I used to take my dog for walks in the hills of Berkeley, CA, and on occasion would run into an older couple who would bristle at my passing. They didn't like the fact that Doc was off leash--middle of the woods or no.
One day, the male half fairly blew up at me, shouting in a German accent, "There are laws! You must follow the law!" I tried to reason calmly with the two of them, but the exchange got more heated and clearly wasn't leading anywhere productive. Walking off, I said over my shoulder, "You know, you'd make a great couple of Nazis."
Without missing a beat, the woman said, "I am!"
At this I had to stop. Surely a joke? I turned around to size them up, and the man offered, "We were all better off when Hitler was in power!"
That ended the conversation. I recall two thoughts from that moment--1) that I was vindicated in the leash debate, seeing as my opponents were law-and-order to the point of Nazism, and 2) it's a good thing people get old and die, and take their horrible ideas with them.
This comes to mind again today because of a post Bayou Renaissance Man wrote about the passing of an ace German pilot, who stuck to his Nazi idealism to the end. It's a thoughtful piece on whether and why the guy deserves respect.
Finally, may I ask that you, friends, keep an eye toward growing authoritarianism in our own country, and speak against it when appropriate. The rise of any authoritarian regime is aided by the same shrugs and scapegoating and xenophobia that paved the way for today's TSA. This is not American, at least as I was raised to understand it.
This is also not a left-versus-right political debate; it is a debate about individual freedom versus state control. One of the most shameful elements of the current path is the relative silence of the left, since it happens to be their man at the helm. On the flip side, where was the Fox News crowd when it was Bush chiseling away our liberty?
Stand up for your freedoms, and let us not become the old people who let them get steamrolled.
10 comments:
So if they hadn't been Nazis your remark would have been a racist slur instead of a factual comment?
I get the point, but you're off the mark. You're implying I throw out the Nazi tag to any disagreeable German.
The remark was related tangentially, at best, to their European accents; it had everything to do with the tone and content of the conversation.
The unlikely fact that they affirmed my observation should absolve me of throwing out slurs willy-nilly.
Incidentally my ancestry is German. Stinkin' krauts.
Count me as one of those who thinks your dog should be on a leash, although out hiking in the woods I would be more permissive of off-leash. In a city or suburb, I think a leash requirement is imperative.
As for the Nazi comment, the Nazis tortured, raped, pilfered from, and killed 6 million people. These people might be like the douchebag assistant principle from your middle school but they're not like Nazis.
To be clear, the conversation didn't go straight from "put your dog on a leash" to "you're a Nazi."
Unfortunately I can't recall all the details six years after the fact, but one line that sticks out was something to the effect of, "Why don't you get a job, you rat?"
Apparently they couldn't fathom that a young man would be walking in the woods at all in the middle of a weekday.
They were uniquely mean people, and, as their affirmations would indicate, probably every bit as unsavory as the Nazis you've read about.
Why don't you get a job, you rat?
Ok I get it now. You only shout racist insults when you disagree with the tone and content of someone's conversation. That's perfectly reasonable.
Good, I'm glad we're on the same page.
How come people get so bent out of shape about the Nazis?
How do German kids tie their shoes?
Well said. I'm just finishing a reread of The Ominous Parallels, about the collectivist/irrationalist philosophy that prepared the germans for Nazism. Plenty of details about the concentration camps of course. The fact that there are still people that love Hitler, even after the details have been made public, shows how deep the philosophy of collectivism goes.
Post a Comment