Angela Merkel's Words of Wisdom and Warning
I worry that we are forgetting the lessons we learned after Fascism, Nazism and World War II took their unbelievably horrific toll. Those lessons led, in the post-war period, to our hugely successful containment strategy and to our invigorated emphasis upon human rights. Thus, I was glad that, on the 80th anniversary of Hitler being appointed Chancellor of Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Germans to fight for principles of freedom and human dignity, and not to succumb to the complacency and complicity that enabled Hitler's meteoric rise.
Speaking one week ago at the opening of a new exhibit at the Topography of Terror memorial documenting Hitler's election, Merkel noted that German academics, students and industry leaders at the time not only tolerated Hitler, but supported him. She added, "The rise of the Nazis was made possible because the elite of German society worked with them, but also, above all else, because most in Germany at least tolerated this rise."
Once voted in as chancellor, Hitler was able, in the months to follow, to use his position to consolidate absolute power. He used the torching of the Reichstag parliament building and supposed conspiracies against him as the excuse to seize control of government and society. He suspended civil liberties and cracked down on opposition parties, paving the way for a totalitarian police state. By midsummer 1933, he had declared the Nazi Party to be the only political party in Germany.
The fact that Hitler was able to destroy German democracy in only six months serves as a warning today of what can happen if the public is apathetic, Merkel said. "Human rights do not assert themselves on their own; freedom does not emerge on its own; and democracy does not succeed on its own," Merkel said. "No, a dynamic society ... needs people who have regard and respect for one another, who take responsibility for themselves and others, where people take courageous and open decisions and who are prepared to accept criticism and opposition."
As I say in my forthcoming book Outcry:
Remember the refrain “Never again?” It was born out of reaction to Hitler’s concentration camps.It stated the importance of focusing upon the suffering and repression of others, not just ourselves.It warned of complacency, for how many at first thought that what was happening in Germany, Austria, Poland and Czechoslovakia was not our problem? It implied that, had not so many individuals and nations looked the other way, Hitler’s plan for world domination would not have come so close to fruition.
So, let's discuss this. Looking at the Western World today, in what ways are the democracies and the people within them complacent and complicit?
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Jul '10
Re: Angela Merkel's Words of Wisdom and Warning
"Never again" is a sad joke unfortunately. More people were murdered in peacetime China in just 3 years in the 60s than the Nazi regime killed during its wars. This warrants not a single mention in standard history books. But today's democracies are utterly complacent and happily ignorant of the revanchist rise of Islam. It means the persecution of all minorities and enslavement of women even in its more mainstream forms. It is the true War on Women. And yet it remains a sacred cow.
Aug '12
Re: Angela Merkel's Words of Wisdom and Warning
Voting to return incumbent politicians who did nothing to attempt to correct our government fiscal position sets us up for a situation in which a power grab will be more likely.
Aug '10
Re: Angela Merkel's Words of Wisdom and Warning
Being lulled into a state of complacency by the media has been successful.
The bad news is being covered up. We're not post war losers, with a worldwide depression distracting people from the job at hand. Combined with a real hunger that exceeds all other human motivation , anyone with the guts to lie about feeding everyone and providing jobs or ,in our case, just the food and the support is bound to swing the masses . Read your Cannetti.
There were strawmen everywhere, not only the easiest targets- the Jews, then the Russians and the communists.
Hitler used the rest of Europe to box his people into hate and xenophobia. This was a young country, 80 years old. He gutted the church, left the gentry behind, and mobilized a country without fathers.
I think 'democracy' is stretch description of the conditions on the ground. It was a vacuum. With the Soviets looming in the East and a wasteland to the West, there was nothing but talk. And they were very good talkers. Remember that mass media was being born, and imagery broke out of the regional to the continental.
Read Crowds and Power, it is instructive.
Mar '12
Re: Angela Merkel's Words of Wisdom and Warning
This is the week in which we get to see the legal memo justifying Obama's orders to kill American citizens, based solely on the suspicion that they may be senior level alqaeda or allied organizations. 3 citizens were killed, including the 16 year old son of one (I guess alqaeda is now reduced to finding 14 and 15 year olds for leaders).
The outcry over this will be muted, particularly since the "mainstream" media is loathe to cast anything Obama does in a negative light, but also because most of the Republican leadership is probably happy with this new expansion of Presidential power to wage the War on Terror. A week of political "gotcha" contrasting Obama's statements on waterboarding with his position on the kill list, and the episode will fade from the headlines.
As for your question, "in what ways are the [Western] democracies and the people within them complacent and complicit?" I have no idea what you could be referring to. No complacency here.
