By Alan CarubaOn Friday, September 4, I wrote about new efforts by “gun-grabbers” trying to find ways around the Second Amendment. At one point in the commentary I referred to the way the Nazis banned gun ownership and how this contributed to the way German Jews and others were rounded up and systematically murdered in concentration and death camps.
That was quite enough to unhinge some who read the piece and proceeded to email me to dispute the six million figure of Jewish victims that included Jews from all the conquered nations in Europe; one that is commonly agreed upon and cited when mentioning the Holocaust.
Warning: Profane language to follow:
“Hey, Alan, YOU wouldn’t know WHAT it takes to serve this country, you ill-read, cocksucker, so go fuck yourself. Non servium (sic) faggots like you make me sick! I really do suspect you of being a Zionist kike piece of shit, what with your baseless, factless, kike propaganda. Matter of fact, I am going to make you a prime candidate for my wrath and let everyone know what a lying, resourceless cocksucker you are.”
He concluded saying, “if the holocaust actually happened the way the jews say it did, we would be CELEBRATING it instead of DENYING it!”
I will spare you the rest of this rant, but the writer had identified himself as “a marine” in a prior email and I had replied that he was a disgrace to the uniform. For the record, I served in the U.S. Army, so I know what it means to wear my nation’s uniform. If he was or is a Marine, he is a prime candidate for what we used to call a “Section 8” discharge for being a mental case.
It happened that I was re-reading Eric Hoffer’s classic book, “The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements” when the email arrived. If I were to construct a list of books that everyone should read, Hoffer’s would be among them. It is available in softcover from Harper & Row, Perennial Library these days. It was first published in 1951.
“All mass movements generate in their adherents a readiness to die and a proclivity for united action; all of them, irrespective of the doctrine they preach and the program they project, breed fanaticism, enthusiasm, fervent hope, hatred and intolerance; all of them are capable of releasing a powerful flow of activity in certain departments of life; all of them demand blind faith and single-hearted allegiance.”
The fervor that Barack Obama stirred in the 2008 campaign was a tad frightening to those of us familiar with a long line of tyrants from the last century and this one. It’s the reason a lot of parents reacted instinctively to the prospect of his addressing the nation’s school children, complete with Department of Education teacher instructions on how to use this event. This wasn’t Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush issuing greetings at the start of the school year. This reeked of indoctrination.
Hoffer wrote, “Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a God, but never without belief in a devil. Usually the strength of a mass movement is proportionate to the vividness and tangibility of its devil. When Hitler was asked whether he though the Jew must be destroyed, he answered: ‘No…We should have then to invent him. It is essential to have a tangible enemy, not merely an abstract one.’”
Jews have served this purpose for both Christianity and Islam. They became a convenient and tangible representation of “the enemy” and they retain this status to this day, despite the horror of the Holocaust.
Hoffer wrote at a time when Communism was the predominant mass movement of the age, but he also made frequent mention of Islam in ways that one would call prescient today. “The practice of terror serves the true believer not only to cow and crush his opponents but also to invigorate and intensify his own faith.”
The bile and hatred spewed by the writer of the email confirms what Hoffer wrote more than a half-century ago. “Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life. Thus people haunted by the purposelessness of their lives try to find a new content not only by dedicating themselves to a holy cause, but also by nursing a fanatical grievance. A mass movement offers them unlimited opportunities for both.”
Why do I suspect my email correspondent is rushing to his computer this very moment to let loose yet another senseless diatribe about the Jews?
Editor’s Note: A visit to the website of Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (http://www.jpfo.org) includes a chart documenting what happens when populations are denied the right to own weapons. Historically, they died in the millions.
I cannot understand why there are people who still believe that the entire Holocaust was a giant hoax or believe that it wasn't 'as bad' as portrayed.
ReplyDeleteMy father served in WWII in Europe for 2 1/2 years and was involved in the liberation of one of the concentration camps. I don't remember which one for sure, but I believe it was Bergen-Belsen. He wasn't prone to discuss it much. I also met some of the men who served with him and they verified what I had heard him speak about.
