Lottie was born in 1935, two years after the Enabling Act, which effectively suspended the German Constitution, granting the Fuhrer virtually unlimited power. As a young girl Lottie lived in Germany during WWII. She told us her mother received a Gold Motherhood Medal (for having more than eight children). We knew Lottie (not her real name) because she was our hairstylist for many years – until I didn’t have enough hair to style. She told us she did not know what happened to the people who went away during the war. She was told they moved to another town, went to the countryside, or left the country. Lottie had no idea that millions of people were sent to prison camps, later to be exterminated. But Lottie was a child then. It was only after the war that she realized what had happened to those the state considered undesirable or impure.
In the 1930’s and 1940’s, children a few years older than Lottie were indoctrinated to believe nationalist mythology. While little Lottie did not understand what was happening to millions of innocent people, many others either tacitly agreed or didn’t want to know. I suppose we still either agree or don’t want to know what happens to certain people, unless it happens to us. We can hear the reports, or read the data, yet what happens to them doesn’t seem quite real. “One death is a tragedy. A million deaths is a statistic,” declared Josef Stalin. And often we march towards mass tragedy one step at a time. Some don’t realize it’s on the way until it arrives.
It always begins with rhetoric. “God is with us.” (Gott mit uns) Then, the opposition is silenced. In the run-up to WWII, political opponents, intellectuals, and journalists were imprisoned first. Many were simply killed. They were called enemies of the state, the enemy within. To make Germany great again, anyone who disagreed with the Nazi party had to be eliminated. Jews and other non-Aryans were next. “Germany is for Germans!” Dissent was forbidden, as was coming to the aid of those declared “vermin” for “poisoning the blood” of the fatherland. A little child would not have understood where the country was headed. But an adult might be expected to think a little harder about whether they truly wanted to go there or were just being selfish.
Another enticement of party politics is the promise of rewards at the expense of the losers. Party propagandists and operatives expect returns on their investments, regardless of who gets hurt. To the winners go the spoils. To the high-ranking Nazis went the loot. The trouble is, to get the goodies, one has to think like a child and act like the lives of other human beings do not matter.
Children think in simple terms, one-step solutions, such as who gets the biggest scoop of ice cream. Border walls and mass deportations appeal to those who like simple one-step solutions. Multi-step solutions, like the proverbial “word problems” of our school days, are difficult and usually time-consuming. Slogans don’t require much time or thought. Why worry about where deportees might end up or whether those who are deported really should be, as long as they’re gone? What if mass deportation results in mass death or massive damage to the country? What if we fail to find a better way because we demanded a child’s solution?
Many people seem to be oblivious to where we might end up if we follow the rhetoric. Lottie didn’t know until she became a teenager. By then, the damage had been done. Do we really want to lock up those who aren’t “loyal?” Do we really want to take out our frustrations on immigrants or blame “the left” for all our country’s problems? Or are we prepared to act like adults and engage in a little self-examination?
If a person believes he is not better off now than a few years ago, a prudent response would be to ask whether he might have some personal responsibility for his situation. In Lottie’s youth, a lot of adults supported a man who claimed that only he could make their country great. Yet, it is always our job to make our country great. A dictator can only make things great for himself and his party. We must not act like children. Currently, there is only one party that uses the rhetoric of Lottie’s youth. We must keep our eyes open and think about where we want to go and who we want to take us there.
“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty; power is ever stealing from the many to the few.” – Wendell Phillips (abolitionist)
MurrayWorks 