[lit-ideas] Re: CFP: PEACE REVIEW on the PsychologicalInterpretation of War
- From: Ursula Stange <Ursula@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 08 Dec 2004 22:00:20 -0500
Not having proper time to follow this thread, I'm just poking my nose in =
now and again. But I spotted this statement of Andy's about Hitler 'hati=
ng peace' and just wondered why it rolls so easily off the fingertips. H=
itler was an angry young man who was shamed by Germany's defeat in a war =
he had fought in and felt betrayed by the decision makers in the generati=
on before him. Born in a different time and place, he might have been no=
body. Think of a rogue wave in the ocean and a talented, lucky and pluck=
y surfer. Whole lifetimes could pass without the two meeting. The wave =
sinks lesser surfers and the surfer has to make do with lesser waves. Un=
less...things come together. That's the 'perfect storm' that came togeth=
er and engulfed Germany. No one could see it coming. The German people=
were not somehow more prone to this than others might have been. Neithe=
r they nor Hitler hated peace. Neither they nor Hitler loved war. =20
Something in the US portends this same kind of 'perfect storm.' If ever=
one wanted to understand how what happened in Germany could happen, they=
need only watch what is happening in the US right now. While there is n=
o proof, it is widely assumed that Hitler's brown shirts set fire to the =
Reichstag themselves. The fear it engendered gave Hitler the opportunity=
to turn his election victory into something more powerful and more perma=
nent. The people willingly exchanged their civil liberties for protectio=
n from a possibly-invented fear. And doesn't that sound familiar....
The Marxist analysis of history put paid to "The Great Man" theory, but p=
erhaps we need to take a second look. (Those quotations around 'great m=
an' belong there for more than one reason.)
Ursula
(my two bits...(Canadian)...about 42 cents American)
-----------------------
Lawrence Helm and Andy Amago.....
L.H. It is possible to
examine many of Hitler's motives, but as much as he loved war, however mu=
ch
that was, it couldn't be said that he went to war because he loved war. =
The
objectives of his war were the reasons he went to war. Lebensraum in the=
East and the countering of the effects of the ignominious surrender after=
World War One were probably the prime reasons.=20
A.A. If he hated war and violence, he would have found another way to mee=
t
his ends. He chose instead to go to war, and his people chose to follow
him. He hated peace, so he shunned it.
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