Top Diaries

Had there been a couple decades of real apolitical, toady-free analysis of the roots of the Reich, it would have been apparent early on that the German patriarchal, authoritarian cast of mind produced an elite that is strikingly successful at passing along predatory ideology as well as political power, from generation to generation.

There was some insightful analysis, both before and after WW II. The first was Wilhelm Reich's Mass Psychology of Fascism, originally published in German in 1933, summary from wiki:

The question at the heart of Reich's book was this: Why did the masses turn to authoritarianism which is clearly against their interests?[3] Reich set out to analyze "the economic and ideological structure of German society between 1928 and 1933" in this book.[4] In it, he calls communism "red fascism" and groups it in the same category as Nazism, and this leads to him being kicked out of the Communist Party.
Reich argued that the reason Nazism was chosen over fascism was sexual repression. As a child, members of the proletariat had learned from his or her parents to suppress sexual desire. Hence, in the adult, rebellious and sexual impulses caused anxiety. Fear of revolt, as well as fear of sexuality, were thus "anchored" in the character of the masses. This influenced the irrationality of the people, Reich would argue.

This clearly wouldn't do, so Reich was effectively banished into the Universal Orgone Ether, which he had hypothesized. The Murder of Christ was equally offensive. Erich Frome, writing from Mexico City, re-presented and extended Reich's analysis of fascism in The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness, but both works are tainted by the disrepute into which psychoanalysis fell in the '70s and '80s.

I am very glad for the brain science and the psychological insights it has provided, not least because it makes the use of psychological insights scientifically respectable. But I refuse to believe that no good understanding of human psychology was possible from the hermeneutics based earlier approaches and I still find value in some of the insights. But that is just me. But I don't expect ANY university or even foundation originated grants to study such questions from a current perspective. Bob Altemeyer's The Authoritarians is the closest we have, and he gives it away in PDF form.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Tue May 10th, 2011 at 01:07:56 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Asia Times - Paul Bigioni - The real threat of fascism

As contradictory as it may seem, fascist dictatorship was made possible because of the flawed notion of freedom which held sway during the era of laissez-faire capitalism in the early twentieth century. It was the liberals of that era that clamored for unfettered personal and economic freedom, no matter what the cost to society. Such untrammeled freedom is not suitable to civilized humans. It is the freedom of the jungle. In other words, the strong have more of it than the weak. It is a notion of freedom which is inherently violent, because it is enjoyed at the expense of others. Such a notion of freedom legitimizes each and every increase in the wealth and power of those who are already powerful, regardless of the misery that will be suffered by others as a result. The use of the state to limit such "freedom" was denounced by the laissez-faire liberals of the early twentieth century. The use of the state to protect such "freedom" was fascism. Just as monopoly is the ruin of the free market, fascism is the ultimate degradation of liberal capitalism.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Tue May 10th, 2011 at 02:54:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Whispers From a Dark Past (4.00 / 4)

What he describes as "freedom" has an older name: liberty or liberties, as they applied to the nobility. I have argued in other areas that the arc from the renaissance to the modern era has been first to limit the liberties of the nobility so as to create a space for business, which depends on predictable behavior governed by contract law vs. class based decisions which, from a business point of view, seem capricious. The principle was secured in 1688, but the practical applications took until the middle of the 19th century to secure. The result was a largely market based society. This was quickly converted into a financial capital based economy, substantially completed by the 20th century. As the financiers have gained effective control over the media and the levers of government they have begun to exercise that control to their own advantage and changed, ignored, bent or broken any rules that might have impeded them. We have now come full circle, back to the position where a new elite, significantly based on inherited wealth, can again exercise the liberty that their position affords them.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Wed May 11th, 2011 at 12:13:00 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Indeed. In fact, one wonders how the bombing, of say, Dresden can be evaluated in light of the Allies' apparent strategy to leave Germany's industry and manufacturing capacity alone. Not all of it, but much of it. Whereas other countries experienced complete devastation.

by Upstate NY on Wed May 11th, 2011 at 06:38:13 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Eh ? Much of the early bombing campaign during WWII was all about wrecking the productive capacity of german industry. If Harris could have found all of it, he'd have bombed all of it. But it was only by the end of the war that the RAF could reliably find a city at night, let alone bomb a factory.

