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Originally posted by Irish M1ck
Well... I'm waiting. Where is Obama's "Mein Kampf"?
[edit on 14-11-2008 by Irish M1ck]
Senator Obama calls for a different brand of politics--a politics for those weary of bitter partisanship and alienated by the "endless clash of armies" we see in Congress and on the campaign trail; a politics rooted in the faith, inclusiveness, and nobility of spirit at the heart of our democracy. He explores those forces--from the fear of losing, to the perpetual need to raise money, to the power of the media--that can stifle even the best-intentioned politician. He examines the growing economic insecurity of American families, the racial and religious tensions within the body politic, and the transnational threats--from terrorism to pandemic--that gather beyond our shores. And he grapples with the role that faith plays in a democracy. Only by returning to the principles that gave birth to our Constitution, he says, can Americans repair a broken political process, and restore to working order a government dangerously out of touch with millions of ordinary Americans.--From publisher description.
Since delivering his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, Barack Obama has been hailed as the clear savior of not only the Democratic party, but of the integrity of American politics. Despite the fact that he burst onto the national scene seemingly overnight, his name recognition has grown by leaps and bounds ever since. Barack Obama in His Own Words, a book of quotes from the Illinois Senator, allows those who aren't as familiar with his politics to learn quickly where he stands on abortion, religion, AIDS, his critics, foreign policy, Iraq, the War on Terror, unemployment, gay marriage, and a host of other important issues facing America and the world.
In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father--a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man--has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey--first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother's family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father's life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance.
The book is heavily influenced by Gustave Le Bon's 1895 The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind, which theorised propaganda as an adequate rational technique to control the seemingly irrational behaviour of crowds. (See also: Nazi Propaganda.) Particularly prominent is the violent anti-Semitism of Hitler and his associates. For example, Hitler claimed that the international language Esperanto was part of a Jewish plot and makes arguments toward the old German nationalist ideas of "Drang nach Osten" and the necessity to gain Lebensraum ("living space") eastwards (especially in Russia).
In Mein Kampf, Hitler uses the main thesis of "The Jewish peril", which speaks of an alleged Jewish conspiracy to gain world leadership. The narrative describes the process by which he became increasingly antisemitic and militaristic, especially during his years in Vienna, Austria. Yet the deeper origins of his antisemitism remain a mystery. He speaks of not having met a Jew until he arrived in Vienna, and that at first his attitude was liberal and tolerant. When he first encountered the anti-Semitic press, he says, he dismissed it as unworthy of serious consideration. A little later and quite suddenly, he accepted the same anti-Semitic views whole-heartedly, and they became crucial in his programme of national reconstruction. It was Zionism, which he calls a "great movement" in Mein Kampf, which he says settled his view (as theirs) that one cannot be both a German and a Jew.
Mein Kampf has also been studied as a work on political theory. For example, Hitler announces his hatred of what he believed to be the world's twin evils: Communism and Judaism. The new territory that Germany needed to obtain would properly nurture the "historic destiny" of the German people; this goal explains why Hitler invaded Europe, both East and West, before he launched his attack against Russia. Laying Germany's chief ills on the parliament of the Weimar Republic, he announces that he wants to completely destroy that type of government.
Mein Kampf has additionally been examined as a book on foreign policy. For example, Hitler predicts the stages of Germany's political emergence on the world scene: in the first stage, Germany would, through a program of massive re-armament, overthrow the shackles of the Treaty of Versailles and form alliances with the British Empire and Fascist Italy. The second stage would feature wars against France and her allies in Eastern Europe by the combined forces of Germany, Britain and Italy. The third and final stage would be a war to destroy what Hitler saw as the "Judeo-Bolshevik" regime in the Soviet Union that would give Germany the necessary Lebensraum. German historian Andreas Hillgruber labeled the plans contained in Mein Kampf as Hitler's "Stufenplan" ("stage-by-stage plan"). The term "Stufenplan" has been widely used by historians, though it must be noted that the term was Hillgruber's, not Hitler's.
