Maybe I read too much Vonnegut as a teenager, but....

[pot_t_mouth]

All this talk about the new Pope and Hitler's Youth has got me agitated. Super agitated, for a few reason. I have been stewing on it all day so hopefully, I can get my point across. I wish I were a better writer.

First, I think it is so dangerous for us to act as if the average German under Hitler was a bad person or less caring or thoughtful than we are. It's like saying that the Holocaust was an isolated moment in history and it only happened because Germans are bad. That it would never happen here. Not me, I wouldn't do it. I would stop it. It couldn't happen here, we are better.

Second, what would you do? Do you really think that you would've bucked against the Third Reich? I would absolutely love to think that I would, that I would be part of the resistance and that I would fight fight fight and that I would make a difference. But would I? Would I really? When was the last time I thought about the thousands of American Muslims that have been locked in our jails without basic civil rights since 2001? What have I done for these people? Nothing.

It's just that if we think that it can't happen here then that may provide another crack that will allow it. Constant vigilance and true empathy are so important. Especially now. The only thing that we have over the non-Nazi German is that we have a knowledge of what can happen if we are not careful.

I hope that this rant hasn't lead anyone to think I am at all sympathetic to the Nazi. I am not. At all. I hate them with the heat of a thousand suns. And yes, if the Nazis rose to power again they would seriously get their asses kicked, but I am so worried that this time they are wearing different uniforms and we will all be too complacent to see them.

Man, this is making me shake. I don't know why the whole thing upsets me so much, but it always, always has, probably because Mother Night made a giant impact on my young idealist self.

Comments

[notmarcie.livejournal.com]

The news report I heard tonight stated that Ratzinger was the son of very Anti-Nazi parents and was forced to be in the Hitler Youth. So any emphasis on what he did or did not do as a teenager is ridiculous. As you rightly point out, which of us would be able to say for certain that we would have the strength to resist something knowing the potential risk to ourselves ?

I am far more concerned that the man who is now Pope hates so many things that I hold as fundamental to a modern society. That he openly doesn't agree with multicultural society as currently practised in Europe. In addition to his views on divorce, homosexuality, contraception etc. I feel as though the "different uniforms" are somehow vindicated by the new Pope.

[pot-t-mouth.livejournal.com]

Oh, I agree. I am not so much concerned as disappointed that they didn't do something good with the position. Maybe even elect a guy that would agree that in Africa a rubber might be a pretty good thing to have. Or maybe elect a guy who thought that women weren't lesser beings than men.

[notmarcie.livejournal.com]

I have pretty much accepted that I am going to hell because my reaction was "well, he is old and has heart trouble. He will die soon."