Date: Wed, 03 Apr 2002 15:51:05 -0500
From: "Michael Walsh" <MJW at mail.press.jhu.edu>
To: <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: German policy
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

"Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose."  - - Alphonse Karr

mjw

>>> StrongL at MTMC.ARMY.MIL 04/03/02 03:41PM >>>
	On the question of whether Nazism was a "hollow" philosophy, I =
must
respectfully disagree.  It appealed to a lot of Germans on political, =
racial
and economic grounds.  Germany has long had a major inferiority complex.
The German Empire of 1871-1919 seemed to fix that and make Germans "big
boys" co-equal with Britain, France and Russia.  They almost won World War =
I
against a very tough coalition of major powers.  However, the war and the
vindictive peace treaties took that pride and prosperity away from them.
Hitler said You're a proud people that have accomplished everything good =
in
history and the only reason why you're not on top of the world is because =
of
those dirty Jews.  That sounded good to a lot of people who didn't wear =
the
costumes into the voting booth.
	Translate that into Arabic, and you understand a large part of the
problems in the Middle East.

-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Smith [mailto:sgs at aginc.net]
Sent: Wednesday, April 03, 2002 2:43 PM
To: WSFA members
Subject: [WSFA] Re: German policy

ronkean at juno.com wrote:
> ...  The point I find interesting is that the
> Germans have chosen to ban Nazi symbols, while their real aim is to
> surpress Nazism itself.  It's sort of like tyring to suppress smoking by
> banning the advertising of cigarettes.

Not so strange, when you think about it.  Nazism, far more than most
religious/political philosophies, defines itself by its symbols and
ceremonies.  The main attraction for a lot of Nazis is to be able to
dress up in neat costumes and participate in some really impressive
ceremonies.  Take this away, and the Nazis lose their most effective
recruiting tool.

True, those who are left are a "hard core" who are much harder to deal
with, and if somebody has a big demonstration, you can watch it and see
who shows up.  Banning things is a judgment call; the US is on the
extreme end of permissiveness by world standards.  Personally, I think
the Germans go too far.  We need to study things like the Nazi movement
so that we can recognize things like them at an early stage and keep
them from getting out of hand.  To do this, of course, requires detailed
study of what *really* went on -- assuming that everybody went crazy for
a few years doesn't give us anything useful.

According to what I've read, Nazism was a "hollow" philosophy -- control
for the leaders, ceremonies for the followers -- and nothing else.  I'm
not satisfied with this explanation, BTW.

Obsession with symbols instead of realities is not limited to those
funny ferriners.  See http://www.cfa-inc.org/about/cfafaq.htm for an
American example.

--
Steve Smith                                           sgs at aginc.net
Agincourt Computing                            http://www.aginc.net
"Truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense."