Nazi Germany, Holy Grail, and Myths of Racial Superiority | Mickey Z.

[Tace]

Photo credit: Mickey Z.

Mickey Z. -- World News Trust

Aug. 20, 2014

With rare exceptions, humans are not driven to commit atrocities. With rare exceptions, humans can be driven to commit atrocities. “People often are conscripted into armies, but sometimes they enlist with gusto,” explains Steven Pinker, director of the Center of Cognitive Neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“Jingoism,” Pinker adds, “is alarmingly easy to evoke.”

“I have come to believe that men kill in war because they do not know their real enemy and because they are pushed into a position where they must kill,” proposes peace activist, Thich Nhat Hanh. “We are taught to think that we need a foreign enemy. Governments work hard to get us to be afraid and to hate so we will rally behind them. If we do not have an enemy, they will invent one in order to mobilize us.”

In the case of Nazi Germany, it appears the propagandists themselves began their march toward genocide by inventing a past so mythical it could sway an entire nation. Even the leaders themselves couldn’t tell fantasy from reality.

Back to Thule
“More than a political party, the Nazi party was very much a cult,” says author Jonathan Vankin. “Like most demagogic religious sects, its rank and file was spellbound with the courage of demented convictions, and its leadership was financed and supported by powerful people whose main interest was accumulating more power. The finely tuned machine of brainwashing, fanaticism, and secrecy is perfect for that purpose.”

more

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=post&forum=1016