Out-Hitlering Hitler
We simply cannot stop name-dropping Hitler. We love the idea of him too much, more than most people, who we allow to fall to obscurity and rot because they did not receive the perverse apex that Hitler did. He's the piece of history everyone knows, even the least interested, because he is too important, well-designed and omnipresent to forget. He combines too many genres that people love: leader, zealot, megalomaniac, proven occultist, rags-to-riches success story, mass murderer:
"Crowds came to hear Hitler speak," Gladney points out in his classes, "crowds erotically charged, the masses he once called his only bride... There must have been something different about those crowds. What was it?... Death. Crowds came to form a shield... to become a crowd is to keep out death."
-from White Noise, by Don DeLillo
Okay, so, we've got literature and psychology. But debate? It's a sordid history of anyone we don't like, or agree with, being Hitler. Manifesting any of the traits, to any degree, that Hitler is famous for unlocks the option: solemnity, industry, moral vacuity, a certain fashion sense, fascism, pseudo-fascism -- anything negative, really. It doesn't really have much to do with his character.
It's the image! Indestructible! Why did the other kids call you gay at the drop of a hat in school? Because it's such a semiotically-charged concept that it could not completely lose its impact. Something always registered, and we were as a result pursued by the night spectre of homosexuality, though it was an irrational and unfounded fear. Which 10-year-old actually knew a gay person (and I realize this statement is dating me) in the suburbs? And now, being gay has become vogue, even as a persecuted subculture. I think Nazis, all effectively gay in their florid uniforms and iron-girded cabals, have become so persecuted and morally equivocated, that they have tilted the machine and become cool again.
And so we have the Hitler subculture. We can't kill it, but hopefully it will be unpopular. But forgotten? I don't think he'd allow it.
Comments
The bizarre Hitler cult of the Anglos is really just an expression of their subconsciousness, an expression of their repressed sides and unfulfilled longings.
Orwell's "five minutes of hate" concept compressed, but still used to make an unbearable situation palatable again.
Anglo Hitler; July 11, 2006 3:32 AM
There were only two minutes' hate. I'm sure you're thinking of "2+2=5," another Nineteen Eighty-Four concept inspired by the Nazis, who made 5 out of everything they pillaged from the rest of the continent.
Anglo Angst = annoying; July 11, 2006 12:29 PM
Yes, Anglo's Angst really sucks. Sorry I'm really such a terrible Nazi :) The bastards really killed some of my family, but you know, as soon as they migrated here, it was like a surge. Totally irresistible :) Just as I read your reply I noticed a little mustache in my face.
Orwell was really inspired by the peculiarities of English history and language and totalitarianism in general than the Nazis specifically.
The bizarre Hitler cult in Anglo-land is best understood as denial of the continuing colonial aggression (including genocides), really bad education, and all kinds of vague resentments about somehow being "behind" the curve of history all of a sudden. Maybe it's also masked resentment of the monarchy and the Us President as de-facto führers or something.
Anglo Angstmacher; July 11, 2006 4:22 PM