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Monday, January 23, 2006

Fueling Hatred

What serves as the motor than drives hate groups? Some would say the number one fuel is fear. Others would offer inadequacy as a possible explanation. In my estimation, the number one thing that generates hate is hate itself.

Hate feeds a fire within that generates even more hatred. It consumes the individual and scorches their soul. It becomes their be all, end all reason for living.

Reports from yesterday's counter rally in Olympia tell of a group of over 100 peace and social justice activists surrounding 9 members of the Nazi Party. From what I've read -- I wasn't there -- the Nazis and the counter demonstrators "freely exchanged jeers and insults" aimed at each other.

Some of the folks from the Olympia peace community are now flabbergasted that the Nazis are calling yesterday's event a success. I'm not amazed in the least. I believe the Nazis received the exact kind of reaction they had hoped for.

Like Bin Laden goading the Bush Administration to dig in their heels even more on the "war on terror", I genuinely believe that this Nazi group hoped to goad the peace activists into lowering themselves to the Nazis' level. And those activists who chose to meet slur with slur and jeer with jeer obliged them.

As the Nazi Manifesto is built upon a foundation of hate, it appears to me that this group doesn't care where the hate originates. It fuels their fire, regardless. And there's no question in my mind that many of the counter demonstrators HATE the Nazis.

As I've written several times before, I agree with Martin Luther King Jr.'s notion that hate begets more hate. If this belief is correct, then the Nazis came to Olympia hoping to syphon off a large dose of hate from the counter demonstrators to be used to fuel their faithful to greater solidarity and they received precisely what they so desperately wanted.

Hate. Hate. And even more hate.

15 comments:

  1. I think you misinterpret the "natural order that underlies life". The underlying order is harmony. Your comment above only appears to promote DISharmony.

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  2. Scary, scary, scary.

    Signed,
    Howard Muhlberg, Jew

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  3. the nazi propaganda was nothing more than a misinterpretation of Nietsche's idea of the Ubermensch. The Ubermensch is an unreachable goal in every man's life, not being the Aric race or something like that.
    I don't think it is hate that drives people, but envy. That's the same what happened in 1933, Germans couldn't live with the fact that their country was possessed by foreign nations (+ other reasons of course), which led them to a form of nationalism which nowadays can be found in fundamentalism idealisms.

    ps: my site is finally back online :)

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  4. Excuse me, Bert, but what do you mean when you say "possessed by foreign nations"?

    I sense, from looking at your blog, that you are not a native speaker of English, so I want to be considerate of that possibility, assuming that maybe you meant to say something else.

    So, I'll refrain from further comments until you clarify that.

    BTW, irony alert: The word "mensch" in Yiddish means something like "honorable, decent person", often someone who is overly kind, thoughtful, giving, ethical, etc. So, if the Nazis were trying to be Ubermenschen, Oy Vey did they get it wrong!

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  5. Hey Howard,

    sorry if it wasn't to clear (my English is, as you put it clearly, not always very accurate). What I meant to say is that after Versaille, the Western nations occupied parts of Germany, for example, industrialised zones.

    Possess is something done by demons and devils, I know and I'm sorry for that, but in dutch, possess and occupy are the same verb :)

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  6. Bert, thanks for the clarification. That makes a lot of sense now, and I think you are right about the effect that the Versaille Treaty had.

    Unfortunately, that, combined with centuries-old anti-Semitism totally set the stage for what was to come.

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  7. idd, i'm currently studying history of art at the university of Ghent, and one of my courses is: theatre and art science. If I look at the impact that for example Richard Wagner had on the idealisms of the Nazi's, it's terrifying to see that his work is already from the 19th century. Even then, the German developed a certain level of anti-Semitism. Combine that with the humiliation they suffered from WWI, it's easy to draw the conclusion that a fascist leader can quickly lead a nation into a second war.
    But then again, another course thought me that some believe Germans are supposed to be anti-Semists by nature, don't know the exact details, but it's some cultural code that puts them in that position.