Mein Kampf makes clear Hitler's racist worldview, in which humans are to be classified based on ancestry. Hitler asserts that German "Aryans" are at the top of the hierarchy while Jews, Gypsies and Negroes are consigned to the bottom of the order. Hitler goes on to say that dominated peoples benefit by learning from the superior Aryans. Hitler further claimed that the Jews were conspiring to keep this "master race" from rightfully ruling the world by diluting its racial and cultural purity and by convincing the Aryans to believe in equality rather than superiority and inferiority. He described the struggle for world domination as an ongoing racial, cultural and political battle between Aryans and non-Aryans.
In 1928, Hitler went on to write a second book in which he expanded upon these ideas and suggested that around 1980, a final struggle would take place for world domination between the United States, the combined forces of "Greater Germany" and the British Empire (read more about this sequel below).
Originally posted by ZindoDoone
reply to post by Mercenary2007
He also had one hell of a drug addiction. Albert Speer has written that his Dr. was continualy injecting him with stimulants and anti-depressants as well as pain medication in the last three years of the war do to the injuries he suffered in the three assasination attempts he lived through! Anyone who has indulged in drugs of any kind can tell you that your thought process isn't up to snuff when under the influence of high doses of any drugs!
Zindo
Originally posted by Irish M1ck
reply to post by Mercenary2007
Good post overall. I do, however, disagree about the mad man part. I believe, personally, he became a mad man while in prison, when he wrote Mein Kampf.
He was engulfed in a conspiracy that Jews controlled everything, etc. If Hitler were alive today, he'd post on a site like this.
Both Hitler and Obama used their books as a springboard to further their political careers.
1. Having an exaggerated sense of self-importance
2. Being preoccupied with fantasies about success, power or beauty
3. Believing that you are special and can associate only with equally special people
4. Requiring constant admiration
5. Having a sense of entitlement
6. Taking advantage of others
7. Inability to recognize needs and feelings of others
8. Being envious of others
9. Behaving in an arrogant or haughty manner
At the time Hitler was rising to power after WWI, Germany had a bad reputation in the eyes of the world. The actions of the country were seen as an act of dishonesty, betrayal, treachery and a war crime. Hitler promised to correct this. Americans are also seen in similar ways for the way we justified and proceeded with an invasion of Iraq. Barack Obama has promised to correct this.
The financial contributions of private supporters enabled Hitler to fund his campaign. The same can be said of Obama, for he has collected record-breaking funds from private donors.
Hitler promised something to everyone, just as Obama is doing today.
Hitler held extremely leftist ideals. Barack Obama has been called one of the most liberal Senators in Congress12.
Summary
Many conservatives accuse Hitler of being a leftist, on the grounds that his party was named "National Socialist." But socialism requires worker ownership and control of the means of production. In Nazi Germany, private capitalist individuals owned the means of production, and they in turn were frequently controlled by the Nazi party and state. True socialism does not advocate such economic dictatorship -- it can only be democratic. Hitler's other political beliefs place him almost always on the far right. He advocated racism over racial tolerance, eugenics over freedom of reproduction, merit over equality, competition over cooperation, power politics and militarism over pacifism, dictatorship over democracy, capitalism over Marxism, realism over idealism, nationalism over internationalism, exclusiveness over inclusiveness, common sense over theory or science, pragmatism over principle, and even held friendly relations with the Church, even though he was an atheist.
Argument
To most people, Hitler's beliefs belong to the extreme far right. For example, most conservatives believe in patriotism and a strong military; carry these beliefs far enough, and you arrive at Hitler's warring nationalism. This association has long been something of an embarrassment to the far right. To deflect such criticism, conservatives have recently launched a counter-attack, claiming that Hitler was a socialist, and therefore belongs to the political left, not the right.
The primary basis for this claim is that Hitler was a National Socialist. The word "National" evokes the state, and the word "Socialist" openly identifies itself as such.
However, there is no academic controversy over the status of this term: it was a misnomer. Misnomers are quite common in the history of political labels. Examples include the German Democratic Republic (which was neither) and Vladimir Zhirinovsky's "Liberal Democrat" party (which was also neither). The true question is not whether Hitler called his party "socialist," but whether or not it actually was.
In fact, socialism has never been tried at the national level anywhere in the world. This may surprise some people -- after all, wasn't the Soviet Union socialist? The answer is no. Many nations and political parties have called themselves "socialist," but none have actually tried socialism. To understand why, we should revisit a few basic political terms.
