This is a difficult blog for me to write and it may be difficult for some to read. I am in the middle of reading one of the most dangerous books ever written: Mein Kampf. On every page I am encountering mixed emotions. I have to stop and take a deep breath before continuing further.
Why am I reading such a book? Well, for many reasons, I guess. The first is I was watching Herman Wouk's "The Winds of War" about World War II. I had an uncle who was in a Nazi POW camp and it affected him greatly. To this day I have never watched and never will watch "Hogan's Heroes". It was the one show banned from our house because as my mother explained, "they are making fun of something that gave your uncle nightmares." Anyway when I saw Hitler's book in the library I decided I had to read it in order to make sense of what World War II and Naziism was all about. It also, coincidentally, dovetails in with what we are talking about at church about sin and how it affects us all. Even if you see Adam and Eve as a myth like I do, you can still admit that it is a very powerful myth and even if it isn't true historically it is true on another level.
I was prepared to be revolted. I was prepared to fling it down in disgust. Because I KNOW how the story ended. I know what this man and his words were responsible for. And it is precisely this that makes "Mein Kampf" so scary. Because to my surprise I found myself fascinated by Hitler's writing. This is the scary part--if I did not know what this man was and what he stood for, I might find myself liking him. They say Hitler was a madman, that he was insane. Not so. Not so at all. Hitler was quite sane, quite rational and very, very intelligent. He was a keen observer of life. Some of his philosophy reminds me of Ayn Rand's. Both championed the individual against the masses. But where Rand favored the factory owners, Hitler favored the workers. He'd been poor and he knew what it was like to be a worker (Rand, if I recall correctly, never worked for wages in her life) and he says quite frankly that employers who exploit their employees are foolish and traitors to their nation because they are asking for unrest. Boy, that sure hit a nerve! And when he talks about the media being like an octopus looking for any kind of scandal they can dig up, I thought, nothing has changed.
In short, I can see why so many people flocked to him, even prominent people here in the United States. And if you removed all the anti-Semitism from "Mein Kampf" (which would make it a very slender volume indeed!), here would be a leader many Americans would gladly vote for. Especially the "Fox News" crowd. I bet I could take a quote or two from "Mein Kampf" and drop it into our Sunday night Bible group without saying where it came from and they would all think it high wisdom. The decline of the family? Explicit sex in entertainment? It's all there.
This is what I am afraid of, that somebody very much like Hitler is going to arise in American politics. I'll give a few clues where I think this person will come from. They will not be from a wealthy family nor will they have a background of poverty, but they will come from a formerly middle-class family that was once comfortable but now has lost nearly everything in the recession. Wealthy people aren't really interested in gaining the kind of power a Hitler craves because they have little need to and poor people are too defeated to seek it. But a person who has once known a middle-class life and its advantages and is now down on their luck--that is a dangerous person. You might even say I fit that profile somewhat!
This person will have charisma and will know how to manipulate crowds. Hitler says a lot about the value of propaganda. This person will also know how to use propaganda. He or she will appear to be deeply patriotic. Perhaps even a military veteran (but not of high rank). If they have read "Mein Kampf" and absorbed its lessons they are more likely to quote Ayn Rand. They will talk against socialism and the left and they will scapegoat groups without seeming to scapegoat. Because they know history they are going to tread very carefully as not to arouse people's fears; they know what people are looking for as regards "The Mark of the Beast" and they are not going to make the same mistakes others have. For that reason I don't think this person will come from the ranks of the known Neo-Nazis but it is not too farfetched to think that they could come from within the Tea Party. However, it is not anyone on the current political scene.
I am deeply, deeply concerned that the time is ripe for such an individual to appear and when it does it will be very hard to recognize him or her for what he or she really is. Madmen are easy to identify; the rational but evil person not so.
Why am I reading such a book? Well, for many reasons, I guess. The first is I was watching Herman Wouk's "The Winds of War" about World War II. I had an uncle who was in a Nazi POW camp and it affected him greatly. To this day I have never watched and never will watch "Hogan's Heroes". It was the one show banned from our house because as my mother explained, "they are making fun of something that gave your uncle nightmares." Anyway when I saw Hitler's book in the library I decided I had to read it in order to make sense of what World War II and Naziism was all about. It also, coincidentally, dovetails in with what we are talking about at church about sin and how it affects us all. Even if you see Adam and Eve as a myth like I do, you can still admit that it is a very powerful myth and even if it isn't true historically it is true on another level.
I was prepared to be revolted. I was prepared to fling it down in disgust. Because I KNOW how the story ended. I know what this man and his words were responsible for. And it is precisely this that makes "Mein Kampf" so scary. Because to my surprise I found myself fascinated by Hitler's writing. This is the scary part--if I did not know what this man was and what he stood for, I might find myself liking him. They say Hitler was a madman, that he was insane. Not so. Not so at all. Hitler was quite sane, quite rational and very, very intelligent. He was a keen observer of life. Some of his philosophy reminds me of Ayn Rand's. Both championed the individual against the masses. But where Rand favored the factory owners, Hitler favored the workers. He'd been poor and he knew what it was like to be a worker (Rand, if I recall correctly, never worked for wages in her life) and he says quite frankly that employers who exploit their employees are foolish and traitors to their nation because they are asking for unrest. Boy, that sure hit a nerve! And when he talks about the media being like an octopus looking for any kind of scandal they can dig up, I thought, nothing has changed.
In short, I can see why so many people flocked to him, even prominent people here in the United States. And if you removed all the anti-Semitism from "Mein Kampf" (which would make it a very slender volume indeed!), here would be a leader many Americans would gladly vote for. Especially the "Fox News" crowd. I bet I could take a quote or two from "Mein Kampf" and drop it into our Sunday night Bible group without saying where it came from and they would all think it high wisdom. The decline of the family? Explicit sex in entertainment? It's all there.
This is what I am afraid of, that somebody very much like Hitler is going to arise in American politics. I'll give a few clues where I think this person will come from. They will not be from a wealthy family nor will they have a background of poverty, but they will come from a formerly middle-class family that was once comfortable but now has lost nearly everything in the recession. Wealthy people aren't really interested in gaining the kind of power a Hitler craves because they have little need to and poor people are too defeated to seek it. But a person who has once known a middle-class life and its advantages and is now down on their luck--that is a dangerous person. You might even say I fit that profile somewhat!
This person will have charisma and will know how to manipulate crowds. Hitler says a lot about the value of propaganda. This person will also know how to use propaganda. He or she will appear to be deeply patriotic. Perhaps even a military veteran (but not of high rank). If they have read "Mein Kampf" and absorbed its lessons they are more likely to quote Ayn Rand. They will talk against socialism and the left and they will scapegoat groups without seeming to scapegoat. Because they know history they are going to tread very carefully as not to arouse people's fears; they know what people are looking for as regards "The Mark of the Beast" and they are not going to make the same mistakes others have. For that reason I don't think this person will come from the ranks of the known Neo-Nazis but it is not too farfetched to think that they could come from within the Tea Party. However, it is not anyone on the current political scene.
I am deeply, deeply concerned that the time is ripe for such an individual to appear and when it does it will be very hard to recognize him or her for what he or she really is. Madmen are easy to identify; the rational but evil person not so.
