Remember that for the German people in the 30's and early 40's

[KlatooBNikto]

life was very good;nothing was amiss. By every yardstick, in their minds, Germany's status was restored to its legitimate position.It was a military and economic power unmatched by any other European nation.All other nations were fearful of Germany.Leaders, including Neville Chamberlain,paid fulsome tribute to the sagacity and wisdom of the Fuehrer.Stalin, the ever present Bolshevik ogre, was contained.
All the Untermenschen were put in their proper place.Germany was prospering,jobs were plentiful and the proverbial trains were running on time.Germany could lauch invasions against all nations with impunity and prevail.

Fast forward to our time.For many among us life is very good.It has gotten to the point where if some of us even point out the prevalence of misery and joblessness among us,we are told that it is the fault of the poor because they are lazy.America's honor has been restored.The world now fears us.Democracy and Freedom,at least our version of it which says we are the masters of the known universe,is now on the march.We are able to kick ass of the smaller countries of the world.Lord knows that if a confrontation develops between us and either China or Russia or both, we will be staring at an abyss that would make WWII puny by comparison.Our economy,while good, is now facing monumental debt owed to our adversaries.The engines of our growth,the automotive,computer and aerospace industries appear to be beset by problems of their own making.While we strut our military power, our economic rivals are gaining ground and may soon surpass us.

It is as though we are reliving the nighmare of the 30's.Our time may yet produce an evil comparable to the holocaust because all the underlying causes that led to that stain are present.As Martin luther King warned us " Our lives are over the minute we fail to speak about things that matter".I will venture to add "when we fail to speak about the things that matter, at a time when it matters the most".

[no_hypocrisy]

1. "They Thought They Were Free" by Milton Mayer. Book alert.

"Your friend the baker was right," said my colleague. "The dictatorship, and the whole process of its coming into being, was above all diverting. It provided an excuse not to think for people who did not want to think anyway. I do not speak of your 'little men', your baker and so on; I speak of my colleagues and myself, learned men, mind you. Most of us did not want to think about fundamental things and never had. There was no need to. Nazism gave us some dreadful, fundamental things to think about - we were decent people - and kept us so busy with continuous changes and 'crises' and so fascinated, yes, fascinated, by the machinations of the 'national enemies', without and within, that we had no time to think about these dreadful things that were growing, little by little, all around us. Unconsciously, I suppose, we were grateful. Who wants to think?

"To live in this process is absolutely not to be able to notice it - please try to believe me - unless one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us had ever had occasion to develop. Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, 'regretted', that, unless one were detached from the whole process from the beginning, unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these 'little measures' that no 'patriotic German' could resent must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One day it is over his head.

"How is this to be avoided, among ordinary men, even highly educated ordinary men? Frankly, I do not know. I do not see, even now. Many, many times since it all happened I have pondered that pair of great maxims, Principiis obsta and Finem respice - 'Resist the beginnings' and 'consider the end.' But one must foresee the end in order to resist, or even see, the beginnings. One must foresee the end clearly and certainly and how is this to be done, by ordinary men or even by extraordinary men? Things might have changed here before they went as far as they did; they didn't, but they might have. And everyone counts on that might."

[Paradise]

3. Sheeple! n/t

[Warren Stupidity]

2. ok but your time frame is wrong

By 1939 europe was at war and Germany and Russia were allies. Your analogy really covers the period from around 1936-1939,or possibly up until the end of the 'phony war' between the invasion of Poland in the fall of '39 and the invasion of France in May of 1940. Hitler's Germany indeed returned to international stature in the mid 30's, although Hitler was, like Bush, frequently mocked as a posturing fool.