Pondering 1930s Germany

Consider, if you will, what the life of an ordinary (non-Jewish) citizen of Germany, prior to, say, 1935, might have been like. Sure there were those silly "Nazi"s who were taking control of the government ... but it's not like there was any war going on. So what if there was what seemed to be an increasingly police state. It was all to keep us safe, right?

The point I'm (perhaps a bit loosely and even negligently) trying to make is that it's very hard to see the forest from inside the forest, never mind all the fucking trees.

Sure we can (perhaps too easily) look backwards and denounce the "ordinary" German citizens and scoff at how easily they were led down what we can now see was definitely a "dark path" (if you will). But, if you limit your knowledge to what was available at the time, I would suggest it becomes much harder to see.

Which, of course, brings me to the present (big surprise there, right?). The United States Federal government continually makes and starts wars (never mind the Constitution which is, theoretically, a limiting device against the powers of the federal government) and calls on us to support those wars ... "or else!"

There are those (myself included) who feel our throats turning raw from practically screaming at the top of our lungs trying to show the comparisons between the current (and recently past) US Federal government and previous dictatorships. You may have noticed there don't seem to be all that many who are listening or paying attention to us. This is saddening. And yet, those who ignore (or refuse to listen to) us are, too often, the very same ones who, in a discussion regarding 1930's Germany would be quick to agree that they should have adopted a civic program of "see something, say something".

There probably even were people who were saying something ... and being ignored by all of the MFers who were sure those guys were just being silly. sigh