Re: [Marxism] Follow-up on Valkyrie: personal conscience and responsibility

[Shane Mage <shmage@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Jan 4, 2009, at 9:04 AM, Hunter Gray wrote:
>  I understand Rommel, in North Africa, insisted on good treatment  
> for British prisoners of war and did not honor Hitler's general  
> stricture to murder Jews. There were numerous plots to kill Hitler  
> and I have no problem giving credit for conscience-emergence and  
> great courage on the part of those German officers, depicted in  
> Valkyrie, who tried desperately to fulfill a worthy mission.


The phrase "numerous plots" suggests that this film, as is to be  
expected, treats July 20 as an isolated act of heroic individuals  
rather than what it was--the continuation of an antiNazi conspiracy  
(names: Oster, Canaris, Gisevius, Gördeler) with a worked-out plan to  
overthrow the Nazi regime and replace it with a government that would  
include Social-Democrats (Leber) and end the war.  They were always in  
contact with British intelligence (and the USA during WW2).  What,  
being untainted by Marxism, the conspirators did not begin to  
understand was that the Allies never wanted the overthrow of Hitler  
because they were terrified that it would result in a replay of the  
1918-1919 proletarian revolution.  That is why, for instance,  
Chamberlain--knowing that Hitler would be overthrown the moment he  
started a war by mobilizing against Czechoslovakia--dishonored his  
treaties and betrayed the Czechs at Berchtesgaden and Munich.  And  
that is why (but the proof will forever remain ultraclassified if not  
actually destroyed) the Allies specifically targeted Rommel and by  
putting him hors-de-combat guaranteed  (because Stauffenberg stupidly  
failed to put the *second*, unfused, bomb into the briefcase) the  
failure of July 20.

Shane Mage

> This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
> always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
> kindling in measures and going out in measures."
>
> Herakleitos of Ephesos

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