Of this weeks reading, I was most shocked by Hitler’s attempts at rationalizing his unbased conclusions and opinions. Certainly throughout Mein Kampf he shows signs of his minimal education through ignorance and ramblings. However in certain sections this week I was struck not only the conviction with which he holds to his opinions, but his attempts to explain away his harsh, dangerous conclusions by claiming his earlier opinions as fact.
For example, “It would be lunacy to try to estimate the value of man according to his race, thus declaring war on the Marxist idea that men are equal, unless we are determined to draw the ultimate consequences” (442). Instead of “lunacy” being tied to his general plan of evaluating people based on the color of their skin and their background, here he uses the word to show that instead it would be lunacy for him to not take this claim further. At times like these throughout this weeks passages, I found myself startled by the dichotomy of his efforts to legitimize his claims all the while pointing out their rashness with phrases like “thus declaring war on the Marxist ideal that men are equal”.
Hitler goes on to describe the necessity of holding those with power in the National Socialist party to the same standard as individual citizens. I was appalled by his sentiments and struck again that while making these disgusting claims of outright supremacy, he was still alluding to the potential readers sense of fairness that this idea be applied to everyone with no exceptions. While singling out certain groups for his versions of history he still argued that by applying these standards across the board, his vision was in fact sensible.
Perhaps for the German people this dichotomy in his written and spoken word served to answer their questions and disguise hatred with fairness.
I agree with Alexa as I was also shocked at Hitler’s ridiculous attempts at rationalizing his ideas and theories. It is also apparent in Mein Kampf that through Hitler’s ramblings, he was minimally educated. However, Hitler seems to take on this preposterous presumption that he is smarter and greater than he actually is, feeding into the idea of the Great German leader. He stated that “The great protagonists are those who fight for their ideas and ideals despite the fact that they receive no recognition at the hands of their contemporaries. To this group belong not only the genuinely great statesmen but all the great reformers as well- Frederick the Great, Martin Luther, Richard Wagner”, believing himself to be a “great reformer”. Another point showing his lack of knowledge is his integration of the idea of eugenics. He believed that the German race was superior, and stated “In the garden of Nature an iron law compels the various species to keep within the limits of their own life-forms when propagating and multiplying. The titmouse cohabits only with the titmouse, the finch with the finch, the stork with the stork.” This is where he assumed his ludicrous position of Aryan supremacy, claiming ones of the Aryan race should only breed with another member of the race. He further stretched his ridiculous idea by stating not only are Jews the cause of the war, but they are somehow inherently weaker because they do not have a homeland, and must “mooch” off other cultures. Hitler wanted to create this feeling that the Jews were like parasites on not only the German community, but the world.
ReplyDeleteA mixture of German nationalism, the lost of the Great War, and his own misled uneducated ideas all led Hitler to become the man he was.