'It is for everyone who desires to be preserved from the excesses of popular feeling and to prevent the community to which he belongs from plunging into rioutous and blind commotions, to keep his own judgement and emotions as free as possible from a power that seizes all it can reach, draws them into its current, and sweeps all it can round and round like the Maelstrom, until they are overwhelmed and buried in its devouring vortex. When others are heated, the only wisdom is to determine to keep cool; whenever a people or an individual is rishing headlong, IT IS A DUTY OF PATRIOTISM and of FRIENSHIP TO CHECK THE MOTION.' Charles P. Upham Salem Witchcraft, Published in 1867 I rest my case

by Mark Sashine (72 articles, 19 quicklinks, 269 diaries, 4101 comments [131 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, May 26, 2006 at 7:34:08 AM

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The chapter on Hitler in Erich Fromm's The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness is quite disturbing, since there are so many parallels with (not only) the current U.S. government. However, it's important to remember that almost the entire Congress has been going along with Bush's insane plans from the get-go. Compare to the huge number of British Parliamentarians who voted against attacking Iraq or - as the broadcasters like to call it - going to "war" with Iraq. So the problem isn't just having a lunatic president. It's also that he's being encouraged rather than discouraged by the very people who are responsibe for keeping him under control, as well as a poorly educated civilian population, not only blind to the similarities with Nazi techniques, but ignorant of the culpability of the current president's own family in the rise of Hitler and the Holocaust (see George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography, by Webster G. Tarpley and Anton Chaitkin, and The Cause of Wars and Agression by Bo Filter). There's a good reason why all they teach you in high school about Hitler is that he was a madman. Concerned citizens may find the following quotes from Fromm's book of interest: His laugh was never free, but was a kind of smirk, as one can also recognize from photographs. This trait is particularly noticeable at the peak of his career…” “Any destruction he ordered he rationalized as being only for the sake of the survival, growth, splendour of the German nation: it was in defence against enemies who wanted to destroy Germany…. In other words, when Hitler gave his orders for destruction he was only aware of his “duty” and of his noble intentions; these required destructive acts, but he repressed the awareness of his craving for destruction. Thus he avoided confronting himself with his true motivations.” “Related to his narcissism is Hitler’s utter lack of interest in anybody or anything, except what was of service to him, and his cold remoteness from everybody. To his absolute narcissism corresponded an almost absolute lack of love, tenderness, or empathy for anybody.” “Never were his tactical decisions in the war – mainly his insistence on not retreating (for instance in the battle for Stalingrad) influenced by concern about the number of soldiers who would be sacrificed; they were only so many “guns.”” “… It is sometimes not easy to distinguish between the expression in the eyes of an extremely devoted, almost saintly man and those of a highly narcissistic, sometimes even half-crazy man. The only distinguishing quality is the presence – or absence – of warmth, and all reports agree that Hitler had cold eyes, that his whole facial expression was cold, that there was an absence of any warmth or compassion. While this trait could have a negative effect – as in fact it did on many – it often enhances magnetic power. Cold ruthlessness and the lack of humanity in a face produces fear; one prefers to admire rather than be afraid.” “Hitler was not a self-taught man but a half-taught man, and the half that was missing was the knowledge of what knowledge is.” “The blending of Hitler’s defective will with his defective sense of reality leads to the question whether he really had the will to win or whether unconsciously, and in spite of all apparent efforts to the contrary, his course was set toward catastrophe.” “… The main fallacy which prevents people from recognizing potential Hitlers before they have shown their true faces … lies in the belief that a thoroughly destructive and evil man must be a devil - and look the part; that he must be devoid of any positive quality; that he must bear the sign of Cain so visibly that everyone can recognize his destructiveness from afar. Such devils exist, but they are rare. As I indicated earlier, much more often the intensely destructive person will show a front of kindliness; courtesy; love of family, of children, of animals; he will speak of his ideals and good intention. But not only this. There is hardly a man who is utterly devoid of any kindness, of any good intention. If he were, he would be on the verge of insanity, except congenital “moral idiots.” Hence, as long as one believes that the evil man wears horns, one will not discover an evil man. The naïve assumption that an evil man is easily recognizable results in a great danger; one fails to recognize evil men before they have begun their work of destruction. I believe that the majority of people do not have the intensely destructive character of a Hitler. But even if one would estimate that such persons formed 10 per cent of our population, there are enough of them to be very dangerous if they attain influence and power. To be sure, not every destroyer would become a Hitler, because he would lack Hitler’s talents; he might only become an efficient member of the SS. But on the other hand, Hitler was no genius, and his talents were not unique. What was unique was the socio-political situation in which he could rise; there are probably hundreds of Hitlers among us who would come forth if their historical hour arrived.”

by George Kosinski (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments) on Saturday, May 27, 2006 at 12:11:32 PM

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I have called America a Plutocracy for 25 years, but no one listens! I don't have a name important enough to make headlines so who will listen to an above average taxpayer?-- No one, that's who! I don't have a masters degree bought for me by my family name; A name who's position in the financial world financed Hitler in the '30s! Shaw was right! "Power does not corrupt men. Fools placed in a position of power, corrupt power!" Thank you; Peter H. Bellecy

by Peter (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments) on Sunday, May 28, 2006 at 12:13:37 PM

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