Posted on 01/26/2005 10:25:22 PM PST by churchillbuff
‘We know no spectacle so ridiculous as the British public in one of its periodical fits of morality.’ Macaulay’s famous castigation of humbug, apropos of Moore’s Life of Lord Byron, applies perfectly to the sententious huffing and phoney indignation heaped upon the silly head of Prince Harry for wearing Nazi uniform at a fancy-dress party. Ye gods! Are we never going to be allowed to consign Hitler and the Nazis to history, where they belong? In April it will be 60 years since Hitler’s final defeat and death. How long do we have to wait before those dreadful times can be seen in a cool perspective unclouded by emotions, especially false ones whipped up by newspapers like the Sun, a media pachyderm with the brains of a shrivelled pea? It is said that Harry’s offence was even more rank and smelling to heaven because of the approaching anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. But there is some kind of anniversary of Auschwitz every year and there is no possibility of the public ever being in danger of forgetting it. Moreover, when are we going to have any anniversary of the Gulag, a horror-system which actually killed four times as many people? Elements of the Gulag were still operating as recently as the 1980s, with people dying of starvation there. The wounds are still fresh.
Anyone can go to Auschwitz — I have been there myself — and it is Polish policy to ensure that every Polish child sees it during his or her schooldays. But it is not so easy to visit former gulags or the site of the famous Arctic canal where so many of Stalin’s political prisoners froze to death. Indeed it may be that some bits of the Gulag are being kept in reserve or even being reactivated. Putin seems to be bent on restoring every other item in Stalin’s life-work; why not that too? But our ministers hobnob with him cheerfully and, no doubt, if he was invited here, the Queen would be obliged by New Labour to put him up in Buckingham Palace. Moreover, there is the little matter — or rather the enormous matter — of the system of political prisoners in communist China, a totalitarian state of unimaginable cruelty to which we shamefully handed over the free people of Hong Kong not so long ago.
China operates the largest system of slave labour in history and virtually everything we buy from there — which we, and still more the United States, do in vast quantities — has some connection with it. Yet we do not hear a squeak from Labour MPs, so raucous in their condemnation of the wretched prince. Of course nobody knows how many prisoners there are in the Chinese gulags — a figure of 20 million has been put forward — and certainly nobody is allowed to visit or go in search of them. But that does not stop great numbers of people from going on holiday to China, enjoying themselves in places perhaps only a few carefully controlled miles from infernos where prisoners are being worked to death. While we are constantly reminded of Hitler’s atrocities, the mass murders of Mao Tse-tung, more recent and on a much larger scale, are never mentioned by the media. The authoritative work by French historians totting up the victims of communism puts the China death-toll at 60 million. But Jung Chang, who has now completed her life of Mao, says this is an underestimate, and that the figure is more like 70 million. There is a little shop not far from where I live which sells ceramic mementoes of Mao, showing him driving in his state limo or making speeches while rapturous peasants wave copies of the Little Red Book. No one protests, and I don’t think they should — Mao, though a monster much closer to our times, is part of history, like Hitler. But supposing the same shop were to specialise in votive figures of Hitler? What a hullabaloo there would be.
Behind all the fuss about Prince Harry no one has thought of asking the only interesting question about his escapade. Why did he dress up as a Nazi? I am quite certain he has no pro-Nazi views or indeed any political views at all. He is not interested in politics or history or ideology. He is an absolutely normal young man of his age and class, anxious to have a good time and let off steam, and find outlets for his abundant energy — a complete contrast to his guilt-ridden, anguished elder brother, who seems to have much in common with his great-grandfather, George VI, one of the most persistent worriers who ever occupied the throne. Diana told me that, whereas William caused her great concern, she never fussed about Harry as he was so tremendously happy-go-lucky and fun-loving, sure to settle down and make a sound, useful contribution in time. ‘He will always be popular,’ she said, ‘and have plenty of friends.’
good article.
some of the brits still want to pretend stalin goofed up communism, a perfectly workable system
Sorry, but Stalin and Mao killed people because of "who they were," too. They killed landowners and "capitalists," because they were landowners and "capitalists." They weren't nuts - they were evil ideologues. Hitler had an evil ideology too. They were all evil - - but we seem to focus exclusively on Hitler, as if the victims of Mao and Stalin were less deserving of memory and outrage.
