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George Orwell's review of Mein Kampf (1940)

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Re: George Orwell's review of Mein Kampf (1940)

#2
I assume this is posted and up voted now because of the similarities to Putin?

Anyway, let me recommend "Down and out in Paris and London". It taught me more about the human condition, and why you want to stamp out poverty and let everyone to be able to have a humane life, than most any book I ever read.

Also, imho after learning a bit about Eastern Europe after 1945, I put "Animal farm" along "1984". It is a master piece.

Edit: 'adventured', I really hope you are correct. The problem with your argument is that we see Hitler with hindsight now; he was a joke in the beginning too.

Re: George Orwell's review of Mein Kampf (1940)

#3
"However they may be as economic theories, Fascism and Nazism are psychologically far sounder than any hedonistic conception of life."

This seems wrong (with hindsight, I suppose). My mental image of Orwell is that he was quite sharp. How did he manage to get this bit wrong so badly? Does anyone know the reason?

Re: George Orwell's review of Mein Kampf (1940)

#4

"However they may be as economic theories, Fascism and Nazism are psychologically far sounder than any hedonistic conception of life." This seems wrong (with hindsight, I suppose). My mental image of Orwell is that he was quite sharp. How did he manage to get this bit wrong so badly? Does anyone know the reason?

He has pretty communistic views himself, so to me this just seems like a bit of bias showing.

Re: George Orwell's review of Mein Kampf (1940)

#5

"However they may be as economic theories, Fascism and Nazism are psychologically far sounder than any hedonistic conception of life." This seems wrong (with hindsight, I suppose). My mental image of Orwell is that he was quite sharp. How did he manage to get this bit wrong so badly? Does anyone know the reason?

[deleted]

Re: George Orwell's review of Mein Kampf (1940)

#6

"However they may be as economic theories, Fascism and Nazism are psychologically far sounder than any hedonistic conception of life." This seems wrong (with hindsight, I suppose). My mental image of Orwell is that he was quite sharp. How did he manage to get this bit wrong so badly? Does anyone know the reason?

Why does it seem wrong to you? I'm not sure if it is right or wrong but it does not seem outright wrong.

Re: George Orwell's review of Mein Kampf (1940)

#8

"However they may be as economic theories, Fascism and Nazism are psychologically far sounder than any hedonistic conception of life." This seems wrong (with hindsight, I suppose). My mental image of Orwell is that he was quite sharp. How did he manage to get this bit wrong so badly? Does anyone know the reason?

Why does it seem wrong to you? I'm not sure if it is right or wrong but it does not seem outright wrong.

[deleted]

Re: George Orwell's review of Mein Kampf (1940)

#9
"Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it." George Santayana

Somebody asked, why this document is so high up-voted. I would say, we can't up-vote it enough, when we have the chance to learn from history and especially from the dark sides of history and from people like George Orwell.

Chance is very big, that a new era of darkness could fall on humanity, if we don't stop it at the right time (and nobody knows, when the chance is over).

Re: George Orwell's review of Mein Kampf (1940)

#10

"However they may be as economic theories, Fascism and Nazism are psychologically far sounder than any hedonistic conception of life." This seems wrong (with hindsight, I suppose). My mental image of Orwell is that he was quite sharp. How did he manage to get this bit wrong so badly? Does anyone know the reason?

The hedonistic conception of life gives people no meaning at all -- there are many better psychological concepts around, that fill people with a meaning and not only with gadgets.

Why do you think, the catholic church survived for 2000 years -- that is longer than the US capitalism currently lived.

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