“Who Will ‘Go Nazi’?”

by Little Miss Attila on July 26, 2010

Tex99 has a great article up about the speculation regarding who would have collaborated with the Third Reich, had it ever extended into England the U.S.

The original 1941 essay is a wonder to behold in its observations about human nature.

UPDATE: Elizabeth is also on the case.

{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }

Texan99 July 26, 2010 at 6:31 pm

And now the Glennstapundit too — he must be checking over here for ideas!

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ponce July 26, 2010 at 7:35 pm

Ouch.

She sure was hard on the “poor white-trash Southern boy.”

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Texan99 July 26, 2010 at 7:58 pm

Two high spots from this really excellent Harper’s piece by Dorothy Thompson:

One social-climbing guest at the party is “bitterly anti-Semitic because the social insecurity of the Jews reminds him of his own psychological insecurity.”

Ms. Thompson concludes: “Those who haven’t anything in them to tell them what they like and what they don’t — whether it is breeding, or happiness, or wisdom, or a code, however old-fashioned or however modern, go Nazi.”

That last sentence is especially interesting, since it’s not the kind of thing that’s written in the polite media any more. It’s a dangerous thing to have forgotten.

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Texan99 July 26, 2010 at 8:05 pm

It’s interesting, too, that Ms. Thompson includes two Jews in her mix. One, the “quiet, poised Jew from the South,” is the only Southerner. The other is a wealthy, assimilated Jew who thinks people probably aren’t being entirely fair to Hitler (his direct intellectual descendent being Oliver Stone). The first Jew, in her judgment, will be among the partygoers who will fight the Nazis to the death, while the second probably will sell his country and his people out first chance he gets.

Here’s a brief and devastating portrait of one guest: “Mr. B has risen beyond his real abilities by virtue of health, good looks, and being a good mixer. He married for money and he has done lots of other things for money. His code is not his own; it is that of his class–no worse, no better, He fits easily into whatever pattern is successful. That is his sole measure of value–success. Nazism as a minority movement would not attract him. As a movement likely to attain power, it would.”

The whole essay is really worth reading. I’m glad it’s getting lots of attention.

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ponce July 26, 2010 at 8:16 pm

Thank goodness all Americans now have a TV to tell them what to like and dislike then.

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Texan99 July 26, 2010 at 9:56 pm

And now Assistant Village Idiot has it. If you Bing “Who Goes Nazi” you get hits all over the place. Struck a nerve.

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ponce July 26, 2010 at 10:14 pm

It’s pretty obvious which modern American political groups are proto-Nazis.

The really interesting question is who would go Kapo.

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