No I'm not referring to the current batch of U.S. Congress men and women. I'm referring to the populations of Italy and Germany during the rise of fascism in the early part of the twentieth century. Who was to blame for the atrocities committed by the fascist regimes leading up to and during World War II? Obviously, the leaders of these regimes, Hitler and Mussolini, deserve the brunt of blame. They are the ones that carried out the oppression, violence, war, and eventually genocide, it is their fault. This brings up some different questions, how could anyone have allowed these men, capable of so many horrible atrocities, to be placed in positions of power? Were the people ignorant and naive of the consequences of giving away so much power? Were the populations fooled by the propaganda that was fed to them? Were the people simply complicit and sympathetic to the doctrine of the fascists? I believe that all of these things played a role, however, I also believe that sometimes crazy can be sane.
Let me explain, I lived for just under 10 years with a person who is all but clinically insane. Not the strait jacket type of nuts but surely narcissistic and (I'm not a head doctor but) bipolar. Living with crazy can shift your point of view. Things you would never be able to independently rationalize begin to make sense. You kind of lose yourself in the "propaganda" of the insanity. This happens in large part due to your own fears and insecurity. This is what I think happened in Germany and Italy. People were immersed in the misery of post war Europe. With little hope of rapid change away from their own reality, the people bought into the rhetoric of the Fascist. With no hope to help them rationalize the consequences, they allowed the weathering away of their freedoms and personal power in order to feel secure. The insanity of the time caused the paradigm of the people to shift away from personal freedom to the insatiable desire for security. Thus creating the perfect storm for the rise of Fascist rule.
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Dan - I agree that it is hard to comprehend how to nations as large and as proud as Germany and Italy could allow their political, economic, and social systems to be infiltrated, exploited and completely taken over by such horrible people. That said, I do believe that it had to have been a (semi)slow process that took course of many years (even)decades and was a ever-evolving chain of events that had been in the works longer than usually acknowledged. I think a large reason why these nations allowed these terrible leaders to take power was that they were very charismatic speakers and enticed much emotion in their followers. I also feel like a lot of what they were preaching sounded like good alternative to the current conditions (which were atrocious) and thus made the power ploy much easier for these enigmatic leaders...
ReplyDeleteI agree with both of you. These leaders were able to take the problems of the time and turn them to their advantage. As you were saying, living with a (semi)crazy person can affect how you view things, or at least give you some perspective on how they view something. A nation fearing such terrors as socialism, etc. would have been very on edge as well, easy to whip into an uproar, and therefore easy to allow their freedoms to be taken away.
ReplyDeleteDan, I think you pose some very interesting questions. In reference to wondering how the German and Italian people could let such people as Hitler and Mussolini into power to comit such atrocities - I don't think they advertised that they were going to commit these acts. They probably didn't go out shaking hands saying "we're going to get rid of all the Jews, vote for us!" The people in those countries might have been desprate for a leader, but I doubt that they would back someone who openly admitted those such intentions. Beau has some good points as well, they were very influential speakers who played on the emotions of their audience.
ReplyDeleteI think that the people who allowed totalitarian leaders like Mussolini and Hitler to come to power saw them as the lesser of evils. Of course, in retrospect this is obviously wrong, but if there is violence in the streets and someone is offering to stop it, it is hard not to support that person. Another factor that lead some rational people to support these leaders is that they were actually helping out the economy for the middle class. There were many things leading up to people supporting these leaders, like a fear of communism, and often people do stupid things when they are afraid or feel backed up against a wall.
ReplyDeleteI like what you said, and it does make sense. I believe the main reason though that Hitler and Mussolini got to power was because they made promises of a better country. Even though they may have never had the intentions of doing so. They may have just wanted the power. Once in power, they quickly gave themselves more power. After receiving complete power, people were too scared to oppose them at that point. It is very easy to follow the mob mentality when all you hear on the radio and from people you know that Fascism is the way for a better country, even if you do not agree with it in the beginning.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting post and some great responses. I also think that the sheer failure of the governments in power must also be considered. In a time of economic crisis and rising political violence, these democracies found themselves in absolute deadlock, literally unable to continue to govern through democratic processes because people in mass society had become so fragmented that securing parliamentary majorities became almost impossible for all non-Fascist parties. Into this chaos and deadlock came the vibrancy of Fascism that promised to unite the nation for the common good and to take effective action. They promised something new and different which always sounds good when the current system seems bankrupt.
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