10-24-2018, 12:40 PM
(10-24-2018, 11:25 AM)Bill the Piper Wrote:(10-24-2018, 07:55 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: 1. One would have needed a credible crystal ball in 1933 to see that Adolf Hitler was so monstrously evil and dangerous. After all, he thwarted what might have been a Commie takeover in Germany and protected property rights (except the property of Jews). Many hoped that he would come to his senses about the Jews; he obviously didn't. Short of that he was a godsend to German plutocrats and executives who were able to get high profits due to rearmament and the suppression of organized labor.
Wasn't it enough to read Mein Kampf?
Few people did when such might have made a difference. It is not as readable as most of the literary hints that most leaders have issued before achieving high office. Some who read it may have dismissed it with such an opinion as "He will get over it" or "He can;t really mean that!"
Quote:Quote:The Arab Spring was inevitable, and it is unfortunate that it did not do to Bashir Assad what it did to Qaddafi.
From thirtyish intelligentsia peacefully protesting to ISIS - a long road, innit?
The protest wouldn't kill Qaddafi by themselves, Western air strikes were needed.
Qaddafi was going to do mass murder of cities that rebelled against him.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.