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Who goes Nazi?
Dorothy Thompson, Harper's Magazine (August 1941)It is an interesting and somewhat macabre parlor game to play at a large gathering of ones acquaintances: to speculate who in a showdown would go Nazi. By now, I think I know. I have gone through the experience many timesin Germany, in Austria, and in France. I have come to know the types: the born Nazis, the Nazis whom democracy itself has created, the certain-to-be fellow-travelers. And I also know those who never, under any conceivable circumstances, would become Nazis.... Sometimes I think there are direct biological factors at worka type of education, feeding, and physical training which has produced a new kind of human being with an imbalance in his nature. He has been fed vitamins and filled with energies that are beyond the capacity of his intellect to discipline. He has been treated to forms of education which have released him from inhibitions. His body is vigorous. His mind is childish. His soul has been almost completely neglected. (Sound like anyone you know?) At any rate, let us look round the room.... via The Anchoress, who comments: Read the whole thing. I think Thompson got it very right. And people havent changed so very much the types she surveys here are all around us, in our homes, our communities and most certainly within our pundit and political classes; they are before our eyes in every venue, these sorts who will, and will never, go Nazi. Posted by: Mike 2010-07-27 |
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