“Obama is the hope of the entire world.” - Louis Farrakhan
“Hitler was a very great man.” - Louis Farrakhan
Everybody would chuckle, and my mind would run down a ledger of slights: the first boy, in seventh grade, who called me a coon; his tears of surprise (“Why’dya do that?”) when I gave him a bloody nose. The tennis pro who told me that I shouldn’t touch the schedule of matches pinned to the bulletin board because my colour might rub off; his thin-lipped, red-faced smile – “Can’t you take a joke?” – when I threatened to report him.
Our rage at the white world needed no object, he seemed to be telling me, no independent confirmation; it could be switched on and off at our pleasure. Sometimes, after one of his performances, I would question his judgment, if not his sincerity. We weren’t living in the Jim Crow South, I would remind him. We weren’t consigned to some housing project in Harlem or the Bronx. We were in Hawaii.
The end is not only the end of the freedom of the peoples oppressed by the Jew, but also the end of this parasite upon the nations. After the death of his victim, the vampire sooner or later dies too [pp. 293-296].
Now begins the great last revolution. In gaining political power the Jew casts off the few cloaks that he still wears. The democratic peoples Jew becomes the blood-Jew and tyrant over peoples. In a few years he tries to exterminate the national intelligentsia and by robbing the peoples of their natural intellectual leadership makes them ripe for the slaves lot of permanent subjugation.
Originally posted by Jenna
You lost me there for a second, that list of 9 things is about having a narcissistic disorder, which Hitler arguably had.
Originally posted by Jenna
At the time he gained power, it wasn't Hitler's fault the world viewed Germany badly due to WWI. He gained power after the war, not before. So your point there isn't really valid.
Originally posted by Jenna
Yes Obama raised a heck of a lot of money, and large part of it was from either unnamed donations or came from someone named Good Will. All after agreeing to restrict himself on donations and campaign spending.
Originally posted by Jenna
The problem with Obama promising something to everyone is there is no way to give everyone what he has promised. And yeah, he's a politician but most don't promise something to every single group they usually leave a few out. But not Obama.
Originally posted by Jenna
Hitler didn't exterminate anyone on the basis of religion, it was on the basis that the Jewish were an inferior race. Race being the operative word there.
Originally posted by Jenna
I didn't say it was a great source, I even said that the rest of the site is questionable. But that does not change the fact that they did put some research into it to back up what they were claiming. You don't have to agree with the conclusions, but to dismiss it out of hand because you don't agree with them is a bit silly. And I'm not sure how them having two quotes from the same person about two different people condemns the whole article, but if you say so.
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
4. Supremacy of the Military
7. Obsession with National Security
9. Corporate Power is Protected
Originally posted by magicmushroom
Nef, living conditions and racial awareness are you serious, there is as much racial hatred around today as there has ever been and if you have not noticed living conditions for many in the US are deteriorating very quickly. It is that instability and unfairness that extremist views are tolerated and manifest into something far worse.
reply to post by neformore
TextComparing what life is like in the US today to what it was like in Germany in the 20's and 30's is like comparing an apple to a brick wall.
Because Americans like me were born in freedom, we have a hard time even considering that it is possible for us to become as unfree - domestically - as many other nations. Because we no longer learn much about our rights or our system of government - the task of being aware of the constitution has been outsourced from citizens' ownership to being the domain of professionals such as lawyers and professors - we scarcely recognise the checks and balances that the founders put in place, even as they are being systematically dismantled. Because we don't learn much about European history, the setting up of a department of "homeland" security - remember who else was keen on the word "homeland" - didn't raise the alarm bells it might have.
It is my argument that, beneath our very noses, George Bush and his administration are using time-tested tactics to close down an open society. It is time for us to be willing to think the unthinkable - as the author and political journalist Joe Conason, has put it, that it can happen here. And that we are further along than we realise. Conason eloquently warned of the danger of American authoritarianism. I am arguing that we need also to look at the lessons of European and other kinds of fascism to understand the potential seriousness of the events we see unfolding in the US.
1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy
2. Create a gulag
3. Develop a thug caste
4. Set up an internal surveillance system
5. Harass citizens' groups
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release
7. Target key individuals
8. Control the press
9. Dissent equals treason
10. Suspend the rule of law