Stern Warning About The Jack Boots Under Karl Rove's Bed
"A Student of Democracy's Collapse," The New York Times calls Fritz Stern, in a story by Chris Hedges. A Holocaust survivor, Stern sees frightening parallels in the religious right and Nazi fascism:
FRITZ STERN, a refugee from Hitler's Germany and a leading scholar of European history, startled several of his listeners when he warned in a speech about the danger posed in this country by the rise of the Christian right. In his address in November, just after he received a prize presented by the German foreign minister, he told his audience that Hitler saw himself as "the instrument of providence" and fused his "racial dogma with a Germanic Christianity.""Some people recognized the moral perils of mixing religion and politics," he said of prewar Germany, "but many more were seduced by it. It was the pseudo-religious transfiguration of politics that largely ensured his success, notably in Protestant areas."
Dr. Stern's speech, given during a ceremony at which he got the prize from the Leo Baeck Institute, a center focused on German Jewish history, was certainly provocative. The fascism of Nazi Germany belongs to a world so horrendous it often seems to defy the possibility of repetition or analogy. But Dr. Stern, 78, the author of books like "The Politics of Cultural Despair: A Study in the Rise of the Germanic Ideology" and university professor emeritus at Columbia University, has devoted a lifetime to analyzing how the Nazi barbarity became possible. He stops short of calling the Christian right fascist but his decision to draw parallels, especially in the uses of propaganda, was controversial.
"When I saw the speech my eyes lit up," said John R. MacArthur, whose book "Second Front" examines wartime propaganda. "The comparison between the propagandistic manipulation and uses of Christianity, then and now, is hidden in plain sight. No one will talk about it. No one wants to look at it."
..."There was a longing in Europe for fascism before the name was ever invented," he said. "There was a longing for a new authoritarianism with some kind of religious orientation and above all a greater communal belongingness. There are some similarities in the mood then and the mood now, although also significant differences."
HE warns of the danger in an open society of "mass manipulation of public opinion, often mixed with mendacity and forms of intimidation." He is a passionate defender of liberalism as "manifested in the spirit of the Enlightenment and the early years of the American republic."
"The radical right and the radical left see liberalism's appeal to reason and tolerance as the denial of their uniform ideology," he said. "Every democracy needs a liberal fundament, a Bill of Rights enshrined in law and spirit, for this alone gives democracy the chance for self-correction and reform. Without it, the survival of democracy is at risk. Every genuine conservative knows this."
..."The Jews in Central Europe welcomed the Russian Revolution," he said, "but it ended badly for them. The tacit alliance between the neo-cons and the Christian right is less easily understood. I can imagine a similarly disillusioning outcome."
What I find very interesting is that many conservative Christians will point to Nazi Germany as an example of what happens in society when religion gives way to secularism. Check out this column from Dennis Prager - http://www.townhall.com/columnists/dennisprager/dp20050104.shtml
He's predictably off his rocker in most of it, but one quote stands out:
"The collapse of Christianity in Europe led to the horrors of Nazism and Communism."
Sorry Dennis. Hitler exploited one of the fundamental threads in Germany all throughout the 20th century - the mass belief that the Jews killed Christ. This, just as much as their need for some relief from the misery that befalled them after WWI, accounts for the mass movement that became Nazism.
Just like the issue of slavery, advocates AND opponents of religion have claimed the Holocaust as their case study of choice.
EC
Chris Wilson at January 7, 2005 5:38 PM
Very good point, Chris. And here's backup
http://www.nobeliefs.com/Hitler1.htm
A quote from that site:
"Hitler wrote: "I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.." As a boy, Hitler attended to the Catholic church and experienced the anti-Semitic attitude of his culture. In his book, Mein Kampf, Hitler reveals himself as a fanatical believer in God and country. This text presents selected quotes from the infamous anti-Semite himself.
Another quote:
"To deny the influence of Christianity on Hitler and its role in World War II, means that you must ignore history and bar yourself forever from understanding how this atrocity occurred."
Amy Alkon at January 7, 2005 6:00 PM
You lose sleep over this, don't you?
Answer carefully: Your words may demonstrate that you're one of the safest women who ever lived.
Cridland at January 7, 2005 10:21 PM
Maybe I'm just a bit buzzed from the caramel chocolate mousse cake that I just inhaled, Crid, but you really seem like a bit of a drama queen sometimes. Oh, answer carefully, my child! That post was very, very "Lisa Bright and Dark" of you. Let me get out my bongos!
It's Friday, for chrissake. Pour yourself a glass!
Lena, trapped in the interstices of time and space at January 8, 2005 4:25 AM
Your references didn't stick, but it's just silly, and distracting, to pretend that 21st century America is a place where local religious enthusiasts are the big threat. Wanna harsh christians? Do it to their faces. Or try this:
http://www.latimes.com/features/printedition/books/la-bk-hitchens2jan02,1,7359972.story
Cridland at January 8, 2005 6:08 AM
Crid - religious enthusiasts are only a big threat if no one debunks the justifications they use for pushing their social agenda. They do have one, ya know. They routinely claim that a godless world would be morally depraved, and they cite things like Nazism as examples. So it's anything but silly and distracting to point out that Nazism owed much of its existence to religious fanaticism.
And no one is harshing Christians, we're harshing their illogical and vacuous arguments. There's a biiig difference.
EC
Chris Wilson at January 8, 2005 7:23 AM