"A Man Chooses, a Slave Obeys"

"Yesterday the order was to shoot Jews, so they shot Jews.
Today the order is to love immigrants, so they love immigrants.
Who knows what orders tomorrow will bring."  
- a polish anecdote about the German people.

 The Nazi ideology is hated all around the world for it's atrocities and genocides. It's a well deserved hate. But while the emotion is understandable, it's very dangerous. For with the passing of years, all that the new generations learn about Nazis is:

1. They were evil
2. They were nationalistic
3. They hated Jews
    

  They learn to hate Nazism, but don't learn how it became possible for an entire nation to become so barbaric and desensitized to perpetuate or at least tolerate all those atrocities. 

"Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it"

  It's already happening. The western media keeps diluting the definition of "Nazi", by using it to label right wing personalities who opposes them. Most interesting examples are: Jordan B Peterson (Christian-Centrist), Carl Benjamin (Classical liberal), Milo Yiannopoulos (Liberal-conservative trickster), Ben Shapiro (Free market - Conservative) among many others.

  At the same time we are witnessing the rise of ideologies, in western mainstream, that fit the core tenets required for the Nazis to carry out their atrocities:

1. Divide the world into ingroup and outgroup.
2. Dehumanize the outgroup.
3. Use force to enforce the ideology.

   Those three present at the same time are the reason why Nazi ideology was heinous. It's not the nationalism, anti-Semitism or the economic policy. Those might be wrong, but they were window dressing in a way. 

  You  can replace the Jews with the bourgeoise and you get the same atrocities as with the Nazis, only committed by the globalist and collectivist Soviets. It's the three core tenets mentioned above that allow the ideology, be it left or right wing, to justify the atrocities like the ones committed by Nazis and Communists. 

   Unfortunately we can also see those three tenants present in modern day mainstream groups like: Antifa, BLM or extremist Islam. Luckily they are yet to directly control state power in the west. Unfortunately, with their growing popularity and activism, it's only a question of time.

   To prevent history from repeating itself, we need to understand and identify what caused it in the first place. By studying how German people embraced Nazism we can learn how to protect against it. Germans are human after all, just like you and me.

   So let us dive in. 

   Polish people have a unique insight into understanding Communism and Nazism. We we're on the business end of both. As a result our modern history is filled with books and poems dissecting the subject. Yet even for us it's very difficult to understand the Nazi psyche. Mainly because the values that facilitated the Nazi ideology, were not present, or played a significantly smaller role in the mainstream western culture. In Europe those were unique - when it comes to the level of their application - specifically to post unification Germany and in a smaller degree Italy. Those values used to be unique, not so much anymore with the raise of critical theory based ideologies.

   One of the best depictions of the Nazi psyche can be found in "Conversations with an Executioner". The book is a series of conversations between three soviet prisoners locked in a single cell. Kazimierz Moczarski a polish resistance fighter, Jurgen Stroop commander of the SS forces (division general) responsible for eradicating the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw and a low rank Nazi soldier Gustaw Schielke. 

   Moczarski would not break under Soviet interrogations and was repeatably tortured for it. Because of this he gained a begrudging respect from the German soldiers. This allowed him, over the 9 months he spent in that cell, to carryout in-depth discussions about the Nazi ideology. Free from propaganda or or any other apprehensions the Germans might have prior to the fall of the III Reich.

    Stroop was the perfect subject. He was high up to be directly responsible for the genocide, while at the same time he was not a pencil pusher. He was on the ground directly ordering flamethrower teams to burn Jewish families. He was the quintessential Nazi. Bragging about the efficiency with which his soldiers shot down "paratroopers" (the name German soldiers gave in jest to Jews jumping from the roofs of buildings they set on fire). He was proud to say that after a few days of practice, his soldiers were able to put a bullet into most jumpers before they reached the pavement.

    It's a horrible, but great book. 
   The thing that strikes most readers is how unrepentant Stroop was. For him there were no moral qualms. What he did had no moral weight, he was following orders. Exterminating vermin.

   I was struck by a different part, though now I know it stemmed from the same values. It's the view the Germans had on slavery and the untermensch (sub-humans - Slavs). 