Three points:
1) Communism as an ideology never had the extermination of 'inferior races' as one of it's central aims. THIS IS IN NO WAY INTENDED TO DIMINISH the incompetence and evil that led to the deaths of tens of millons in the USSR and China.
2) The Nazis had a real flair for graphic design. The black, white, red swastika logo is pretty much the visual embodiment of evil whereas the hammer and sickle / yellow star on a red flag has been used by so many varied regimes - total evil [Russia, China, North Korea], muddled incompetence and stubborn ill-will [Vietnam], to relative harmlessness [the State of Kerala, India].
3) For a member of THAT FAMILY to wear that outfit at THIS TIME...
BUT, on the general point that no great account has been given in pop culture of the horrors of the gulags, spot on.
anything that Paul Johnson writes belongs on a ping list . . .
""While we are constantly reminded of Hitler’s atrocities, the mass murders of Mao Tse-tung, more recent and on a much larger scale, are never mentioned by the media.""
"Communism" never "means" to kill itself.. it just relys on an unrealistic idealistic idology, that NEVER works in the REAL WORLD due to PEOPLE and human nature.
You can't put a drunk in a car and later act surprised that he got in a wreck claiming that all you did was help him find her car keys.
What do you mean? His grandmother - Queen Elizabeth - wore the British uniform (as a medic, I believe) during the blitz. Churchill had to dissuade George VI - HArry's great-grandfather - from actually leading British forces in battle against the Nazis. The royal family stayed in London to brave the Nazi bombers along with the commoners. They forced Edward VIII out in part because he was pro-German. It's an ignorant insult to suggest that "That family," as you put it, has anything to be ashamed of. The Brits paid a heavy price for standing up to Hitler - - bombings, the loss of a generation of young men, and the loss of their empire. And the royal family stood at the forefront as Britain faced down the Nazis.
The people stalin killed were killed for who they were as well. Hitler can also be classified as a paranoid nut, but the real heart of the matter is that communism requires mass murder to get people to accept it.
It was not just paranoia on stalin's part; he knew what he had to do to stay in power and did not care.
As for the Holocost being treated differently than other atrocities, its simple.
Its happened, its recorded, its well known. There are movies and books and stories that don't need to be "sought out", socitiy is so saturated with the reailty of how horrible it was, that sympatheic ears are everywhere.
Other atrocities, debatably close in size, are not treated the same way because it lacks one or more of the above.
I know its probably "racist" but the Jewish community in the US are skilled in using their influence. The hollywood movie industry the same way. Not that there is anything wrong with that... every group does. BUT, the Jewish groups place "never forget what happend" VERY high on their priority list, while other relgions /races /nationalities that have experinced similar things eiter don't have the power/influence/pritoiries to get to that level of "information saturation".
I've never understood what is so idealistic about communism anyway. I think an ideal is reward proportional to effort.
The kulaks were killed by Stalin - in the millions - because they were landowners. He wasn't a nut, he was a hate-filled communist.
well a communist is a nut :P
But, stalin was completely sane...he was just nasty. The left tries to pass him off as some nutbag who screwed up what could have been a good thing.
Didn't stalin also go after the christians? and i think he also did a little genocide as well...going after certain groups
Harry didn't go to the party dressed as Stalin.Apples and oranges and yet another idiotic thread posted by you,Neville.
Yes, the royal family stood at the forefront, so what was Harry thinking when donning that armband? Doesn't he know his own family history, the history of his country? If he knows it and STILL thinks it's a lark to dress up like that, well...really. If he doesn't know it, then whan what an ignorant POS.
That's a circular statement - - essentially, you're saying the Holocaust is treated differently (ie there are more books, movies etc about it) because it's treated differently (ie because there are more books movies, etc about it).
Could it also be that the leftists in Hollywood are pro-communist, and refuse to tell the truth about communism, or mourn its victims (who outnumber Hitlers by 10 to 1 -- 60 million have been murdered by communist rulers from 1917 to today)
who is playing the part of the nazi? the boy in a cloth uniform or the people who hate him and want to tear him down despite the fact he is obviously not a nazi
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