Re: Angela Merkel's Words of Wisdom and Warning
flownover: Being lulled into a state of complacency by the media has been successful.
I think 'democracy' is stretch description of the conditions on the ground. It was a vacuum. With the Soviets looming in the East and a wasteland to the West, there was nothing but talk. And they were very good talkers. Remember that mass media was being born, and imagery broke out of the regional to the continental.
Read Crowds and Power, it is instructive. · 1 hour ago
Agree with your points and that Merkel describing Weimar as a democracy is a stretch. On the other hand, after recently reading Shirer's Berlin Diaries, and related works, I'm starting to think the economy and civil society in Weimar were somewhat better than we've been led to believe, while the economy and hardships created by Hitler's dictatorship and police state were significantly worse than we've been lead to believe - even before major war. All the rationing and shortages, etc.
Jan '12
Re: Angela Merkel's Words of Wisdom and Warning
Sumomitch: This is the week in which we get to see the legal memo justifying Obama's orders to kill American citizens, based solely on the suspicion that they may be senior level alqaeda or allied organizations. 3 citizens were killed, including the 16 year old son of one (I guess alqaeda is now reduced to finding 14 and 15 year olds for leaders).
The outcry over this will be muted, particularly since the "mainstream" media is loathe to cast anything Obama does in a negative light, but also because most of the Republican leadership is probably happy with this new expansion of Presidential power to wage the War on Terror. A week of political "gotcha" contrasting Obama's statements on waterboarding with his position on the kill list, and the episode will fade from the headlines.
As for your question, "in what ways are the [Western] democracies and the people within them complacent and complicit?" I have no idea what you could be referring to. No complacency here. · 18 minutes ago
As someone who has read nearly everything that Anne has written here, since her arrival last fall, I believe that she is thinking, first, of Syria.
Oct '12
Re: Angela Merkel's Words of Wisdom and Warning
Related to all of this, a question occurred to me. Is the potential for propaganda more or less than it was then? Maybe more because there are so many more media tools to use; but maybe less because there are so many media alternatives.
Jun '11
Re: Angela Merkel's Words of Wisdom and Warning
Yes we can.
Sep '12
Re: Angela Merkel's Words of Wisdom and Warning
Looking at the Western World today, in what ways are the democracies and the people within them complacent and complicit?
In the West, the key to living the good life used to be virtues, that is, acquiring and practicing them. Not so any longer. Instead, the good life is a product of a good socio-economic system designed, implemented and maintained by the polity's agents, and individual suffering is not a consequence of individual vice (don't blame the victim!).
Nowadays, compassion is a virtue exhibited by a society who finances public programs that indiscriminately reach out to (i.e. give money to) individuals struggling on account of their own vices. But how can there be virtue without vice, one wonders? Bingo! That's how the West has become complacent regarding and complicit with evil - by ignoring it while financing it.
Take the burden of virtue off of the individual and put it on society, and then judge how society bears it not by examining the kind of people it produces but how willing the polity is to finance vices without judging them. What could go wrong?
Nov '10
Re: Angela Merkel's Words of Wisdom and Warning
In the U.S. we are comfortable in our opulence. We neither know, nor care, how our nation was founded. We are happy to say we are free, while we continue to vote ourselves a place at the public trough. We do not understand the long term consequences of an entitlement society. As long as we get what is ours. We don't know how the rest of the world lives. We don't know about kids in Haiti who eat mud biscuits just to make their bellies feel full, as we argue over which diet is the best for satisfying our urges while making us think we are eating healthy. We think that every home should have TV and Internet, while millions of people don't have a home. We wring our hands over a the killing of a handful of children, but don't have a clue about the thousands of children who are pressed into prostitution in Thailand every year, just because they aren't the right ethnic mix.
Beyond those few points, I'm not sure we are all that complacent...
Oct '12
Re: Angela Merkel's Words of Wisdom and Warning
Re: Angela Merkel's Words of Wisdom and Warning
Looking at all these comments, all of which I agree with, leads me to this thought ... how connected all the following kinds of complacency are: moral, political, strategic (regarding what the self-preservation of a republic or democracy takes) and intellectual.
Mar '11
Re: Angela Merkel's Words of Wisdom and Warning
Barbara Kidder
As someone who has read nearly everything that Anne has written here, since her arrival last fall, I believe that she is thinking, first, of Syria. · February 6, 2013 at 6:53pm
I disagree. Our attitude toward what's going on in Syria is a combination of many factors other than complacency. The discussion should be centered on the advancement of soft despotism here in the U.S., which is the result of the complicity of our own electorate in voting itself a free lunch. The pathway may be different, but the result is the same, much like the competing "utopias" created by Huxley and Orwell.