Hitler’s end wasn’t just due to bad luck or bad judgement in war. It was built into the system he set up and at the end, most of the top Nazis killed themselves as their power and their country collapsed around them.
That followed logically from their efforts to restore the ancient German traditional religion. This had many gods that were merely outsized portrayals of all our human qualities, with more emphasis on strength and bravery than on love and mutual care. Naturally, they showed all our warlike characteristics: anger, aggressiveness, lust and envy. Equally naturally, the old German myths end with these gods bringing destruction on themselves.
One of the favourite songs of the Nazis expressed this by talking of marching, marching, marching till everything collapses’ and this is what they did. Their campaign of conquest went on until they challenged forces they could not defeat: first the Russian winter, which destroyed their invading army, then American power, which bombed their country flat.
I can’t help being reminded of all this by Zanu (PF)’s thugs and their threats to wreck the constitution-writing exercise and any new election. Wrecking things is all they can do. They don’t know anything else, so their end will be a small-scale, cut-price imitation of the destruction Hitler and his cohorts brought down on themselves.
At least Hitler &co thought big. They challenged the world, including powers greater than human armies. The Russians didn’t resist their invasion; they retreated, taking with them anything that might help the invaders or destroying what they couldn’t move. Russian winter weather did the rest. Our cut-price national socialists’ prefer weaker victims, and the only country they ever invaded was the already-destroyed DRC. Hitler’s gang were like a pack of roaring lions; our lot are more like hyenas – or maybe only jackals – scavengers who only look frightening when they are a crowd and making a lot of noise.
The shouting of our oppressors already sounds hollow. They can only destroy, including destroying the basis of their own power and they are near to doing that now. If they get that far, it will be tough for all of us, but we’ve seen tough times already. Even if those times come again, let’s look beyond. Look at Germany today. Out of the ruins of Hitler’s 1000-year empire’ arose the richest country in Europe, built by young people who were determined to replace Hitler’s mad system of hatred, racism, brutality and misguided hero-worship with respect for every human being and care for the weakest.
They had seen the worst the devil could do and tried to replace it with a more human way of living. Even if we see similar destruction, we too can build something better on the ruins. They can’t kill us all and if you kill a wasp, a hundred come to the funeral’. Every day brings our opportunity nearer. Let’s prepare for it.
Post published in: Opinions