Dead Germans after a First World War battle.
It would be a sin to complain.
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Why didn’t Hitler abandon warfare after the years of suffering and horror he’d experienced during the First World War (we raised this question in our previous LSS Newsletter)?
Hitler answers this question clearly in the following passage from Mein Kampf:
| “When in the long war years Death snatched so many a dear comrade and friend from our ranks, it would have seemed to me almost a sin to complain.
After all, were they not dying for Germany?” |
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This ideology continues as the core reason war persists. If one is dying for one’s country, then it is a sin to complain about dying.
Everyone is held in thrall. Although nearly every concept in the world was de-constructed in the 20th century, the term country or “nation” remains un-deconstructed, therefore seemingly indestructible.
Why are we unable to tell the truth about the First World War: that it was a massive, monumental form of collective psychopathology; an inconceivable episode of destruction and self-destruction?
People consider it a sin to question what occurred—because “countries” remain absolutes. The violent acts committed in the name of Allah pale in comparison to the magnitude of slaughter enacted in the name of countries.
Hitler’s thinking is a paradigm. Why do we refuse to abandon the idea of warfare? Why are we blasé about the deaths of hundreds of millions of people that occurred during the 20th century?
Because it would be a sin to complain. After all, was everyone not dying for their country? |
