Post by towardsfinalgoal on Oct 21, 2004 8:32:34 GMT -5
I read the following passage from Bob Avakian´s important speech "Dictatorship And Democracy, And The Socialist Transition To Communism":
"You can point to certain superficial aspects like that, but even if you are talking about a Hitler, that is not the essence of what was going on. Hitler was an extreme representative of German imperialism, in extreme conditions, and was acting fundamentally to try to strengthen the position of German imperialism in the world, ultimately unsuccessfully. That didn't mean he didn't have a particular ideology that was different than most of the rest of the German ruling class, and that he didn't take particular extreme measures that do stand out in history, like the mass genocide against the Jews. Those are real things. They are not just "normal workings of imperialism", although its normal workings are plenty horrendous, and millions of people are killed every year, tens of millions, by the normal workings of imperialism. This is imperialism carried to an extreme, and to grotesque forms. But it is still the same fundamental system. It's not just one guy acting out of his dementia. Actually Hitler was rather clever, in coming to power and in seeking to carry out his aims. Maybe there was an element in which he was demented, but that's not the essence of the matter, and dictatorship is not a matter of somebody getting up and pounding his shoe on a podium in the U.N., or just being demented."
I found this passage quite insightful and it brought me back to a question which I´m asking myself quite a long time: There´s been written a lot of books about when and how and many facts about the Nazi mass genocide, the Holocaust or Shoa against the Jews, but I wonder WHY the Nazis did this? I think there are many aspects involved, there cannot be just ONE answer, but I´m quite sure a simple "instrumentalist" model don´t help much to answer this question. I mean, I don´t think the Nazis wanted to finish off all the Jews just to reach a single goal (economic or military or other)
Any ideas?
"You can point to certain superficial aspects like that, but even if you are talking about a Hitler, that is not the essence of what was going on. Hitler was an extreme representative of German imperialism, in extreme conditions, and was acting fundamentally to try to strengthen the position of German imperialism in the world, ultimately unsuccessfully. That didn't mean he didn't have a particular ideology that was different than most of the rest of the German ruling class, and that he didn't take particular extreme measures that do stand out in history, like the mass genocide against the Jews. Those are real things. They are not just "normal workings of imperialism", although its normal workings are plenty horrendous, and millions of people are killed every year, tens of millions, by the normal workings of imperialism. This is imperialism carried to an extreme, and to grotesque forms. But it is still the same fundamental system. It's not just one guy acting out of his dementia. Actually Hitler was rather clever, in coming to power and in seeking to carry out his aims. Maybe there was an element in which he was demented, but that's not the essence of the matter, and dictatorship is not a matter of somebody getting up and pounding his shoe on a podium in the U.N., or just being demented."
I found this passage quite insightful and it brought me back to a question which I´m asking myself quite a long time: There´s been written a lot of books about when and how and many facts about the Nazi mass genocide, the Holocaust or Shoa against the Jews, but I wonder WHY the Nazis did this? I think there are many aspects involved, there cannot be just ONE answer, but I´m quite sure a simple "instrumentalist" model don´t help much to answer this question. I mean, I don´t think the Nazis wanted to finish off all the Jews just to reach a single goal (economic or military or other)
Any ideas?