    I don't want to create an anti-German propaganda here, but what to do when your neighbours have started 2 WW's, executed half your family and deported the rest to prison camps .... I don't hate the German nation, I don't want to start a war against them, I just feel that what happened here last century may never be forgotten.

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  8. Ok, I'm ready for Mr. White (clever pun lost due to twisted ideology) to go away.

    I will not debate you on this, Nazi, because there is nothing to debate. There can be no rationalization for your beliefs, no excuse for what's been done in the name of fascism and nazism.

    That you spend your time polluting decent blogs like this one with your fecal matter clearly says more about you than I ever could.

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  9. Bill,
    One of the hallmarks of this blog is that there is no censorship. You, like anyone else, have the right to express your opinions. However, I agree with Howard. Your reasoning is so skewed and illogical that it's pointless to debate you.

    Just remember, we are all part of the one (e.g., Tao, God, Allah, etc.). All distinctions are illusions. Your ideology is based on fighting air.

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  10. @Bill

    Sorry if I generalise you, but what do you know about Nazi's and their ideas? Where you born in Germany? Do you have any physical relationship with them?
    I really don't understand how people can believe in such crap as white supremacy (for the record, I'm white too).
    If you should have forgotten it, all non-western cultures were much more advanced in the pre-colonial era. Mathematics were an Babylonial invention, scripting was invented by the Egyptians (even the ancient Maya's had a way of maintaining advanced administration), gunpowder was a Chinese invention. It is due to our brutal nature and our so called right to supress others (jeej catholicism), that we have pushed away foreign cultures and inventions, not because of our intellect. I cannot understand why we think we have supreme knowledge and power. Give me one example in which a Western philosophy has helped in creating a better world (I know what your answer to this will be, but let's try to keep it reasonable and logical).

    To answer your Nietzsche remark: if you don't know what Ubermensch originally meant for Nietzsche, then it's maybe to difficult to understand in what way fascists raped and abused this ideology.
    The Ubermensch was (in Nietsche's interpretation) a beautiful idea of replacing God with man itself.
    This does not imply that man can be God or whatever nonsense the nazi's made of it.

    Why do I even bother ...

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  11. Trey, great post and great perspective on this issue. I go back and forth between the "fight fire with fire" response and your approach.

    If people like Mr. White and his ilk want to protect the "natural order" of things as they see it, they are certainly free to only procreate with others of their genetic heritage. Judging by their arguments, it seems like a lot of this has been going on for generations anyway. :-)

    It's when the Nazis start telling other people how to live, which of course is a natural extension of their belief that they are following the orders of the sky-god, that they get my hackles up. I don't see too many Jews encouraging the dilution of the "white race" as a policy.

    If Mr. White really wants to defend the "natural order," he should get his minions out in the forest preventing clearcuts. He should have them circling factories to prevent pollution (assuming that he even has enough followers to circle anything more than a 7-11). He should be fighting against rape culture and the ubiquity of television and crass advertising.

    Or maybe the "natural order" he seeks is that people of European descent should, y'know, live in Europe and leave what is now called the United States to those who were here, living relatively harmoniously with nature, long before his white ancestors showed up.

    I'm sure Mr. White will be the first one on the boat heading back.

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  12. No, Mr. White, it is hate that national socialism is about. Simple, plain hate. And that is what makes it inhumane. As to "natural order," read Chuang Tzu: "He who divides things cannot see." You are blind, Mr. White, quite simply blind.

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  13. Well, who woulda thunk it? I feel totally tapped into the Tao internet vortex. Trey, Bert, Sam, etc. I had no idea there was a Taoism blogosphere.

    Very cool.

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  14. hehe Howard, the internet is full of surprises :)

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  15. Hah Howard! Now you know the secret Taoist plan to take over the world! We trap you in our taoist spider web and now there's no escape...;-)

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