Hmm.
Maybe hiding books like Mein Kampf and related inspirational works like Martin Luther’s “On the Jews and their Lies” from the curriculum didn’t put the best possible construction on things after all?
Sad way to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Der Reformation...
“Those who do not learn from history _____________ it”
I agree. I’m an absolutist in few areas, but free speech is one of them. We’re entering a very data-driven age, and I want stupid people to say and publish as many ignorant things as they possibly can in a 24 hour period. I like knowing who’s all right with Mein Kampf, Days Kapital, The Koran, Bushido- The Soul of Japan, and whatever else is floating around out there.
Honestly, I actually get irritated with the quote about “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it”, mostly because it’s such a false statement in what it implies: Namely, that learning from history automatically makes one immune to repeating those mistakes.
Let me remind everyone that Karl Marx was very learned about the French Revolution, certainly knew enough about that time period to know about the blood and guts fest that was the Reign of Terror in 1793. Under the pretense of that quote, he would have learned from history and avoided recreating it. But no, that’s not what he did or aimed to do. Instead, he not only wanted to re-enact that disaster known as the Reign of Terror, but he if anything desired to outright make it even GORIER than before. And don’t get me started on Sartre, who like all Frenchmen, knew enough about the French Revolution to know about the Terror, and he indicated they didn’t even kill ENOUGH people. Same goes for Foucault, also French, who took it one step further than even Marx or Sartre and demanded that everyone forsake any court of laws at all (even socialist “people’s courts”) and have everyone enact popular justice akin to the September Massacres. If anything, I see it as “People are doomed to repeat history, regardless of whether they learned it or not.”
And as far as the Talmud, on the one hand, being Catholic, I’m no fan of Martin Luther, or his anti-Semitism, and in fact, he probably should rot for that alongside his backstabbing us Catholics and ultimately causing Christendom to be fractured. On the other hand, though, he does have a point: That book definitely needs to be burned completely. It’s not even all that different from the Quran in its commands, and aside from that, not only outright MOCKED Mary and Jesus by implying the former was a prostitute and the latter is basically boiling in dung in Hell (already a disgusting treatment of them in itself), but they even have the irreverence and the audacity to claim that God the Father HIMSELF is essentially a marionette who can’t even do a thing unless the Rabbis cast a vote, and can even be tricked by the Rabbis. That’s... that’s just... That’s disgusting, and ultimately that book does far more of a disservice to the Jewish religion than it does actually helping them. I’d even tolerate God being a massive tyrant who would outright kill anyone who even dares disagree with him if it at least showed him being all-powerful and all-knowing enough to not be manipulated or rendered impotent by mortals. The Jewish people were better off if they had the Torah as their sole religious text.
I’m not fond of your talking bad about the Jesuits, though, or your implication they had a role in Marx. First of all, Marx gave up religion, so any teachings Jesuits may have imparted definitely were discarded by that point (not to mention, technically, Moses Hess also played a role in Marx’s later activities, and last I checked, Marx was no lover of Judaism as a race OR as a religion. Besides, the Jesuits also taught Voltaire, yet it’s pretty obvious they weren’t responsible for his later actions including the French Revolution, since he and his pals orchestrated their forced removal from France.
And honestly, I’m disturbed by Mein Kampf being issued again among Germans. Does it matter if it’s poorly written? No, it doesn’t. Heck, Das Kapital was poorly written, and I’m pretty sure even the French Enlightenment’s works would be deemed poorly written as well. Did it being poorly written stop them from being used as the blueprints for various horrendous events from the French Revolution up to the Nazis’ actions? Absolutely not. If anything, them even being read at all only ensures something similar will happen. The only way to ensure something like those past events never happens again IS to destroy the works completely.