The author brings us along to an apocryphal dinner party where she sketches the character of each of the guests, and enumerates the qualities which predispose one to creeping totalitarianism, and which qualities will lend resistance.
Kind, good, happy, gentlemanly, secure people never go Nazi. They may be the gentle philosopher whose name is in the Blue Book, or Bill from City College to whom democracy gave a chance to design airplanes–you’ll never make Nazis out of them. But the frustrated and humiliated intellectual, the rich and scared speculator, the spoiled son, the labor tyrant, the fellow who has achieved success by smelling out the wind of success–they would all go Nazi in a crisis.I was shocked at how recognizable some of the Nazi wannabe character types are in the world around us today.
I'm reconsidering Godwin's law - perhaps each internet discussion inevitably draws analogy to the Nazis for a damned good reason, and we should pay attention to those discussions rather than tune them out.
Because in 1941, Nazi was the new Nazi.
A couple sub comments:
ReplyDelete1) Karl Popper advised us: "Always remember that it is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood". Dorothy Thompson's remarks about Jews in this article might be easy to misunderstand without remembering she wrote at a time when the scope of the Holocaust was not widely acknowledged, and where the full magnitude of the killing was still in the future. Indeed, while "Nazi" was a nasty epithet in 1941, it still had not acquired the full potency it would achieve by 1945 and later. It strikes me that a modern author would not be quite so glib in describing some Jews as potential Nazis.
2) I found it somewhat discouraging that I recognized myself among Thompson's character sketches; at least, I recognized some of the weaker aspects of my character. Happily, had those weak qualities dominated my personalty - if I _had_ gone Nazi - Thompson assures us that I would have been purged. :|
I read this a couple of days ago, and it was intereesting enough to go into my favorites list.
ReplyDeleteI agree about the fallacy of (now) believing some Jews would turn, but at the time the full foulness was unknown.
This character sketch is quite brilliant. The mind tends to assign actual names to the sketches as one reads.
ReplyDeleteIt does, lady red.
ReplyDeletelewy - I think that we can all recognize some of our weaker characteristics in the sketch. And I think that's normal. To quote Carlos Mencia about Kanye West, "You're not Jesus." If you know what I mean. And neither am I. In fact, I have spanked my children, which probably puts me farther from Jesus than many. Also, I say the f word a lot.
The fact that you recognize those characteristics is probably the biggest proof you can get that you will work to keep those less than healthy characteristics at bay when it counts.
Remember, Winston Churchill was a drunk. Abraham Lincoln had major issues with depression. And so on... We all have our issues to overcome.
And I'm thinking that as an ENTJ myself, I've probably got my share and three other people's shares of worrisome characteristics.
ReplyDeleteAFW, what is an ENTJ?
ReplyDeleteCharacter is about overcoming worrisome traits that we see in ourselves, isn't it? At least I like to think so. :)
It's not always easy to do. It's much simpler to don a pair of rose-colored glasses and convince ourselves NOT to take that good hard look in the mirror.
lady red - my Dad is huge on personality tests. ENTJ is my myers-brigg category.
ReplyDeletehttp://typelogic.com/entj.html
I'm with Rahmbo, apparently.
Anyway, I always thought that it seemed a little strong for me, but so far I've never run into anyone who was like, "Gee, AFW, that does seem a little overly-pushy to describe you. You're so much more sensitive than that."
So I should probably put away my rose-colored self-behavior glasses and tone it down. I'm thinking, anyway.
Oh - and my survivor personality was "The Fighter", which put me in the same category as John McCain. Which led me to think, "Um, thanks, but I don't think so."
ReplyDeleteNot because of John McCain now, but because I'm pretty damn sure I could never measure up to John McCain then. I totally understand why someone would "fall in" out of fear. Especially when my kids are involved. I'm not sure I'd ever be strong enough to do what had to be done in such a situation.
Which leads us back to the article at hand...
Hans... are we the baddies?
ReplyDeleteLOL lewy, I'm not familiar with that (obviously) British comedy.
ReplyDeleteIs a rat's anus really worse than a skull?
Discuss.
That was interesting and well written.
ReplyDeleteafw is Rahmbo? Heh heh...
"Hans... are we the baddies? "
ReplyDeleteLMAO!!!
"Hans" has a voice to swoon over...
Fay, florrie, glad you liked the skit - I googled around and it appears to have been done by relative newcomers: That Mitchell and Webb Look.
ReplyDeleteMany more clips can be found on the web.
I found the clip initially via Bill Roggio, of The Long War Journal.