However, following the first Allied "successes" on the Ruhr, the nazis were extremely effective in scattering their industry across the country, which meant that less of it could be effectively targeted by era's technology. So, the bombing focus changed to area bombing (aka collective punishment) on the basis that cities were economically productive for the reich even if they weren't industrial or munitions centres. In this they were conforming to Sherman's doctrine of destroying the economic basis of the enemy's ability to wage war.

However by the time of Dresden, much of what remained Germany's western productive capacity was already in Allied hands. There wasn't much left to bomb and Dresden was on the list. There were also the claims that a german army was due to use the railway connections through the town to attack approaching Russian armies.

Whatever the reasons, Dresden was destroyed for reasons that barely made sense at the time and look worse as time passes. Was it a crime ? Possibly/probably; but that is war. The doctrine of armies is always the same; until your enemy surrenders you attack and attack. Any suggestions of pulling your blow would only encourage their resistance. The lawyers on the winning side decide at the time who can be blamed on the losing side, while historians have the luxury of hindsight to determine and revise "verifiable" truths.

My parents lived through the war and I'd consider them both typical in their attitudes of feeling that Dresden was regrettable but after 5 years of war and a continent in ruins they wanted the nazis destroyed. Utterly. Bomb every last building until Hitler surrendered. and, as somebody who did not live through it, I cannot answer that lived-experience.

My Dad served in the RAF. My mother was evacuated to S Wales, but returned to the East end during the latter part of the The Blitz. Her family was relocated on several occasions after their home was destroyed. She had a V1 fly over her head at 50' (15m) and a V2 exploded within 300' (90m) of her. On VE (Victory in Europe day) she says that her overwhelming feeling was that she was going to live. Up until then she had literally taken every day, every hour as stolen. Now she had a future that wouldn't be marked by sirens and bombs and missiles and sudden death raining from the sky. And anything that had been done by the Allies to bring her to that moment was perfectly fine with her. Then and forever more.

And nobody, nobody who has not lived through such things has the right to argue with her. Now or forever.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Thu May 12th, 2011 at 06:58:15 AM EST
[ Parent ]

I was only making the point that Germany had a lot of industrial capacity immediately after the war. In fact, the aid it was given helped ramp up manufacturing fairly quickly. Other countries languished, as their aid was in the form of military needs.

by Upstate NY on Thu May 12th, 2011 at 09:07:54 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Well, the victorious Allies did cart off a lot of what remained. The Mechanical Engineering Lab at Oklahoma State in 1961 was substantially furnished with "liberated" German equipment.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Thu May 12th, 2011 at 10:27:36 AM EST
[ Parent ]

I think that both germany and Japan benefitted in the post-war period from not being allowed to divert productive capacity into restoring their arms industries.

It gave them incredible advantages compared to the european allies who may have won the war, but lost the peace due to excessive efforts restoring the war machines they now only needed for the vainglory of their politicians.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Thu May 12th, 2011 at 10:33:52 AM EST
[ Parent ]

the Allies' apparent strategy to leave Germany's industry and manufacturing capacity alone.

I'd be interested in a reference- I was unaware of such a strategy. If you can substantiate this, it might open some doors for me that I've long wondered about.

Capitalism searches out the darkest corners of human potential, and mainlines them.

by geezer in Paris (risico at wanadoo(flypoop)fr) on Fri May 13th, 2011 at 03:31:34 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Whispers From a Dark Past (none / 1)

Every now and again, you rise to real heights, ARG.
To me, creating a valuable paragraph or two is not at all making a semantic tangle of concepts and jargon that will impress the peers at the conference in July-, but expressing a process or a concept in a simple, brief way- a way as clear as a glass of water.

I was just this morning trying to articulate that very circular process you describe so well to my 13-year old daughter this morning, and I gave it up as too big a bite for someone her age, even though it seems pretty straightforward to me. Or perhaps I just did it poorly.

Nicely done.

