Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Middle Class

Here we are on page 185. We are discussing how Hitler came to be granted the vice chancellorship without having a majority of the population behind him.

No class or group or party in Germany could escape its share of responsibility for the abandonment of the democratic Republic and the advent of Adolf Hitler. The cardinal error of the Germans who opposed Nazism was their failure to unite against it. At the crest of their popular strength, in July 1932, the National Socialists had attained but 37 percent of the vote. But the 63 percent of the German people who expressed their opposition to Hitler were much to divided and shortsighted to combine against a common danger which they must have known would overwhelm them unless they united, however temporarily, to stamp it out. The Communists, at the behest of Moscow, were committed to the last to the silly idea of first destroying the Social Democrats, the Socialist trade unions and what middle class democratic forces they were, on the dubious theory that although this would lead to a Nazi regime it would be only temporary and would bring inevitably the collapse of capitalism, after which the Communists would take over and establish the dictatorship of the proletariat.

It might be true, as some of the Socialists said, that fortune had not smiled upon them: the Communists, unscrupulous and undemocratic, had split the working class; the depression had further hurt the Social Democrats, weakening the trade unions and losing the party the support of millions of unemployed, who in their desperation turned either to the Communists or the Nazis.

Between the Left and the Right, Germany lacked a politically powerful middle class, which in other countries--in France, in England, in the United States--Had proved to be the backbone of democracy. In the first year of the Republic the middle-class parties, the Democrats, the People's Party, the Center, had polled a total of twelve million votes, only two million less then the two Socialist groups. But thereafter their strength had waned as their supporters gravitated toward Hitler and the Nationalists. In 1919, the Democrats had elected 74 members tot he Reichstag; by 1932 they held just 2 seats. The strength of the Peoples Party fell from 62 seats in 1920 to 11 in 1932. Only the Catholic Center retained its voting strength to the end. In the first republican elections in 1919 the Center had 71 deputies in the Reichstag; in 1932 it had 70. But even more than the Social Democrats, the Center Party since Bismark's time had been largely opportunist, supporting whatever government made concessions to its special interests.


To me this paints a very similar picture to what is happening in our beloved country here. Our middle class is being systematically dissected and destroyed. What used to count as middle class is now upper level poor. In today's society, you either make a ton of money or none at all. Here where I live, if your household doesn't make over 90-100 thousand a year, it is hard times at home. The inflation rate does not match our increase in salaries and therefore the families are falling behind. those who make the money don't care because they have the money to survive.

Also, re-read the part about the parties and the middle class's importance to keep them in check. I see allot of similarities to current political happenings. What about you?

Dan

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey,
This portion is what real struck me.

"The cardinal error of the Germans who opposed Nazism was their failure to unite against it. At the crest of their popular strength, in July 1932, the National Socialists had attained but 37 percent of the vote. But the 63 percent of the German people who expressed their opposition to Hitler were much to divided and shortsighted to combine against a common danger which they must have known would overwhelm them unless they united, however temporarily, to stamp it out."

My first thought, (for both us now, and germany then)is, comfort.
With a perception of comfort, middle/upper middle class, will never find the need for unity, worth the price of compromise.
The worse your situation, the harder your willing to fight to change it. I think that to be true for most people. How many revolutions are started by the well off? The germans who opposed the nazi party,really are a lot like us today. I think both groups probably saw things could get worse, but are to disconnected /disinterested, to think it will have much of an impact on them. If you're not paying attention, maybe you wouldn't notice the world falling apart around you, I don't know.
i enjoyed your post, my brain is working better now, so posts are making sense. thanks for taking time to share what your reading.
later
sarah

Dan said...

Thanks Sarah. That is my point exactly. The people were too worried about making compromises and loosing what comforts they thought they had to make a signifigant stand against what they all knew was bad. Instead, they stood for what they believed in only, not against what they did not believe in. If they did that, they would have found a majority and beaten Hitler and the Nazi's before they got a foothold.

Thanks for the response.

Dan

Anonymous said...

Doesn't this train of thought lend itself to voting for "the lesser of two evils"? It seems to do just that, in my opinion.

It's clear to us now, how the germans should have acted, hind site, yada yada. But was it really clear to them at the time? And, Is our own, modern "evil" clear to us now? I like to think that I know who we need to unite against, but the truth is I can't know for sure. Is it an inevidable future, that all countries, or at least the egonmaniacal power hungry ones, to get to the point that germany did? Could it be that mankind, ultimately, cannot be unified by anything without first being stripped of everything?


sarah

Dan said...

"Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

This is taken from the Declaration of Independence. It is a clarifying quote that shows us that even 232 years ago, our forefathers had the understanding that people in general are sheep. And, only until the wolf starts running around, will they start to notice the dangers they face. As long as the wolf lurks and sneeks around quietly, the sheep will be unalarmed.

As far as the lesser of two evils, well...I guess you could look at it that way. I tend to look at it like this;

The enemy of my enemy is my freind.

That pretty much sums up what they should have thought, just to get rid of Hitler and Nazis in general.

Of course hind sight is 20/20. It is much harder to see the dangers in front of your because people lie.

There is a quote that I need to find again about the rise and fall of great nations. Every great nation will rise and then it will fall. People will become corrupt with power and the masses will eventually get tired of it.

Our system is broke. There is no way to fix it now that I can see because anyone who runs for President is connected one way or another to the "evil". The means to become president are no longer easily attained, therefore it is not like we were taught, "anyone can become President."

I will post a new topic here shortly about the Reichstag fire. This one will be really interesting I think.

Dan

Anonymous said...

the ninnies got bogged down in the details and kept ninnying instead of focusing on the big issue. We don't need one party, ideology, religion, sect. We need to stop ninnying about details and get with the big picture. When there's a crisis at hand, ideological differences are put aside until such a time as we have the luxury of debate. Hitler did that while his opposition ninnied about.