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Pontificating
Apr. 21st, 2005 09:36 amPerhaps it is the season for it, but I’ve seen a whole bunch of people referred to as ‘Nazis’ on the internet over the last week or so; Tony Blair, Robert Kilroy-Silk and the Veritas Party, The Conservative Party, the newly elected Pope Benedict and myself have all had the tag attached to them by various members of the hard-of-thinking classes scattered across Livejournal.
To call someone a Nazi is incredibly lazy intellectual shorthand; what it translates to is simple: “I personally disagree with you, but I lack the ability/willingness to actually elucidate why, so I’ll try and tar you with a particularly black brush.” More than twenty years after Rik Mayall satirized this sort of student-level point scoring in The Young Ones, it’s kinda sad to see that is hasn’t gone out of fashion. Much as I may personally dislike Tony Blair, it strikes me as a little harsh to suggest that he was complicit in the single greatest period of death and destruction that the human race has seen.
I wouldn’t rate him worse than third or fourth, to be honest.
There was a bit of an explosion in internet-land yesterday with more than one person on my friends list drawing attention to the fact that one of the above list, the new Pope, had actually been a member of the Hitler Youth and the Wehrmacht during the second world war, and that this in some way rendered him unfit to be Gods representative on Earth.*
It amazes me that people who are - at least on paper - very intelligent, can make this sort of accusation. The implication is that they’ve not bothered to actually do any research into the matter, and they have been suckered into some knee-jerk reaction by the popular press using the word ‘Nazi’. Needless to say, I’m very disappointed in everyone who has done so. I thought you were more intelligent than that. All of you.
They seem to have missed several pertinent facts of the case, which I’ll run by you here, just so there’s no confusion:
1) Accusation: Pope Benedict was a member of the Hitler Youth, and therefore a Nazi.
Membership of the Hitler youth was made compulsory for every child over the age of 9 in Germany and Austria in 1936; it would perhaps have been more surprising if Benedict had not been a member. As it was, the evidence suggests that he used his education as an excuse to have as little to do with the organization as possible.
The Hitler Youth was used as a propaganda tool by Goebbels, naturally, which is as valid as people dragging their kids along on the ‘Stop the War’ marches in 2002 to bring up the numbers but doesn't make the kids involved any more understanding of what they were a part of.
2) Pope Benedict was a member of the Wehrmacht and so, therefore, a Nazi and complicit in the holocaust and all that implies.
What shockingly lazy nonsense this is. It’s really easy to accuse all German soldiers as having been Nazis and having killed a couple of Jews each.
a) Benedict was a member of an anti-aircraft battery in the closing days of the war and deserted (an action punishable by death) when given the opportunity. To draw parallels between this and the guards at Belson is nonsense.
b) The great likelihood is that Benedict knew nothing of the holocaust or any atrocities. People may be surprised to learn this, but Der Bild did not print graphics of ‘Number of Jews and Russians killed today’ as presumably the Guardian would today. Instead, such actions were a closely guarded secret.
There is a well documented story of how Frau von Shirach (wife of Baldur von Schirach, founder of the Hitler Youth) mentioned to Hitler at a function that she had seen a train load of Jews leaving Holland. “I do hope they are not being mistreated”, she said. “They looked so unhappy.” Hitler didn’t reply, Frau von Shirach didn’t get invited to any more parties, and, more to the point, if someone so close to the Nazi inner circle had no idea of what was going on, then to suggest that a 17-year-old anti-aircraft gunner would know all about is just plan dumb.
Subsequent to all of this, Benedict has repeatedly condemned the Nazis, but why should people in LJ-land let the facts get in the way of a good bitch-fest? It has never stopped them before.
Similarly, a great many people seem to feel that they are in some way morally superior to the newly elected Pope. Now for me to claim moral superiority over pretty much anyone is comedy and I think that’s true of most of the people I know as well. To those who disagree with the Popes moral stance, my suggestion is that, if you feel your personal philosophy can bring greater spiritual peace, succour, and comfort to the poor and dispossessed of the world, then get out there and get preaching it, don’t just sit and whine on LJ. Who knows in 2000 years, they may be electing your spiritual successor.
Oddly most of the people who are setting themselves up as moral authorities are not Catholics and seem to know little of the Catholic faith. Well, nobody is forcing anyone to be a Catholic and, if you feel so strongly, there are plenty of religions out there which are less heavy on liturgy, ritual and spiritual comfort, but are much more sodomy and condom friendly. Get out, join one of them, and get active. If you reckon the application of your views would make the world a better place, there are much, much better places to talk about it than Livejournal.
