Re: Re: the Kaiser

[Jim Devine <jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Louis wrote:
> ... until reversals on the Russian battlefields during the Barberossa
> campaign, persecution of the Jews was not that much more extreme than the
> treatment of blacks in the south, so argues Arno Mayer in "Why the Heavens
> did not Darken."

that does not go against what I was saying. The residents of Namibia were
slaughtered or tortured _as a means to an end_, whereas Jews, gays, the
mentally retarded, etc., were slaughtered because they were seen as devils.
The social psychosis that involved such perceptions worsened as the Nazi
project hit upon hard times, just as a delusional individual reacts
violently when people start undermining his or her delusions, saying it
ain't so, etc. When things go bad, scapegoating becomes more necessary.

(This last point is one of the down-sides of a (possible) recession, of
course, since the last one in the U.S. encouraged the likes of Timothy
McVeign (the non-AOL one). Similarly, though obviously to a much smaller
degree, when the U.S. Democratic Party wimp out & fall apart in the face of
the Cheney Gang, they seem to strive more strenuously to blame their
favorite scapegoat.)

Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine