George Orwell's review of Mein Kampf (1940)

Post by conistonwater » Sun, Aug 17, 2014, 12:05 AM UTC

PythonicAlpha wrote: post #13

conistonwater wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds completely wrong to me (my opinion). It's a very utilitarian view of people where, as Orwell describes it here, you get to define some "great" goal, and convince people to fight for it, getting them to sacrifice things of their own in the process. It's all very subservient, manipulative, and a bit inhuman. Given how prosperous and successful such societies have turned out to be in the past (they all failed)…

>I always thought he was against totalitarianism What he writes, does not imply that he is pro-totalitarianism. He only says, that the concept to give people something to hope for, to fight for, to give their life for a "higher meaning" is a more sound psychological concept as "hey, have a good time ... and just live for the next gadget"

Post by macspoofing » Sun, Aug 17, 2014, 12:11 AM UTC

PythonicAlpha wrote: post #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 no…

Post by seanmcdirmid » Sun, Aug 17, 2014, 12:12 AM UTC

Theodores wrote: post #19

Has anyone here actually read Mein Kampf? Doing so is probably banned in Germany and I am not sure what there is other than kiddie porn or some al-qaeda training manual that you totally would not want in your browsing history. There could come a time when no living person has read Mein Kampf and nobody would know first hand why it is wrong.

Post by mynameishere » Sun, Aug 17, 2014, 12:19 AM UTC

Theodores wrote: post #19

Has anyone here actually read Mein Kampf? Doing so is probably banned in Germany and I am not sure what there is other than kiddie porn or some al-qaeda training manual that you totally would not want in your browsing history. There could come a time when no living person has read Mein Kampf and nobody would know first hand why it is wrong.

Post by true_religion » Sun, Aug 17, 2014, 12:21 AM UTC

conistonwater wrote: post #16

rat87 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For context > [Hitler] 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…

I think there is a difference between how you paraphrased him, and what he wrote. He didn't say "appealing" (which I think would have meant the appeal was superficial), he instead chose to say "psychologically sound" (meaning he thought it was not superficial at all). To me those two concepts are quite different.