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George Orwell’s 1940 Review of Mein Kampf

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Re: George Orwell’s 1940 Review of Mein Kampf

#331
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

When the wheels fall off (Sri Lanka does have a history of stability long ago) it’s hard to get them back on.

Sri Lanka’s problems go back decades.

Re: George Orwell’s 1940 Review of Mein Kampf

#332

I think he highlights some fundamentally toxic aspects of human nature with this bit: “The Socialist who finds his children playing with soldiers is usually upset, but he is never able to think of a substitute for the tin soldiers; tin pacifists somehow won’t do.” The engineer in me wishes we could substitute the soldiers with construction workers or something, but I can’t deny enjoying war games growing up. These da…

I don't see it as a problem. War games don't transfer to real world violence, anymore than street racing games translate to real world dangerous driving.

I remember when I played need for speed most wanted for the first time and they had the main actress in the opening cutscene to the game telling you that... this is all just a game and in real streets you should drive safely and responsibly and wear your seatbelts. I never skipped the cutscene because Josie Maran (the actress) is really really pretty, but the message is absolutely and unimaginebly dumb.

You're sitting in front of your computer manipulating a car through an interface that doesn't look remotely like the controls of any real car, "driving" through a world with bizarre physics and collision logic with zero haptic feedback, again, an experience unlike any in a real car. Does any reasonably intelligent person really need an actress telling them that "remember, this is all just a game" ? isn't it all kinda obvious ? would a person who somehow got the idea that real driving is as easy as mashing some buttons on a keyboard with zero consequences be snapped back to reality by a character inside the game telling them that it's not true ?

The only real way I can see a "fiction leads to the real thing" argument working is through propaganda, a military might invest in war movies and war games to make it look glamorous to a gullible teenager who will be of military age soon. But how can you prevent that without demonizing all fiction ? Before video games, before movies, before even reading and writing, the military had no problems whatsoever with getting recruits. Propaganda is just the symptoms, the real problems are all downstream.

Re: George Orwell’s 1940 Review of Mein Kampf

#333

I think he highlights some fundamentally toxic aspects of human nature with this bit: “The Socialist who finds his children playing with soldiers is usually upset, but he is never able to think of a substitute for the tin soldiers; tin pacifists somehow won’t do.” The engineer in me wishes we could substitute the soldiers with construction workers or something, but I can’t deny enjoying war games growing up. These da…

There’s an amusing short story about “tin pacifists”, The Toys of Peace. [1] The introduction claims that this is a “primitive instinct”; but I tend to agree more with the conclusion. On a related note, a Tumblr post[2] that’s been making the rounds recently: > “In a game with no consequences, why are you still playing the ‘Good’ side?” > Because being mean makes me feel bad. > Because my no-consequences power fantas…

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.1600451

Re: George Orwell’s 1940 Review of Mein Kampf

#334

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…

Yes.

There are spots where Orwell gets convoluted. His famous and impactful (on me, lol) essay "On Nationalism" includes a confusing/backtracking carve-out for (presumably) Churchillian patriotism. But I think this is the nature of such ideas. They aren't absolute, falsifiable, scientific ideas. Just observations about people.

Re: George Orwell’s 1940 Review of Mein Kampf

#337
post #227

Hitler tried to use copyright law to prevent translations from being published, notably in France.

Interesting point, that lead me to finding this article about the French translations. [1] Ironically, until 2016, the German government also used copyright to prevent republications of his book. [2]

[1]: https://theconversation.com/amp/the-curious-history-of-mein-...

[2]: https://france24.com/en/20160108-germany-mein-kampf-bookstor...

Re: George Orwell’s 1940 Review of Mein Kampf

#338

Just have to admit to being impressed by how succinct and clear yet deep this writing was. Easy to read and understand, and certainly gets the point across.

I think he made it a point to write like this. Check out his essay "Politics and the English Language".

Re: George Orwell’s 1940 Review of Mein Kampf

#339

Just have to admit to being impressed by how succinct and clear yet deep this writing was. Easy to read and understand, and certainly gets the point across.

I agree, but I am not surprised.

Today's writing about politics mostly seems much more convoluted, bloodless and meaningless.

I don't think that the main reason for that is with the writer though.

I think the reason is the "triumph of liberal democracy" or capitalism.

We have invented a pretty robust sugar-coat for the interests of the powerful.

Nowadays, we even call some of our exploitation schemes "eco-friendly".

Re: George Orwell’s 1940 Review of Mein Kampf

#340
post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is great, but I smirked at this line >Tyrannies have worked very well without computers (consider the Nazis) and the most computerised nations in today's world are also the least tyrannical. Which is very not true as punch cards (hollerith machines) were very important to the Nazis, and the second part is in the eye of the beholder, perhaps no relationship actually exists there.

Yeah, that's clearly wrong. The Nazis were about as far away from Luddites as you can get. The whole point of the post-WWII recoil at the horror of Nazi-ism was the realization that a culturally-advanced high-tech progressive society was capable of using all of that advancement as a lever to do the same barbaric and horrible things humans had done before, only much more efficiently.

much better put
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