Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

George Orwell’s 1940 Review of Mein Kampf

gutenberg.net.au

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

271–280 of 600 posts

Re: George Orwell’s 1940 Review of Mein Kampf

#271

Post by teamonkey »

notRobot wrote: post #216
rossdavidh wrote: post #186

So, there's a lot to be said about Hitler and fascism and propaganda and all the other fascinating topics Orwell brings up here, but I'd just like to point out how routinely excellent Orwell's analysis is. Of course I mostly see the best bits brought out and dusted off, no doubt he did mediocre stuff as well, but it is worth noticing how often it turns out that Orwell, nearly a century on, still has plenty in his wri…

Any recommendations for other writings and analyses by Orwell?

Down and Out in Paris and London.

Re: George Orwell’s 1940 Review of Mein Kampf

#272

Post by notch656a »

8jef wrote: post #264
inglor_cz wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is well that war is so terrible, otherwise we should grow too fond of it. Robert E. Lee There definitely seem to be combatants that enjoy at least some aspects of war. If you look at the historical military literature, including poetry, it is not all just negative. It is true that with increasing industrialization of war during the last 150 years, the overall tenor has changed.

War is a way for mindless and aggressive men to do whatever they really crave (which is escaping from a state of victimhood), without much justification and little immediate consequences to themselves, mostly under cover of patriotism. To kill and rape for fun and pleasure, and hopefully die fast, absolutely ecstatic. To such men, please note: life never really ends, and you and your offspring gets eternally impacted…

War is a terrible waste. On the other hand, an able bodied man not willing to use destructive faculties to defend young and old against perpetrators of violence is as irrational as the able bodied man who refuses to use constructive faculties to provide necessities of life to same.

Re: George Orwell’s 1940 Review of Mein Kampf

#273

Post by afarrell »

Xeronate wrote: post #268
whoopdedo wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The answer to this is sports. War is competition through violence. When you remove the violence you get peaceful competition. It satisfies the tribal urge to fight things different than you, but also encourages healthy behaviors. Respect for your opponent. Accepting loss. Recognizing your weaknesses and working to improve them.

Sports are better, but I think encouraging competition and tribal urges are a waste of time in general. Better to encourage collaboration and self expression.

You need some amount of brotherly conflict and competition in order to have healthy collaboration. Otherwise, you just get the pretense of agreement and a slow slouch into frustration and resentment.

Re: George Orwell’s 1940 Review of Mein Kampf

#274

Post by sudosysgen »

watwut wrote: post #248
MichaelMoser123 wrote: post #240

Orwell omitted a few details: Hitler never had a majority in the Reichstag/german parliament - he benefited from the enmity between the Social democrats and the Communist. I mean a popular front, like in France of 1936 would have stopped them. The German soial dems and communist were mortal enemies, because the social dems shot a lot of communists in the aftermath of the Kapp putsch. Also Hitler had the massive suppo…

That is true, but also that tend to be true in multi-party voting system in general. Having over 50% is not routine at all. Generally, the leading party must make coalition of some sort. I think that if you want to attack legitimacy of that election, going through the street violence and voter intimidation Nazi party produced is closer to mark. Also communists were actual communists alien with Russian communist party…

By the time of the KPD-SPD split, Stalin was not in power. In fact, the KPD split from the SPD in 1918, when the USSR was still being born. And far from taking orders from the Bolsheviks, they actually had a fair amount of influence on them. The idea that they split because the meek SPD was afraid of the Stalinists is revisionist history, and the SPD itself at various points in its history was far from above purges and political violence

The reason the KPD split from the SPD is that the SPD supported WW1 and the KPD were against the war. The reason they became mortal enemies was because in 1920 the SPD and the Freikorps killed many KPD members, from then on there was no hope at reconciliation.

