I see it was on this day in 1925 that Adolph Hitler’s vision for the world Mein Kampf was first published. I think of hard times, and I think of men on white horses, and those who listen to their siren songs. And I think about how these preachers of an easy solution putting the blame for all the ills we are experiencing on some other, usually people with little actual power, women, foreigners, sexual minorities just seem to reincarnate generation after generation. I also find myself thinking of that peculiar twist of our times where people in majorities co-opt the language of the marginal, of the genuinely oppressed in order to fan their general sense of grievance at the hard times, like Christians in America (not all Christians, of course, but a lot) talking of being persecuted when people who have been designated other are given the same civil rights they have. I see this stew of ill will, of devils whispering poison in people’s ears. Until what, I find myself wondering? Until what?
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