I wrote the following post a long time ago – and then duly forgot about it. But my school teacher brother called me today and asked, “How do you say ‘I have a dream’ in Hebrew?”. I told him and then realized what he was up to. “Is this for one of those crazy liberal projects at your school?” I asked. His reply was that it is a federal requirement to have a “Martin Luther King assembly” at every school. Of course I don’t like being a part of such foolishness – but at least he was recognizing his own Jewish heritage, even if in a perverse way.
The past, by definition, is no longer with us. I think this is why old photographs interest us so much; they present us with a paradox. The past does not exist; only the present exists – and just barely. When we look at an old photograph (actually any photograph, but an old one presents the paradox more starkly), we are viewing realistic representations of things that do not exist. We struggle with the past. We try to make it real, or to forget it as the case may be. People of the past also do not exist. It is even argued that people of the present do not exist, that the whole concept of “self” is an illusion.
Martin Luther King does not exist. Neither does Adolf Hitler. Here is what I wrote:
Many negative things have been said about Martin Luther King. He is said to have been a shameless womanizer, a plagiarist, a Communist and a bigot. It is even claimed that his “real” name was something else. Whether all these accusations are 100% accurate or not I do not know. I suspect that they are mostly true – but he is dead. For most of us alive today, all that remains of him is the folk-hero part of him. The man is gone and, in his stead, we now have a holiday and a set of values that most people perceive as good.
I do not care what King’s “real” name was. It makes no difference. As for his statement that we should judge others not “by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character”, plagiarized or not it seems like a worthy rule to follow. Of course, we race-realists are condemned all the time for judging blacks by their character while, at the same time, those who call themselves “liberals” and “progressives” give much importance to skin color when it comes to college admissions, promotions or poverty statistics. The “content of your character” will not get you into a prestigious law school if your skin is white and your competitor’s skin is black.
I was reading John de Nugent’s website and watching his videos. He claims that Hitler was not such a bad guy after all. That he was good to the working class, promoted wholesome family life, bolstered the economy and brought pride back to a downtrodden people. He claims, of course, that the mass murder of Jews is all a big lie. While the debate about the Holocaust will likely never end, it is likely that Nugent’s other claims about Hitler are true. It is easy to see how the good works of a hated enemy would be suppressed by those who defeated him. Like King, Hitler is dead. If King can have a holiday based on a fictitious account of his character, why not Hitler? National Hitler Day would, of course, be on a Monday. For weeks leading up to it, and after it, the nation would promote the virtues of wholesome family values, honoring the working class, refraining from excessive drinking, meaningful patriotism and athletics.
I’d forgotten to mention the parts about not smoking and promoting vegetarianism.
Comparing Uncle Martin and Uncle Adolf. Definitely a ballsy move. But I’m not hating it. You make a solid point and I agree with you. That’s the thing about people who die in their prime like that. They’re either deified or demonized. But there is always a mystique that surrounds people who die at their height. They never get to have their fame and image tarnished by wrinkles and age.
Vegetarianism is in line with HBD. Those who say that we can have open debate about HBD and not risk genocide are in denial about how we treat species that are inferior to us and whether that attitude will carry over into race relations.
Good post, thanks. I totally forgot MLK day was coming up.
Not quite on topic, but I don’t think Hitler was really a vegetarian. One or more of his doctors recommended he abstain from meat to help his digestion (probably should have recommended he cut down on certain medications, but I am no doctor). He loved game birds and sausages.
As far as Hitler goes, how many Caucasoid people do you have to kill before people stopping thinking you are “pro-white” any more? Eh?
If someone absolutely must find a rock-solid defender of civilization and scourge of Communists among German-speaking Chancellors, I recommend Kurt Schuschnigg. He weighed about 100 pounds when the US Army sprang him from Dachau (according to Kuehnelt-Leddihn).
Most certainly. Hitler – the historical figure – was a disaster for whites, Jews and the entire Western world. But I wasn’t talking about that Hitler; I was talking about the new, improved, refurbished Hitler of John Nugent (who conveniently ignores the real Hitler’s negative qualities and the damage he did).
I could have written, “if we’re going to make a national cult, and holiday, out of MLK, we could just as well do so out of Hitler”. But that would have sounded suspiciously like a fulfillment of Godwin’s Law, old, tired and hackneyed.
My goal was to point and laugh at John Nugent. I knew I was preaching to the choir in a sense.
BTW, in 2.5 weeks is the start of Black History Month.
How do we start a campaign that it should be used to address the roots of problems in the black community, not just put up pictures of Rosa Parks, Frederick Douglass and George Washington Carver?
Well, they already do that, except that they typically use it as an opportunity to declare that anything and everything that goes wrong for blacks is the fault of whitey.
You of course, know the rule, and you still violated it. Whoever compares the other person to Hitler or the Nazis automatically loses the argument. Not saying I disagree with you.
Yes – but there was no argument, just me posting on my blog. Also, if I were to compare gravity to Hitler, would that mean that gravity is not a valid law of nature?
I’ll go out on a limb and paraphrase Jonah Goldberg here from his seminal work “Liberal Fascism”
Simple comparison of things like the nazi emphasis on smoking cessastion and belief in organic food don’t really liken one as to a nazi. When you have the force of government behind those ideas you’re a step closer. When you believe that the individual has a duty to the state to do those things for the good of the state above ones self. You’re there!
K-
While at a funeral just after Christmas, I met the son of one of my second cousins. It seems that he was finishing up at his university and was now in its political science department.
At that, I asked if he was aware of the American Vegetarian Party (AVP). The AVP fielded candidates for 1952 through 1964 – Presidential and Vice-Presidential. Of minor note, reportedly their candidate for US President in 1964 had already died in 1963. That in and of itself is mildly suggestive that vegetarianism will cure whatever ails you.
I have thought that I was fairly well informed regarding American political history – the Whigs, the Know-Nothings etc. But coming across the AVP about two months back was a new one on me.