As for historical inquiry, I'm sure there has been some good work looking into the psychological roots of the Nazi phenomenon--- but apply the above criteria to those investigations, and it's clear that if the point was to generally illuminate the relationship between patriarchal authoritarianism and wars of dominance, it all has failed.
The old guard, the old elite are dead or dying.
The old guard lives on, in their children.
The existence of brass plaques on the buildings is nice, but reveals no insight into the culture's heart.

To see evil, and name it, is not to understand from whence it came.

Capitalism searches out the darkest corners of human potential, and mainlines them.

by geezer in Paris (risico at wanadoo(flypoop)fr) on Fri May 13th, 2011 at 02:22:55 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Than you for providing the opportunity for the comment. Occasionally......my muse appears?

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Sat May 14th, 2011 at 06:28:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]

ARGeezer:

the arc from the renaissance to the modern era has been first to limit the liberties of the nobility

the irony is way too rich.

the only thing bigger than business and the glittering baubles of its prize mechanisms is concern for the environment, which is being monetised in both good and bad ways.

the advocates point to successful marriages like Jerome's work and say 'see, capitalism works!'

the detractors point to greenwashing and military buildup in the arctic...

if business ambition is what gets most people jumping out of bed in the morning filled with motivation to better their lot, then i guess it makes sense, in a lewis carroll sort of way, to try and harness that energy to better humanity's lot too.

it's a dubious foundation, imo, but better than business aligned with resource plunder, which has been a huge moneymaker for so long it has become a given that it will continue for ever.

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Fri May 13th, 2011 at 07:28:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Whispers From a Dark Past (none / 1)

I would also recommend Walter Abish's fiction, How German Is It, as a great novel on precisely the topic of how a big nation confronts (and thereby erases) the past, all the while building a new national ethos from scratch.

Recently, I reread the book and did some preliminary research into it. I realized that very little has been written in English about German nation-building after the war that referenced much else than global trade and economics. Yet we have ethnographic and postcolonialist studies about nation-formation and identity-formation all over the globe. We seem to have missed that Germany has been engaged in precisely such a project for a long long time.

by Upstate NY on Wed May 11th, 2011 at 11:34:13 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Equally interesting would be the different experiences in East and West Germany for 45 years and how that played out since 1989. I don't know if there are significant factors there, but many Germans seem to feel that "they played their part" by paying taxes and subsidies, regardless of the actual status of economic development in the former East Germany. One might hope that they would consider that West Germany was the recipient of significant post war aid that was not received by East Germany or the rest of Germany's former Central European hinterland. One could hope for more enlightened leaders and a more generous attitude, but...

Another factor is that the aid given just after the war and through the 50s was given during a different climate of opinion, one that was not dominated by Neo-liberalism and NCE. The rest of Central Europe was not so lucky.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Wed May 11th, 2011 at 03:28:21 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Whispers From a Dark Past (none / 1)

So --
Sum it.
--IS there significant understanding of the psychological roots of the third Reich, on the part of the Germans of today? And if so,

--Does this broad streak of authoritarian, patriarchal social coloration still represent the same threat that it has in the past?

Capitalism searches out the darkest corners of human potential, and mainlines them.

by geezer in Paris (risico at wanadoo(flypoop)fr) on Fri May 13th, 2011 at 02:27:25 AM EST
[ Parent ]

I don't know enough about contemporary Germany to say one way or the other.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Sat May 14th, 2011 at 06:30:42 PM EST
[ Parent ]

I wish I had time to take advantage of your and ARGeezer's suggested reading list- I'd very much like to re-read Reich and Fromm, and your fiction. But I hardly have time to care for this diary. New careers at 69 are tough- some days the brain moves glacially, with the ease of a sled on ashes- but I do get there, still. Just takes longer- and, as the poet said,

Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring
Your Winter-garment of Repentance fling:
The Bird of Time has but a little way
To flutter--and the Bird is on the Wing.

Khayam/Fitzgerald

Capitalism searches out the darkest corners of human potential, and mainlines them.

by geezer in Paris (risico at wanadoo(flypoop)fr) on Fri May 13th, 2011 at 02:57:45 AM EST
[ Parent ]