In other words: A discussion of The Bush Administration
A Conversation with Hitler
At an intimate gathering in Berlin shortly after the National Socialists' rise to power, I heard Hitler reveal himself on the most important and profound problem of our great crisis: the ethical foundation of life. What I heard proved deeply upsetting. For the first time the true face of this immense revolution of destruction unfolded itself to me.
The call "Back to nature" resounds through all the great crises of human history. To shed the burdens of civilization has been man's continuous endeavor during great transmutations. However, what the leader of the the National Socialist movement sought was the deliberate destruction of the very earth whence our civilation had sprung. The great accomplishments of a long and painful history of human development were to be hurled overboard. His was no mere struggle to uproot outmoded forms in our civilization. His was a murderous assault on every form of higher human culture.
I wrote down the conversation as well and faithfully as my memory allowed. It may not be literal, word for word. But its spirit is authentic. I transmitted parts of it, in the spring of 1937, through a friend to the then Nuntius Pacelli, now Pope Pius XII. I sent excerpts to some Protestant clergymen who have been close to me. Other parts I published in my book, The Voice of Destruction....
The horrible destruction which now shakes the world makes clear to each of us today that the demoniac forces of disruption are more than mere expressions of the National Socialist's and imperialist's thirst for power.... Only today is it becoming comprehensive. It concerns all of us, Christians, Jews, and freethinking humanists alike....
By telephone Hitler had invited Albert Forster, Gauleiter of Danzig, and me, to spend the evening with him at the Reich Chancery.... Presently Hitler touched upon some important points in current politics. The Gauleiter of Franconia and Bavaria had approached him because of a certain opposition in Bavaria, and they were pressing him for a decision. At that time, the institution of so-called Reichsstatthalers was being discussed. The conversation was carried on in low voices.
Suddenly I heard Hitler scream in his well-known manner. He was standing in front of his desk, leafing through a scrapbook with newspaper clippings about him from the time of his struggle for power. "No," Hitler yelled at Goebbels and Streicher, who were standing before him. "I am not interested. Whether 'German Christians' or Roman Catholics or God knows what kinds of Protestant sneaks, I am not interested."
"Give them an inch and they'll take a yard," Goebbels agreed. "The enthusiasm of those 'German Christians' for our movement is as big a lie as anything that has come from Protestant quarters. By misusing us for their miserable 'Away from Rome' movement, they consider themselves particularly smart."
"But don't you think we ought to support the German religious movement of Professor Hauer and others?" Julius Streicher asked.
"All of this is cramped," Hitler replied contemptuously. "It is false and deceitful and without strength."
"And Chamberlain's book, Words of Jesus? Couldn't one cut the German churches loose from their connection with the Jewish Old Testament in the same manner? inquired Wagner, Gauleiter from Munich.
"Houston Stuart Chamberlain [race theorist from turn of the century who, with Arthur de Gobineau, argued the superiority of Aryans, having developed a Social Darwinist theory of criminality based on ethnic skull measurements -- ed. note] has had the right attitude toward many of our most urgent problems," Hitler answered. "But what he has been trying to do with this 'non-Jewish' Christianity idea of his is completely nonsensical."
"Marcion already tried to separate Christianity from Judaism," Goebbels interjected. "It never worked. It couldn't possibly work."
"Historically speaking, the Christian religion is nothing but a Jewish sect. It has always been and it will always remain just that, as long as it will exist," Hitler went on.
"We don't fight only the Christian circles, we fight against Christian ideas. They constitute the real poison in our blood," Streicher said.
"That's right. After the destruction of Judaism, the extinction of Christian slave morals must follow logically." Hitler began to pace up and down in his room. "I shall know the moment when to confront, for the sake of the German people and the world, their Asiatic slave morals with our picture of the free man, the godlike man."
"There is no difference between freemasonry and Christianity," Streicher exclaimed. "Both are instruments of secret Jewish world domination."
"There is much more behind this," Hitler began fanatically. "It is not merely a question of Christianity and Judaism. We are fighting againt the most ancient curse that humanity has brought upon itself. We are fighting against the perversion of our soundest instincts. Ah, the God of the deserts, that crazed, stupid, vengeful Asiatic despot with his powers to make laws! That slavekeeper's whip! That devilish 'Thou shalt, thou shalt!' And that stupid Mount Sinai! That poison with which both Jews and Christians have spoiled and soiled the free, wonderful instincts of man and lowered them to the level of doglike fright."