   In Stroop's eyes the Germanic race was superior and deserved to rule other races because of how organized and obedient they were. They were eager and ready to sacrifice their individuality for the group. While the Slavs were free spirited and skeptical towards authority. This in his view meant that they could only be slaves and required Germanic overlords to force them into obedience. The common German saying that reflect is to this day is: "Ordnung muss sein" (There has to be order).

   To me this was utterly backwards. Nobody deserves slavery. Yet the German people were willing slaves to the state, the ideology and the collective. The Slavs free spirited and disobedient nature was a credit to their individualism. The hallmark of freedom. 

   It's in this backwardness that we can find the reason why this heinous ideology found such a strong perch in the German Nation. The values that perpetuated this backward thinking can be found through the study of history. Unfortunately understanding of that history is largely warped in the German curriculum. Even worse there is a very good reason for that! For to understand the shift in values that made Nazism possible one has to examine the long term changes to the German psyche that trace their origin to the most important and sacred time in modern German history:

The unification of Germany

   Prior to the German unification the German speaking central Europe consisted of over 300 separate political entities. From free cities, through small duchies and princedoms all the way to kingdoms of Bavaria and Prussia. In 1871 many of those political entities were reunited under a single state the II Reich. In many ways this late unification is a tribute to the wealth and industriousness of the German states. It's their strength and wealth (combined with the HRE) that allowed the small states to remain independent for almost 100 years after the American declaration of independence. While the German people have one of the oldest histories in Europe, the unified Germany was a very young state.

   Those who study history know that what usually follows after a new country is established is civil war. The new order chafes the previously independent states, and there are always those who feel diminished in the new status quo. 

1. Poland suffered fragmentation between 1138 - 1320
2. England had the War of the Roses 1455 - 1487
3. France had the religious wars 1562 - 1598
4. USA had it's civil war 1861 - 1865

   The newly born German state was very much aware of that. In order to prevent it - they implemented many policies directly opposed to the western European values of old. Their "Kulturkampf" (culture war) was designed to weaken Christianity to ensure that the German people were loyal to the state and not Rome. Germanization efforts were largely centered around the Prussian culture, famous for it's drill and discipline. It consisted of instilling obedience to the newly formed authority while building the mythos of the German collective Folk.

   This enforced and manufactured nationalism lead to collectivism, conformity and  unquestioning obedience to authority. Together with finding scapegoats to rally against (anti-Semitism and lebensraum) it was successful in unifying the German people. The problem was that it also made them susceptible to totalitarian ideologies. 

This is why in Poland we have a saying:

"Yesterday the order was to shoot Jews, so they shot Jews.
Today the order is to love immigrants, so they love immigrants.
Who knows what orders tomorrow will bring."  

     This conformity and obedience to the state remains strong in the German nation to this day. Whomever lived in Germany knows it well. To question the state is verboten. A good German does not make a fuss, he works towards the glory of Deutschland. 

Enough history, lets take a gander at the modern critical theory movements.

BLM

1. In group - people of color; Out group - white people
2. Dehumanization - white people are all racist
3. Willingness to use force to enforce ideology - 9 month riots in Seattle Portland and other cities in the USA.

Their slogans are clear, you're either with us or against us. To question the ideology is to platform racists.

Antifa

1. In group - progressive leftists; Out group - right wing
2. Dehumanization - deplorables, Nazis (oh irony)
3. Willingness to use force to enforce ideology - Battle of UC Berkley, Violent clashes in Portland, Washington and many more.

To question the ideology is to platform fascists. 

Islam

1. In group - house of Islam; Out group - house of war (Kafir)
2. Dehumanization - Kafir, infidels
3. Willingness to use force to enforce ideology - the middle east.

To question the ideology is Haram. Punishment for leaving Islam is death. 

Conclusions

   The only way to successfully combat evil totalitarian ideologies is through individualism and learning from our past. Realizing that even our worst enemies are the same humans as we are. And questioning any authority or ideology before following it. Especially those alluring ones that claim that our group is superior to others.