As for your "marine", I have several friends who are Marines, and I somehow don't think he would fit in with that group.
As for the 'Tyrant in Chief', I'm waiting for him to actively begin pushing for his civilian corps. Frightening!
Hi Mr. Caruba- I guess I should have paid more heed to your warning. That hurt my ears. I get plenty angry about many things, but I can't understand the pure hatred from some people. It seems to be a growing disease where disagreement spurs absolute hate.
ReplyDeleteI'm too young to know the first hand radio accounts of those like Hitler, but I was afraid when the leg tingling began for the obamessiah campaign.
Will he be like hitler? I really don't know, but seeing Obama's appeasement to those like Chavez and Amadinijahd (however you spell it) and his dictating to Israel shows his disrespect for Jews, and his messiah complex which I have never seen or heard him deny is frightening in it's own right. He is enraptured by himself as hitler was, and obviously as captivating to people as hitler was.
I don't like many of the things he is pushing on the country, and I don't agree with much of his values at all- in fact everything he stands for is totally opposite from where I stand, but I don't hate the man, I would never wish him or his family harm, and I often pray for him. Too bad so many on the far left would still consider me a hate monger and all the rest, not listening to the pure hatred they promote in their own speech.
God Bless you Mr. Caruba. You're doing something right when you get hatefull drivel such as that!
There are indications that Obama is running out of support and his dreams of power and glory will render him a failed president. His poll numbers tell the story.
ReplyDeleteIf his healthcare "reform" crashes and burns in Congress, he will likely not be able to get cap-and-trade through as well.
At least we can hope for this outcome.
It's hard to find anyone who has anything good to say of him.
The bile and hatred and opinions your correspondent expressed goes a long way to meeting the requirements for a Holocaust Denier.
ReplyDeleteI'll lay a pound to penny he is also an AGW supporter.
How can a person not accept all that happenned during the Holocaust when the evidence is overwhelming?
What would people like him be like if he was in a position of real power - it doesn't bear thinking about.
I doubt he is on your list of followers, then?
Thanks for sharing that ad hominem attack, Alan.
I doubt the emailer is a "follower" and, even if he was, he is immune to any truth or facts he does not want to read and acknowledge.
ReplyDeleteThis is why it has taken GW "deniers" (interesting use of the same term that is applied to Holocuast deniers) so long to make a case against global warming.
In the end, a decade of cooler and colder weather made the case for us.
In time, people like Al Gore and his ilk will reap the contempt they deserve.
Hating Jews is just a shortcut to avoid hating themselves. These people see their lives as thwarted and useless.
Alan: There are extremely few matters you present against which I would take issue. One exception though is you fall into the common trap of lumping all who claim to be Christian together as a single kind. That is absolutely not true. A true Christian is one who accepts every aspect of the Old and New Testaments. A great number who claim to bear the name ‘Christian’ are picky, and choose to ignore Biblical areas of absolute importance. Take for example, God’s warning, so dramatically expressed for all time, in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. He sets His case plainly on the line. Last night in my country was aired for the first time a new series of ‘Amazing Race’. There were two lesbian ‘clerics’ on the show. There is no way in this world by which such should be linked with Christianity, other than if they were to confess their sin before the Lord and, in the words of Jesus: ‘go their way, and sin no more’. But such things so deceive the watching world about the true meaning of Christianity.
ReplyDeleteThe Bible makes it abundantly clear that the Jews are God’s preferred and Chosen People, and will forever remain so. Believing Christians will be eternally grateful that God offered Gentiles the hand of Fatherhood, if they would only whole-heartedly accept the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The intense times foretold in the Book of Revelation are surely drawing very close, and it is Biblically abundantly clear that the 144000 who will witness on the part of the Lord will be drawn equally from the Twelve Tribes of Israel. To claim otherwise is to twist the word of God. No Alan, I am afraid you are in part incorrect. Christians who strive to be true to the Word of God, and are therefore worthy of the name of Christian, adore Israel.
Geoff Alder