The Politics of Hate

 

In the good economic times, during the mid-to-late twenties in Germany, Hitler was thought charismatic by only a bunch of fanatics. So much so that in the 1928 election the Nazis polled only 2.6% of the vote.

Yet less than five years later Hitler was chancellor of Germany and leader of the most popular political party in the country.

 

And that's the point, really.  We tell ourselves that it could only be a different set of people at a different time that could fall under the sway of an angry lunatic like Hitler.  We continue to tell ourselves this, because we don't believe we are capable of atrocity, as the temperature climbs and the pot begins to boil.

 

But it simply isn't true.  Give the right social strains, sense of national indignation and lit by the right voice of anger, every society can boil over.  It's happening right now in places like Hungary and Greece.

 

The only way to defend against this threat is by accepting the fact that we can be influenced and training ourselves to be consciously aware of how those influences work.  Do that, and we can reduce the social stresses that lead to resentment and violence in the first place.  This is accomplished not by abandoning people to the lot history have provided them nor by sheltering them from reality.  But then, we already know the way forward, don't we?