Does today's United States mildly parallel 1930s Germany?

© 2018 Peter Free

 

19 July 2018

 

 

Caveat

 

What follows requires some knowledge of 1930s European history.

 

Useful in that is William L. Shirer's book, The Nightmare Years: 1930-1940 (1984).

 

It is a simply written, then well-connected journalist's introduction to the European era that I am referring to.

 

Note

 

People familiar with World War II may recall Shirer's most famous volume, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.

 

 

Does American culture display mild parallels with 1930s Germany?

 

I am not saying that the Trump era is Nazi-like.

 

However, American culture has fragmented into intolerant, unreasoning and tribalistic "moods" that could easily tumble us down a Reich-like road.

 

Some of our cultural currents are eerily similar to those that drowned the pre-Hitler Weimar Republic:

 

 

Wanting to be "great" again.

 

Jingoistically assuming that our population is superior to all others.

 

Surrendering freedoms to government safe-keeping.

 

Displaying complete ignorance of foreign cultures and their legitimate geopolitical interests.

 

Routinely and illogically demonizing irrationally selected outsiders.

 

Openly indulging widespread violence and grossly illegal military means.

 

Generally losing all ability to culturally self-reflect.

 

Eagerly entrusting national government to unprincipled fools, stooges and malevolents.

 

 

Admittedly, these similarities will not be obvious, if history is not one's thing.

 

That said, it is easy to stumble into major difficulties, when one is not paying sufficiently knowledgeable attention to what is developing.

 

 

The moral? — If we do not recognize the demon at our door . . .

 

. . . we are probably going to wind up as someone else's stuffed pig dinner.

 

Ignorant tribalism and deliberately crafted illusion, of the kinds that Americans uniformly display today are Freedom's enemies. We are losing even marginal grip on our (admittedly idealized) culture.

 

This the characteristic that most shocked Shirer about Germans, during his 1930s reporting. He was appalled that Germans so easily gave up admirable aspects of "who" they had previously been.

 

The same thing strikes me about 2018's United States.

 

If you are not concerned about the our easily observable descent into emotionally violent non-reason, you probably should be.

 

 

That is not at all an invitation to display Trump Derangement Syndrome.

 

The President is just a manifestation of a deeper, more pervasive societal problem. Just as Hitler was in pre-1941 Germany.

 

 

That's the scary part — it is us, not them.