Progress v. Decline

The general theme that I took away from this week’s reading is the struggle between the idea of progress and that of decline in Hitler’s philosophy.

Hitler very clearly describes what he calls the “pollution” of the mind. Namely, this is the culture of the Weimar Republic that is remembered in history as a very rich period in the development of art, film, and literature. Hitler, however, links such developments in culture with the changing society of the time- “a hot-house for the forced growth of sexual notions and incitements.” His rhetoric seems to interlink societal and cultural changes of the period. I don’t think that this link can be disputed, as throughout history any period of cultural change is generally mirrored in that of society, and Weimar society was known for being one of the centres of the “roaring twenties”. What I do not understand is his reasoning that such changes of the time are indicative of moral degradation alone rather than natural progress.

Hitler clearly states that any successful society must progress in order to remain superior- this is what he says of the Aryan race. Yet the way he deals with this idea, ironically, is by presenting a rather conservative philosophy of race mixture. While discussing the natural law of reproduction (that successful reproduction is only the result of breeding of the same specie), Hitler points out that “if such a law did not direct the process of evolution then the higher development of organic life would not be possible”. I believe that this, if not false, is a very misleading statement- the natural law of reproduction is a necessary but not sufficient condition for evolution, for evolution cannot occur without the principle of mixture.

Similarly, Hitler’s views on cultural development seem to be guided by the same irrational process. If he was an avid believer in cultural development, as he seemed to have been since he travelled first to Vienna and then to Munich, his tastes in art remained very traditional, with no leeway for artistic innovation but the mere reproduction of previous styles.

Consequently, Hitler’s philosophy as shown in his thoughts on cultural, societal and racial development and progress contains an intrinsic flaw- the unresolved struggle between the belief in both progress and conservatism.