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no, as sad as it makes me, to say this, it would not have changed doddle. what would have changed, is not a comparison, but the recognition of the other. When they came for, ... because I wasn;t one of them. The famous quote of the German submarine aptain, eh church minister.
However, my argument, is not that the comparison should not be made, I am criticising its usefulness to advance an argument. It can certainly move on an emotion, and might make people realise something. But then, I would argue, they are realy on connecting to a deeper recognition of the underlying problem of Faschism, and not its historical appearance between 1933 and 1945.
So, motivation to act, stand up, speak, I am all for that - but advancing an intellectual argument, understanding human behaviour on a deeper level, (restricted) no.
I think that quote works the same way I argued. That quote forces the recognition of the other via danger to oneself, e.g. it lists the step-by-step extension of persecution, with those feeling safe at first and not feeling solidarity with the first victims coming on the line at the end.
I wasn't thinking of historical what-ifs, but present-day what-ifs. Germans in the thirties might have been incredulous that a step-by-step elimination of freedom and democracy can be a road to such monstrous crimes and such brutal a war loss, but people today can be warned that it happened before, and we should get off the train while it's still just rolling out of the station.
It is precisely the in itself minor advance of each new advance in one direction (each pull on the Overton Window) that people should be warned to not dismiss as insignificant. First they went after Saddam, then the terrists, then the suspicious Arabic-origin immigrants, then the loonie-leftists, but I am safe, I am neither of them... *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
another problem I have with the comparison argument is: Nazism is seen as the utter evil incarnate. But if 25% of Germans to date (and an even higher percentage of over 50%) say there were good things done under the Nazis, then that also means, that as a warning, it will come as bad as it was under the Nazis, has only limited effect. those 25% will think, but heh, wasn't that bad, my family survived, thrived, made millions (yes, I am looking at George W. Bush and his Grandfather) - so why is he making such a fuzz?
If you want to connect with right wingers and tell them what bad will happen, when they support the limitations of freedom and compare it to the Nazi's, they will say, but the Nazi's had a clear politic on racial purity, that I would love to have, what are you trying to make me afraid off? However, if the Nazi comparison is not triggered, that person might come around to the realisation of the consequences of limitations of liberties and will support your point of view.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2690152.ece
Some 37 per cent of the over-60s supported the idea.
BobHiggins is citing the Nazis as the archetype of the evil state, to illustrate where the US will end up if it goes too far down the current road. To that extent it is somewhat of an abstraction, typical of how the entire complex is treated in general English-language discourse.
You are approaching it as a real entity which left behind a very real and problematic legacy in attitudes, infrastructure, law, biographies, etc., to which people do not always respond as unambiguously as they do to "Nazis=evil".
Presumably, there would have been a legacy to wrestle with, even if one of the assassination attempts had succeeded, or if other countries had responded with force, say, to the militarization of the Ruhr. And we would do well to keep in mind that the current regime will leave behind a toxic legacy when it leaves even if it is prevented from curtailing freedoms further. The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman
Please go to the head of the class.
Thanks for "getting it."
Bob http://bobhiggins.wordpress.com/
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