Re: George Orwell’s 1940 Review of Mein Kampf

#275

Post by linspace »

refurb wrote: post #101
busyant wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Many modern political problems stem from people needing something to struggle for and other people fighting against it. Reminds me of the lines in Fight Club: "We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war. Our Great Depression is our lives." I'm not sure if that precise quote is in the book, but it's certainly in the movie and it echoes your sentiment and those above.

And the saying “Good times create weak men”. And it’s true. You often see a growing discontent among wealthy societies where everything is taken care of. People need purpose in what they do and “my purpose is to fight for the survival of my country” is a pretty compelling one to many people.

> Good times create weak men

They give you strong science, economy and as a byproduct strong military.

> You often see a growing discontent among wealthy societies where everything is taken care of.

Like in Sri-Lanka, what a decadent society.

Re: George Orwell’s 1940 Review of Mein Kampf

#276

Post by Coolerbythelake »

Obviously the parallels to what we're living through with our last president are plain and should be alarming. The ridiculous idea that the secret service sms messages aren't available somewhere from the NSA or some other agency is a joke. We are in the midst of a slow moving coup and as long as 45 remains free, spewing his vitriol and handing out cash to his devotees unimpeded we should be very concerned.

Re: George Orwell’s 1940 Review of Mein Kampf

#277

Post by sudosysgen »

helge9210 wrote: post #269
MichaelMoser123 wrote: post #240

Orwell omitted a few details: Hitler never had a majority in the Reichstag/german parliament - he benefited from the enmity between the Social democrats and the Communist. I mean a popular front, like in France of 1936 would have stopped them. The German soial dems and communist were mortal enemies, because the social dems shot a lot of communists in the aftermath of the Kapp putsch. Also Hitler had the massive suppo…

> he benefited from the enmity between the Social democrats and the Communist To support Hitler Stalin ordered German Communists to not join forces with Social Democrats.

When? In 1918 when the KPD split from the SPD? Or in 1920 when the SPD and the Freikorps shot all of their leaders dead? Perhaps when the death of those leaders and the ensuing infighting allowed the Comintern to take influence? No, because Stalin wasn't in power when the SPD and KPD became literally mortal enemies. You don't join forces with people that gave the order to kill your friends. Pretending Stalin was the reason they were alienated is ridiculous - the alienation predated him taking power.

Re: George Orwell’s 1940 Review of Mein Kampf

#278

Post by Coolerbythelake »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #112
zozbot234 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kids just don't know any better. I would imagine that those who actually spent some of their childhood in a war zone would have a very different perspective. What's toxic is when grownups end up glorifying war or thinking of it as a solution to hard problems.

Eh, war is simply fun. It’s appealing to males in particular, and our testosterone tends to lock in the intoxication. There’s a reason that Battlefield is one of the most successful gaming franchises of all time, and that it’s very hard to find any videogame that doesn’t involve some kind of warfare. (There are dozens of wonderful counter examples: Minecraft, celeste, undertale, sim city, stardew valley. But for ever…

I'm fairly certain you haven't been involved in a war if you make a statement like "it's fun"!! Or at least you've never had to kill someone !!

Re: George Orwell’s 1940 Review of Mein Kampf

#279

Post by [deleted] »

Coolerbythelake wrote: post #276

Obviously the parallels to what we're living through with our last president are plain and should be alarming. The ridiculous idea that the secret service sms messages aren't available somewhere from the NSA or some other agency is a joke. We are in the midst of a slow moving coup and as long as 45 remains free, spewing his vitriol and handing out cash to his devotees unimpeded we should be very concerned.

[deleted]

Re: George Orwell’s 1940 Review of Mein Kampf

#280

Post by IntelMiner »

lampshades wrote: post #184
superb-owl wrote: post #9

> Hitler, because in his own joyless mind he feels it with exceptional strength, knows that human beings don’t 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 This fact has been the downfall of every utopian ideology, and ignoring creates a vacuum that fascist regimes readily fill. I wonder what…

> I wonder what sort of strange centrist form of government might be able to strike a balance between our need for comfort and our need for adventure. America

America is the worlds richest third world country
Post reply on HN