First they came… Part II

Adolph Hitler giving a speech

If you read my recent article First they came… Part I and you are under 40, you are probably asking yourself, “What’s this conservative old goat talking about.” “Why do I care what happened to some stupid German preacher over 50 years ago, in another century?”
You would do very well to ask yourself that.
History to some is a very boring subject, filled with yawns and annoying test questions. But to anyone with the ability to have a cognitive thought swimming around in that soup called grey matter… you know that those who have forgotten the past are doomed to repeat it.
Again, you are probably thinking what does this have to do with me? The answer my friend is not blowing in the wind… Again, the answer is those who are ignorant, and entertainment happy enough to forget history, are destined to repeat it.
Well if you are under the age of 40, especially if you are attending college, I would suggest you delve into a place called a library and do some research.
While technically Nazism was Fascism and there is a slight difference between Fascism in its goals and Socialism, the way they go about achieving their goals are very similar, frighteningly and shockingly similar.
As described so well in an essay article in the archives of Lawrence University, under the heading Lawrence University Students of “Objectivism” on http://www.lawrence.edu/sorg/objectivism/socfasc.htm
A common definition of fascism: “A governmental system with strong centralized power, permitting no opposition or criticism, controlling all affairs of the nation (industrial, commercial, etc.)” (American College Dictionary, New York: Random House, 1957).
Socialist states have included the USSR(1), Communist China, socialist Sweden, socialist England, Cuba, North Korea, and a handful of lesser regimes in Eastern Europe, East Africa, and Southeast Asia. Once again, there is a prima facie difficulty in determining what factor these various states held in common. After all, some socialist regimes (like Sweden’s and England’s) were elected democratically. Others, like the USSR’s and the PRC’s, were the result of popular violent revolutions. Still others were the product of either military coup (Cuba, Ethiopia, Vietnam) or foreign invasion (the Eastern Bloc). The trait common to all of these is provided, once again by the definition of socialism: “a theory or system of social organization which advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means or production, capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole” (American College Dictionary).
Once we remember the possibility of the existence of such a system, the differences between socialism and fascism become trivial, superficial and, above all, non-essential. Differentiation of socialism and fascism from capitalism permits the recognition of their similarity. They do differ from each other, but only in the way in which the scalene and the isosceles differ from each other: in degree, but not in kind. Socialism and fascism are each forms of statism,(sic) forms of government in which the government is given complete or extensive control over the lives of its citizens.
This theoretical consideration has massive consequences in the practical realm: The differences we noted before turn out not to be as important as we once might have thought.
Adolph Hitler himself stated,
I have learned a great deal from Marxism, as I do not hesitate to admit. The difference between them and myself is that I have really put into practice what these peddlers and penpushers have timidly begun…I had only to develop logically what Social Democracy repeatedly failed in because of its attempt to realize its evolution within the framework of democracy. National Socialism is what Marxism might have been if it could have broken its absurd and artificial ties with the democratic order.
(Hitler to Rauschning, The Voice of Destruction, pg. 186).
________________________________________
As discussed in the first article, Adolph Hitler took advantage of a cultural, economic, and religious vacuum in post WW I Germany. He was a master strategist. He was megalomaniacal and believed to be frightfully mad, and an occultist with almost no equal in the early twentieth century, but he was equally ruthless and cunning and an excellent recruiter of like-minded individuals. He was excellent at delegating tasks amongst a protected and private group of party leaders. ________________________________________
He was a brilliant orator. Even sixty plus years later, when one listens to an old film reel of Hitler speak, the hairs stand up on the back of your neck.
Hitler knew enough to speak accordingly to different audiences. He promised tax cuts to farmers, and in rural areas spoke of redistribution of wealth. Despite being severely outnumbered by his critics and opponents, Hitler became the Chancellor in January 1933. The main reason for his victory once again was the horrific economic conditions and spiritual unrest of the nation after the nation’s defeat in WW I. The night that Hitler was named Chancellor was fortuitous for the Nazi party as many of the leading industrialists came forward and called for Hitler because they said he was the only one strong enough as Chancellor to keep the coming Bolshevik revolution from overtaking Germany. ________________________________________
The Nazi Party was originally the German Workers Party (GWP). In the spring of 1920, Hitler suggested that they change their name to the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP). Hitler hated the socialists and communists and Russians in general. However he was politically savvy enough to know that after WW I Socialism was a popular philosophy. But he wanted to maintain the integral part of his belief that Jews and non-Germans were inferior, the NSDAP published its programme which became known as the 25 points. The party refused to accept the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, and to reinforce their ideas on Nationalism, equal rights were only for German citizens.
In an appeal to the working class and socialists, the programme included several measures that would redistribute income and war profits, profit sharing in large industries, nationalization of trusts, increases in old age pensions and free education. ________________________________________
Hitler was such a fantastic orator, that many times the large crowds that followed him and gathered at his speeches would erupt in violence. On one such occasion the crowd erupted in violence and brutally beat a rival politician. Hitler himself was imprisoned for three months for having a part in the riot. When Hitler was released he began forming his own private army called the Sturm Abteilung (Storm Section) These brutes and thugs were also known as Storm Troopers or Brown Shirts. They were soon to be led by one Hermann Goering. ________________________________________
Hitler and his thugs were seen by many to be too aggressive and violent in his speeches to entice violence against the liberal socialists. In the 1928 German National elections, less than 3% voted for the Nazi Party.
In 1929 Hitler and the Nazi party found themselves blessed by fortune, in that the Wall Street Crash of October 1929 caused a United States, desperate for capital, to begin to recall loans from Europe. One of the consequences was rapid unemployment and an economy which relied heavily on investment from the United States collapsed worse than any other European nation. Before the 1929 crash, 1.25 million people were unemployed in Germany. Towards the end of 1930, the numbers reached over 4 million.
Hitler who had been considered a dangerous fool in 1928 when he had predicted an economic disaster was now being seen as brilliant.
There were many times where Hitler was called a Messiah of his time.
________________________________________

Advertisement