"The youth is on our side," Goebbels exclaimed triumphantly. "The youth of the whole world is no more interested in those old ideologies."
"The time for false considerations has ended. This is true. We no longer need to be considerate," Hitler went on. "Whatever is against nature is against life itself. That's why nations die out. They kill themselves under the curse of that 'Thou shalt' and 'Thou shalt not.'"
"Honor thy father and thy mother? No!" Goebbels interrupted. "Every boy revolts, and hates his father, and must do so to start his own life. It's an immortal law of nature."
"Thou shalt not steal? Wrong!" Hitler's voice was loud in the small room. "All life is theft." -- Herman Rauschning, preface, A Conversation with Hitler
July 20, 1933. A concordat is signed between Germany and the Vatican allowing the Church freedom in purely ecclesiastic and religious matters, but prohibiting political action.
July 23. The selection of delegates to the National Senate of the Protestant Church resulted in an overwhelming victory for the Nazi German Christians.
August 4. Nazi Army Chaplain Ludwig Muller is elected Reichbishop or "Bishop of the United German Evangelical Church."
December 4. Cardinal Faulhaber of Munich calls upon German Protestants to make common cause with the Catholics in resisting the policy of the National Socialists in religion.
December 8. The "German Christians," a Nazi party which attempted to gain control of the Protestant church in Germany, dissolves as a party.
"The newly elected Reichstag assembled on March 21, 1933, and on March 25 passed an Enabling Act which practically established a dictatorship to last till 1937 [this was written in early summer, 1933 -- ed. note]. By this act, which was to remain in force for four years, the Chancellor, Adolf Hitler, was authorized to appoint the cabinet and to issue governmental decrees on any subject, these to have the force of law unless they altered as institutions the two organs of the Reich, namely, the president and the Reichstag. Thus all constitutional guarantees were swept away, and the rights of individual citizens and of the component states of the Reich were placed in unmolested control of the government until 1937. After the passage of this law the Reichstag adjourned.
"By a series of decrees the Hitler government proceeded to uproot the federal characteristics of the German Reich. In most of the states the diets were dissolved and national commissions appointed by the cabinet. Beginning with the Communist party, the various political parties were outlawed, dissolved, or voluntarily disbanded, until in Germany, as in Italy and Russia, there existed but one legally recognized political party as a means of expressing public opinion. ...
"In international affairs the National Socialists displayed a militantly nationalistic attitude ... and in October, 1933, the German delegation withdrew from the Disarmament Conference and formal notice was given that Germany would resign from the League of Nations.
"The economic condition of Germany remained confused. ... [The Hitler government] enlisted in a labor army many of the unemployed, and attempted to stimulate industry by government aid. ... In spite of some improvement in commerce in the early summer of 1933, industry and trade were still greatly depressed." -- Webster's New International Dictionary, Second edition, unabridged, with Reference History, 1936.
Fast forward to Paul Krugman:
In May 2001, according to yesterday's Washington Post, Enron lobbyists in Washington informed Ken Lay via e-mail that Mr. DeLay was seeking $100,000 in additional donations to his political action committee, with the understanding that it would be partly spent on "the redistricting effort in Texas." The Post says it has "at least a dozen" documents showing that Mr. DeLay and his associates directed money from corporate donors and lobbyists to an effort to win control of the Texas Legislature so the Republican Party could redraw the state's political districts.
The Texas redistricting, like many of Mr. DeLay's actions, broke all the usual rules of political fair play. But when you believe, as Mr. DeLay does, that God is using you to promote a "biblical worldview" in politics, the usual rules don't apply. And the redistricting worked — it is a major reason why anything short of a Democratic tidal wave in November is likely to leave the House in Republican hands.
The larger picture is this: Mr. DeLay and his fellow hard-liners, whose values are far from the American mainstream, have forged an immensely effective alliance with corporate interests. And they may be just one election away from achieving a long-term lock on power.
Draw your own conclusion.
- Michael 9:02 PM - [PermaLink] -
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