I’d suggest the Church of England. It’s always done OK by me.
*Assuming that you’re a Catholic, anyway. As a Protestant I reckon that people should denounce the lies of Rome and accept that every man be his own priest, but that’s just me.
To call someone a Nazi is incredibly lazy intellectual shorthand; what it translates to is simple: “I personally disagree with you, but I lack the ability/willingness to actually elucidate why, so I’ll try and tar you with a particularly black brush.” More than twenty years after Rik Mayall satirized this sort of student-level point scoring in The Young Ones, it’s kinda sad to see that is hasn’t gone out of fashion. Much as I may personally dislike Tony Blair, it strikes me as a little harsh to suggest that he was complicit in the single greatest period of death and destruction that the human race has seen.
I wouldn’t rate him worse than third or fourth, to be honest.
There was a bit of an explosion in internet-land yesterday with more than one person on my friends list drawing attention to the fact that one of the above list, the new Pope, had actually been a member of the Hitler Youth and the Wehrmacht during the second world war, and that this in some way rendered him unfit to be Gods representative on Earth.*
It amazes me that people who are - at least on paper - very intelligent, can make this sort of accusation. The implication is that they’ve not bothered to actually do any research into the matter, and they have been suckered into some knee-jerk reaction by the popular press using the word ‘Nazi’. Needless to say, I’m very disappointed in everyone who has done so. I thought you were more intelligent than that. All of you.
They seem to have missed several pertinent facts of the case, which I’ll run by you here, just so there’s no confusion:
1) Accusation: Pope Benedict was a member of the Hitler Youth, and therefore a Nazi.
Membership of the Hitler youth was made compulsory for every child over the age of 9 in Germany and Austria in 1936; it would perhaps have been more surprising if Benedict had not been a member. As it was, the evidence suggests that he used his education as an excuse to have as little to do with the organization as possible.
The Hitler Youth was used as a propaganda tool by Goebbels, naturally, which is as valid as people dragging their kids along on the ‘Stop the War’ marches in 2002 to bring up the numbers but doesn't make the kids involved any more understanding of what they were a part of.
2) Pope Benedict was a member of the Wehrmacht and so, therefore, a Nazi and complicit in the holocaust and all that implies.
What shockingly lazy nonsense this is. It’s really easy to accuse all German soldiers as having been Nazis and having killed a couple of Jews each.
a) Benedict was a member of an anti-aircraft battery in the closing days of the war and deserted (an action punishable by death) when given the opportunity. To draw parallels between this and the guards at Belson is nonsense.
b) The great likelihood is that Benedict knew nothing of the holocaust or any atrocities. People may be surprised to learn this, but Der Bild did not print graphics of ‘Number of Jews and Russians killed today’ as presumably the Guardian would today. Instead, such actions were a closely guarded secret.
There is a well documented story of how Frau von Shirach (wife of Baldur von Schirach, founder of the Hitler Youth) mentioned to Hitler at a function that she had seen a train load of Jews leaving Holland. “I do hope they are not being mistreated”, she said. “They looked so unhappy.” Hitler didn’t reply, Frau von Shirach didn’t get invited to any more parties, and, more to the point, if someone so close to the Nazi inner circle had no idea of what was going on, then to suggest that a 17-year-old anti-aircraft gunner would know all about is just plan dumb.
Subsequent to all of this, Benedict has repeatedly condemned the Nazis, but why should people in LJ-land let the facts get in the way of a good bitch-fest? It has never stopped them before.
Similarly, a great many people seem to feel that they are in some way morally superior to the newly elected Pope. Now for me to claim moral superiority over pretty much anyone is comedy and I think that’s true of most of the people I know as well. To those who disagree with the Popes moral stance, my suggestion is that, if you feel your personal philosophy can bring greater spiritual peace, succour, and comfort to the poor and dispossessed of the world, then get out there and get preaching it, don’t just sit and whine on LJ. Who knows in 2000 years, they may be electing your spiritual successor.
Oddly most of the people who are setting themselves up as moral authorities are not Catholics and seem to know little of the Catholic faith. Well, nobody is forcing anyone to be a Catholic and, if you feel so strongly, there are plenty of religions out there which are less heavy on liturgy, ritual and spiritual comfort, but are much more sodomy and condom friendly. Get out, join one of them, and get active. If you reckon the application of your views would make the world a better place, there are much, much better places to talk about it than Livejournal.
I’d suggest the Church of England. It’s always done OK by me.
*Assuming that you’re a Catholic, anyway. As a Protestant I reckon that people should denounce the lies of Rome and accept that every man be his own priest, but that’s just me.
