Recently I have been watching a very good documentary series (via Netflix online video streaming, also available on DVD) called “The Nazis: A Warning from History.”
The six-episode series, released in 1997, provides great detail and insight into the rise, height, and fall of the Nazi party in 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s Germany (World War Two). One reason that makes it so interesting (aside from providing so much information and many original video clips) is that it shows interviews people with views from all sides of the spectrum, including former Nazi party members, some of which are still sympathetic to their original cause, while others are understandably more repentant. This point in history was such an integral part of the 20th century and modern history in general, and it is important that we become more familiar with happened or else it may become distorted or even lost from our memories.
The atrocities of Nazi Germany and World War II in general bring to heart the fact that we as humans can be led so easily from the paths of decency and understanding to negligence and bitter hatred. The terrible conditions and economic depression within Germany created by the aftermath of World War I and the Treaty of Versailles was in effect one of the eventual causes of the rise of the Nazi political party within Germany during the time, the same rise of power which gradually eroded the status of the Jews and other peoples within Germany and its influence to be victims of abuse, murder and attempted genocide. It is amazing what the combination of hardship (or success) and the empowering words of a demagogue can do to control the mind and distort all sense of morality and love for one another.
The simple and pure truth of “the golden rule” could do a lot of good in this world if only it was more often followed!
So true! It’s unfortunate that all of the world leaders can’t learn from history. It was a sad, dark time in our world history that we should never forget.
I too just viewed a documentary on Netflix titled “Nietzsche and the Nazis” (2006) where Dr. Stephen Hicks points out that there is still an on going battle between free men and those who would enslave us through perverse philosophies that demand we surrender our liberties to the dictatorship imposed by the socialist state. I would like to invite you to read the review posted on my blog. Mike
I recently viewed the documentary “Nietzsche and the Nazis” I recommend it to anyone interested in the discussion on going in the United States concerning our governments move toward a socialist state, with the current government’s attempt to take control of health care, placing Czar’s in control of various sectors of the economy, taxing millions of Americans not yet old enough to vote with the huge so called stimulus packages doled out to mostly their political allies.
Dr. Stephen Hicks logically moves through the political ideas that led to the rise of the Nazis socialist state and thus the erosion of and finally the total collapse of individual freedoms. The comments below are some my thoughts after considering the philosophies of Nietzsche and the Nazis socialist state in view of current legislation being considered in Congress.
Comments:
Dr. Stephen Hicks could have focused on many famous philosophers and or writers who attempt through their writings and philosophies to create a new world order. A world ruled by man outside the authority and morality of God. Some of the reviews spoke to the unfairness of connecting the philosophies of Nietzsche to Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party. I find them intellectually dishonest, and unwilling to examine the basic cause and effect in the professor’s argument. Nietzsche proclaimed that “God was dead” and thus proceeded to develop his new world where a super man would not only rule but would bring genocide to millions of the less worthy. You know the people who are calculated as disposable by the god like man. As I listened to the Quotes of Friedrich Nietzsche, I was horrified thinking that so many could and do fall for this disturbed man’s teachings and I ask “what great contribution to the development of man did this self serving man provide for us all?”He is just another pathetic example of those who exalt their selves with a false sense of worth. Just another miserable man that sees freedom for the individual as a threat to imposing his world view. If helping the less fortunate, caring for the infirm, and putting the good of others first make us weak folk and we belong to the “slave morality”then I will happily become weak so my neighbor can flourish!
Dr. Hicks points out that there is still an on going battle between free men and those who would enslave us through perverse philosophies that demand we surrender our liberties to the dictatorship imposed by the socialist state. A socialist state that attempts to replace itself as a god directing every facet of one’s life as to the purposes that the state will define. He did not attempt to single out Mr. Nietzsche but rather convincingly point by point, quote by quote demonstrates the cause and effect of these ideas. Weather or not the Nazi party misused Nietzsche’s works, the facts remain that they did use similar arguments to push forward their perverse world view, first on their nation and then the world. The result is well documented to the extent of destruction, (the effect), experienced by those who were deemed weak and disposable by those who proclaimed a superior, higher wisdom concerning the worth and order of men,(the cause). So weather one can construct a link directly to the Nazi party or not is not the point. The point is that your world view has consequences, it determines what you value, your relationships with your neighbor, your response to conflict and the importance you place on life itself. If the world view devalues life and individual liberty there is no limit to the atrocities one might justify to obtain power. “The ends justify the means” is the motto of the socialist state. Do and say anything to obtain power and when you have power put down with all means any who dare to challenge.
In the end Nietzsche elevates himself above all of his fellow man. Judging them as inferior, without worth, unable to make decisions for themselves, mere pawns of the over man and or state, his writings express a hopelessness for man kind. This hopelessness is one that can only have remedy through the destruction of individual freedom and the extermination of whoever the powerful choose for the purpose of accomplishing their goals and the improvement of mankind. Another man had an idea seen in the quote below that also had a cause and effect. His name was Thomas Jefferson. He believed that “all men were created equally” “that they were endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights”. And that these rights were not negotiable.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”