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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsGeorge Orwell's 1940 Review of Mein Kampf
George Orwells 1940 Review of Mein KampfPublished in New English Weekly, 21 March 1940
[Hitler's face] is a pathetic, dog-like face, the face of a man suffering under intolerable wrongs. In a rather more manly way it reproduces the expression of innumerable pictures of Christ crucified, and there is little doubt that that is how Hitler sees himself. The initial, personal cause of his grievance against the universe can only be guessed at; but at any rate the grievance is here.
He is the martyr, the victim, Prometheus chained to the rock, the self-sacrificing hero who fights single-handed against impossible odds. If he were killing a mouse he would know how to make it seem like a dragon. One feels, as with Napoleon, that he is fighting against destiny, that he cant win, and yet that he somehow deserves to. The attraction of such a pose is of course enormous; half the films that one sees turn upon some such theme.
Also he has grasped the falsity of the hedonistic attitude to life. Nearly all western thought since the last war, certainly all progressive thought, has assumed tacitly that human beings desire nothing beyond ease, security and avoidance of pain. In such a view of life there is no room, for instance, for patriotism and the military virtues. The Socialist who finds his children playing with soldiers is usually upset, but he is never able to think of a substitute for the tin soldiers; tin pacifists somehow wont do. Hitler, because in his own joyless mind he feels it with exceptional strength, knows that human beings dont only want comfort, safety, short working-hours, hygiene, birth-control and, in general, common sense; they also, at least intermittently, want struggle and self-sacrifice, not to mention drums, flags and loyalty-parades. However they may be as economic theories, Fascism and Nazism are psychologically far sounder than any hedonistic conception of life. The same is probably true of Stalins militarised version of Socialism.
All three of the great dictators have enhanced their power by imposing intolerable burdens on their peoples. Whereas Socialism, and even capitalism in a more grudging way, have said to people I offer you a good time, Hitler has said to them I offer you struggle, danger and death, and as a result a whole nation flings itself at his feet.
He is the martyr, the victim, Prometheus chained to the rock, the self-sacrificing hero who fights single-handed against impossible odds. If he were killing a mouse he would know how to make it seem like a dragon. One feels, as with Napoleon, that he is fighting against destiny, that he cant win, and yet that he somehow deserves to. The attraction of such a pose is of course enormous; half the films that one sees turn upon some such theme.
Also he has grasped the falsity of the hedonistic attitude to life. Nearly all western thought since the last war, certainly all progressive thought, has assumed tacitly that human beings desire nothing beyond ease, security and avoidance of pain. In such a view of life there is no room, for instance, for patriotism and the military virtues. The Socialist who finds his children playing with soldiers is usually upset, but he is never able to think of a substitute for the tin soldiers; tin pacifists somehow wont do. Hitler, because in his own joyless mind he feels it with exceptional strength, knows that human beings dont only want comfort, safety, short working-hours, hygiene, birth-control and, in general, common sense; they also, at least intermittently, want struggle and self-sacrifice, not to mention drums, flags and loyalty-parades. However they may be as economic theories, Fascism and Nazism are psychologically far sounder than any hedonistic conception of life. The same is probably true of Stalins militarised version of Socialism.
All three of the great dictators have enhanced their power by imposing intolerable burdens on their peoples. Whereas Socialism, and even capitalism in a more grudging way, have said to people I offer you a good time, Hitler has said to them I offer you struggle, danger and death, and as a result a whole nation flings itself at his feet.
https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks16/1600051h.html
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George Orwell's 1940 Review of Mein Kampf (Original Post)
teach1st
Jul 2022
OP
Deuxcents
(16,370 posts)1. Exactly the playbook used by many
And were seeing it in real time. We gotta work real hard to get out the vote. I want my country back w/ all the imperfections ... not hijacked by a aspiring dictator
Just A Box Of Rain
(5,104 posts)2. Between Hitler and Stalin, choose neither.