I just read an article at CNN.
"Two high school seniors picked quotations from Adolf Hitler's book "Mein Kampf" to appear under their high school yearbook pictures, prompting school officials to apologize.The quotes were picked by Christopher Koulermos and Philip Compton, both 18. Koulermos' read "Strength lies not in defense, but in attack." Compton chose "The great masses of people ... will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one."" Full text here.
This article makes me mad. Very mad. Yes, Hitler was an evil man that did way more harm than most people could ever dream of. But that doesn't mean that we have to put our heads in the sand and pretend he never existed. That doesn't mean that we can't look at what he did/wrote and learn from it. Just because he's Hitler doesn't mean that everything he did was tainted.
There is a great quote by Hermann Goering,
"Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."
Again, really bad man. Great insightful quote. I think perhaps it is more telling of what is going on in the World today than in time of the Nazis.
Whatever happened to "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" (to sum up Voltaire's feelings on the subject)? I thought that was the whole point of no censureship in this great democracy of ours. Apparently they were talking about a different country when they taught me this in all those US History courses I took.
The world illustrated in that quote has eerie parallels to the the current administration's doctrine of fear. Additionally, it also mesh's nicely with Orwell's contention that war is not meant to have a beginning and an end, but is meant to be continuous, so as not to allow the masses to self-realize.