as Community Knowledge has serious vulnerabilities that are an inevitable consequence of it's lack of Institutionality and it is only through symbiosis between the two that the vulnerabilities of both systems can be countered.
So what are the vulnerabilities of Institutional Knowledge?
Chief among them is Propaganda and Censorship.
Because Knowledge Institutions are dependent on outside funding, reputation and hierarchical structures they are extremely vulnerable to being censored and propagandised.
We are seeing this all around us in the modern day with universities and government departments in the USA caving to government demands to censor mentions of LGBTQ+ history under threat of defunding.
We see this in Universities around the world clamping down on anti-Israel protests in order to protect their financial ties to Israel and to protect their reputations.
We see this in the UK's infamous Cass Review; as the very Institutionality that allows for proper research practices, peer review and ethics standards also allows for those things to be overuled by the Personal Biases of high ranking Hierarchs.
When Hierarchy suppresses Institutional Knowledge that knowledge must be converted into Community Knowledge in order to preserve it.
The second big vulnerability of Institutional Knowledge is that making knowledge tangible and collecting it in once place makes it more vulnerable to both natural and man made disasters.
Magnus Hirschfeld's Institute of Sexology was one of the few institutions on Earth dedicated to the study of homosexuality and transexuality. It had thousands of patients with detailed notes on each patient's experiences and Hirschfeld's theories on the nature of human sexuality.On the 6th of May 1933 the Institute was raided by the Nazis and Hirschfeld's research was burned, with little to nothing surviving. Likely setting back our understanding of human sexuality and the rights of LGBTQ+ people back by at least a century.
However, had the building been burned due to a lightning strike or a burst gas line rather than the deliberate actions of human filth the loss of knowledge likely would have been just as significant.
When Institutional Knowledge is destroyed Community Knowledge is all that's left.
So then, what are the strengths of Community Knowledge?
Community Knowledge is harder to identify and harder to destroy. Contrary to the proverb you absolutely can judge the contents of a book by the cover. Or at least you can generally tell what subject an academic text is about by reading the title and then, if you're a fascist storm trooper, you know what to burn. But most Community Knowledge is Intangible, it's mostly locked up inside people's heads and you can't tell what people know just by looking at them.
Community Knowledge is also less clustered in clearly labelled, individual nodes like Universities or Museums.
It's more diffuse and widely spread, making it harder to track down.
If the Hirschfeld institute was burned today the loss of knowledge would be far less profound; because now there is a large, interconnected and often well informed Trans Community; many members of which have large chunks of that knowledge locked in their heads.
A Human being has two powerful advantages over a book or a document; Agency and Locomotion. A book cannot try to save itself or its comrades in the event of a disaster like a burning building, but most human beings can. And in saving themselves, they save their knowledge as well.
Burning the contents of a library is a lot easier than wiping out an entire people.
Community Knowldge does, of course, have its vulnerabilities.
Reports can be effected by poor memory or personal bias, and so we must apply the methodology of Institutional Knowledge by finding as many sources as possible and using them to ascertain the truth.
Human Beings are more vulnerable to disease and famine than books and documents which can cause a lot of Community Knowledge to be lost. Which is why it is still important for Institutions to collect and document knowledge in a tangible format.
My conclusion is this; neither Community Knowledge nor Institutional Knowledge is inherently superior and privileging one above the other is incredibly dangerous. Privileging Institutional knowledge over Community knowledge makes us dangerously vulnerable to propaganda and censorship. As well as making knowledge far more vulnerable to physical destruction both deliberate and accidental. Privileging Community Knowledge over Institutional Knowledge leaves us with no backup in the event of mass death and leaves us with no real method of reviewing and confirming the truth of our knowledge. In short, instead of privileging one above the other, Community Knowledge and Institutional Knowledge should be seen as two equally necessary halves to a fully functional whole.