The good thing about having OM around however, is that he does
present the true absurdity of his position here in full light for
everyone to see. While one can only speculate at the true motive as
to why he takes the positions he takes and attempts to provoke with
his pseudo-intellectualism
could it be the want of attention?
simply to troll? to gain some form of affirmation for inadequacies
in his real person that he could only find in the anonymity of the
net? Whatever that case he does make it rather clear to many other
people what they do NOT want to be like, nor even start to think
like.
In a back-handed sort of way, one must say that OM has actually
improved the positions of his foes, made their logic more astute,
and perhaps is more or less helping the very people in the
direction (assuming he is even genuine about the position he
presents here) that he is trying valiantly to save them from. One
can only marvel at the astounding dearth of good sense in such an
individual that renders this possible.
In any case, I would like to present (at the risk of going off
topic), perhaps in some rather dramatic terms, why we should not
follow OMs suggestions of the way we ought to be, so here is a
speech:
I wish to testify about the
Feldenstein case because it was the most significant trial of the
period. It is important not only for the tribunal to understand it,
but for the whole German people. But in order to understand it, one
must understand the period in which it happened. There was a fever
over the land, a fever of disgrace, of indignity, of hunger.
We had a democracy, yes, but it was torn by elements within. Above
all there was fear, fear of today, fear of tomorrow, fear of our
neighbors, and fear of ourselves. Only when you understand that can
you understand what Hitler meant to us, because he said to us:
"Lift your heads. Be proud to be German. There are devils among us,
communists, liberals, Jews, gypsies. Once these devils will be
destroyed your misery will be destroyed." It was the old, old story
of the sacrificial lamb.
What about those of us who knew better -- we who knew the words
were lies...? Why did we sit silent? Why did we take part? Because
we loved our country. What difference does it make if a few
political extremists lose their rights? What difference does it
make if a few racial minorities lose their rights? It is only a
passing phase. It is only a stage we are going through. It will be
discarded sooner or later. Hitler himself will be discarded --
sooner or later. The country is in danger. We will march out of the
shadows! We will go forward. Forward is the great password.
And history tells how well we succeeded, Your Honor. We succeeded
beyond out wildest dreams. The very elements about hate and power
about Hitler that mesmerized Germany mesmerized the world. We found
ourselves with sudden powerful allies. Things that had been denied
to us as a democracy were open to us now. The world said, "Go
ahead. Take it. Take it! Take Sudetenland! Take the Rhineland!
Re-militarize it! Take all of Austria! Take it!" And then, one day
we looked around and found that we were in an even more terrible
danger. The ritual began in this courtroom, swept over the land
like a raging, roaring disease. What was going to be a passing
phase had become the way of life.
Your Honor, I was content to sit silent during this trial. I was
content to tend my roses. I was even content to let council try to
save my name, until I realized that in order to save it, he would
have to raise the specter again. You have seen him do it. He has
done it, here, in this courtroom. He has suggested that the Third
Reich worked for the benefit of people. He has suggested that we
sterilized men for the welfare of the country. He has suggested
that perhaps the old Jew did not sleep with the 16 year old girl
after all. Once more, it is being done -- for love of country. It
is not easy to tell the truth. But if there is to be any salvation
for Germany, we who know our guilt must admit it -- whatever the
pain and humiliation.
I had reached my verdict on the Feldenstein case before I ever came
into the courtroom. I would have found him guilty, whatever the
evidence. It was not a trial at all. It was a sacrificial ritual in
which Feldenstein, the Jew, was the helpless victim. My council
would have you believe we were not aware of the concentration
camps. Not aware. Where were we? Where were we when Hitler began
shrieking his hate in Reichstag? Where were we when our neighbors
were being dragged out in the middle of the night to Dachau!?!
Where were we when every village in Germany has a railroad terminal
where
where cattle cars were filled with children being carried out
to their extermination! Where were we when they cried out in the
night to us!
My council says we were not aware of the extermination of the
millions. He would give you the excuse: We were only aware of the
extermination of the hundreds. Does that make us any the less
guilty? Maybe we didn't know the details. But if we didn't know, it
was because we didn't want to know.
I am going to tell them the truth. I am going to tell them the
truth if the whole world conspires against it. I am going to tell
them the truth about their Ministry of Justice. Werner Lammpe, an
old man who cries into his Bible now, an old man who profited by
the property expropriation of every man he sent to a concentration
camp. Friedrich Hofstetter, the "good German" who knew how to take
orders, who sent men before him to be sterilized like so many
digits. Emil Hahn, the decayed, corrupt bigot, obsessed by the evil
within himself. Ernst Jannings, worse than any of them because he
knew what they were, and he went along with them. Ernst Jannings:
Who made his life excrement, because he walked with
them.
