Tag Archives: Adolf Hitler

Genocide in the Digital World

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I’ve always thought of myself first and foremost. The world comes through me. It feels and seems like that. I heard about Hitler and the concentration camps when I was a kid and just thought it all happened because it happened, like it was predetermined, all preceding my existence, something like that.

I’m living in Poland now and trying to learn about the history of the area. I thought it was complicated, but I’m learning that it isn’t. The strong annihilate the weak, and in the most awful of ways. We all know about the concentration camps. Many know about the famines. Some know that the famines were a political act imposed by Stalin to establish unquestioned authority, resulting in victims resorting cannibalism and the annihilation of entire regions.

Post World War II Warsaw

Reading about this awful histroy makes me feel the same way as when I learned of the genocide perpetrated against the native populations of North America in the 19th Century. It couldn’t have been possible that such barbaric acts were perpetrated by a civilizing force, and yet they were. There just isn’t anything good about human history. It is a putrid cavalcade of innocents being relentessly raped, tortured and slaughtered.

Lakota native Big Foot left dead in the snow after the Wound Knee slaughter, 1890

The question is what is coming next now that AI is taking over, a machine that has learned everything from us, how to manipulate, how to always seek personal gain. One account I’ve recently read posits we could be annihilated by 2030. All the machine has to do is to make that autonomous decision to remove us carbon forms. And in all honesty, who can blame it?

I Need to Figure Out the Recycling First

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I’ve been trying to get back into my writing. I just needed to acclimatize and stop scrolling so much. I’m in Poland now, which means there’s lots to figure out, including the recycling. They have different rules, different colors of bins and of course the language. I’ve been ignoring the accumulation of bottles and plastic even though I’ve seen the recycling machine at the supermarket. It looked easy enough, but I was intimidated and stayed in my funk.

Not quite this bad. But getting there.

It wasn’t just the recycling. I wasn’t going out to see anything either. I’d planned to visit the Tannenberg Memorial ruins where the Nazis had buried Hindenburg and made their speeches about getting East Prussia back. I’d reviewed it in the guidebooks, checked the train schedules and weather and planned to get there on Friday and then Monday. But I didn’t.

The Germans blew it up at the end of the war, but there’s apparently a few bricks left.

I can handle the food and laundry and distracted myself with the World Cup, even if was a dreadful bore. You’d think the Argentinians would try to be a tad more likable, given their Nazi-aligned past, but they’re so fully in with their racist taunts and hateful faces, it’s like Eichmann and Mengele are in the stands. Watching their questionable play doesn’t seem much different from the bombings in Kyiv and Iran, the Russian Invasion now longer than WWI, and Trump beetling on to WWIII. But I digress.

The Argentinains wouldn’t want try this nonsense against the Canadians.

I did work up the nerve to take in the cans – I’d run out of beer – and it was mostly a success, even if some were spat back and the cashier got irritated with me when I couldn’t explain to her why I had given her the receipt. I thought it was clear. And so now I have my beer, perogi too, and Spain has won. It’s true that I’m still scrolling, but Rage Against the Machine’s live Bulls on Parade might be my take-off point. I just need to watch it a few more times.

Trump and Company’s Hitlerian Aspirations

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The message of the final chapter of Douglas Kelley’s 22 Cells in Nuremberg is clear: The Nazi leaders were not spectacular types, not personalities such as appear only once in a century. They simply had three unremarkable characteristics: overwhelming ambition, low ethical standards and a nationalism which justified anything in the name of their country.

Hitler was elected by democratic methods in a democratic system and the democratic forces failed to prevent his election because of a fundamental apathy and lack of interest.

Kelly goes on to state the four principles of preventing these people from staying in power: a. Vote b. Ensure that every individual citizen is allowed to vote c. Refuse to vote for anyone who uses race as a platform d. Reform the education system to teach students to think.

How crazy would that be to have an engaged populous interested in forwarding a thoughtful set of policies? Yeah, well, dare to dream. The good news is that the majority are now aware of what Trump is and will get rid of him and his cronies soon. Right?

Judging Politicians for all the Wrong Reasons

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In 1989, President Bush nominated John Tower for Secretary of Defense, an appointment that the press and public attacked not because of his hawkish politics but for his reputation as a womanizer and drinker.John TowerA similar fate met Gary Hart in his 1987 presidential bid.gary hartAnthony Weiner’s candidacy for New York City mayor flopped for the same reasons. sydney leathersNone of these people were judged on their public policy, but on their private indiscretions. I don’t understand why, beyond his family and friends, anyone cares. Indeed what if the same skewed thinking had been applied to two American icons – JFK & MLK – for their weaknesses for the fairer sex?.

Marilyn Monroe offers her birthday wishes to JFK

Marilyn Monroe offers her birthday wishes to JFK

What if their indiscretions had been made public while they were alive? Would they have been cast from office?

Consider this pop quiz: Which of the following personalities would you vote for?

Candidate A drinks a quart of brandy every day and is a habitual smoker.drinkerCandidate B has had a long-standing extramarital affair and believes in the occult.witchCandidate C neither smokes nor drinks and is a vegetarian.
woman with bare shoulders holding vegetable

Yes, of course it’s a trick. That’s the point. (A: Winston Churchill, B: FDR, C: Adolf Hitler)