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

51–60 of 600 posts

Re: George Orwell’s 1940 Review of Mein Kampf

#51

Post by johnfn »

tomkat0789 wrote: post #30

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 know; I loved SimCity as a kid. I tend to think this sort of thing rather signifies a lack of imagination on the part of video game authors.

Re: George Orwell’s 1940 Review of Mein Kampf

#53

Post by thrown_22 »

zozbot234 wrote: post #20
Avicebron wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you inherently ascribe it to "male loser" vs. just "loser"?

Because patriarchy. To females, being a "loser" was simply the status quo; there were no "winners" to aspire towards.

Imagine erasing such murderous despots as Kathrine the Great and Elizabeth Tudor because of their genitalia.

Re: George Orwell’s 1940 Review of Mein Kampf

#54

Post by SoftTalker »

zozbot234 wrote: post #23
emacsen wrote: post #19

Quoted post unavailable.

Not just Brits, but Europeans in general. Consider the Dreyfus affair, which happened in developed, La Belle Époque France.

Yes antisemitism was widespread in Europe at the time, not only in Germany.

Re: George Orwell’s 1940 Review of Mein Kampf

#55

Post by ixtli »

davedx wrote: post #42
emacsen wrote: post #19

Quoted post unavailable.

Whoah way to paint us all with a broad brush. Think the downfall of Labour’s last leader shows how patently untrue this thinking is.

Oh come on. You know well that the interparty collaboration to take down Corbyn was far from due to earnest concern about Jews safety. On the contrary, they are once again using us as a rhetorical cudgel to achieve their ends.

Re: George Orwell’s 1940 Review of Mein Kampf

#56

Post by josh_fyi »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #46
emacsen wrote: post #19

Quoted post unavailable.

Would you mind explaining more what you mean? I’m half Jewish, so I feel confused because I didn’t get any antisemitic vibes from it at all. But I wasn’t raised in Jewish culture so I am still trying to learn about these aspects. It sounded like maybe you’re saying that since hitler’s focus was to eradicate my ancestors, Orwell should have at least mentioned that. But I don’t understand why it’s related to Orwell’s p…

Not antisemitic, just that it ignores Jews, who were Hitler's bête noire. There is a tendency to ignore the fact that Jews were a special target and say "Hitler did bad things to people." (The USSR was especially bad in this.) Kind of like "All Lives Matter" -- a fine slogan, but sometimes (not always) it holds a willful ignorance of specific suffering.

Re: George Orwell’s 1940 Review of Mein Kampf

#58

Post by EUROCARE »

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…

Why can't people struggle and self-sacrifice for utopia?

Re: George Orwell’s 1940 Review of Mein Kampf

#59

Post by simonh »

soperj wrote: post #44

Quoted post unavailable.

What else is it but a description of almost any empire? Of course German expansionist ambitions were largely driven by envy of other European power' empires overseas.

One essential difference though was in Hitler's attitude to race and racial purity. He didn't want just an empire ruled by Germans, he wanted an empire consisting only of Germans, and that's the distinction Orwell is pointing out.

Re: George Orwell’s 1940 Review of Mein Kampf

#60

Post by alex_sf »

tomkat0789 wrote: post #30

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 understand why that's toxic. Striving, struggle, and violence are critical for any living thing to survive. Short of reaching post-scarcity, this can't change.

If we define toxic as harmful, then violence is the opposite. It's the only reason we have civilization.

Post reply on HN