101 Refresher

[wnylib]

43. I read some similar views about thugs not

being able to organize themselves to be effective. They came from Germans who discounted the.Brown Shirts and rheir crazy, ranting political leader.

I would rather take all threats seriously enough to be prepared and to discredit them -- early-- rather than just discount them as harmless cowards.

I learned something recently about the ability of psychological appeals to arouse even avowed pacifists to violence. In the 1920's, at the end of WW1, the German kaiser abducted and a democratic republic was formed. Going from an autocratic society and nearly absolute monarchy to the freedom in a republic was too unsettling for many people on the right. They felt insecure and
disturbed by the change in social and political norms.

The new freedoms included previously forbidden
lifestyles and expressions in art and music.

Several Mennonite communities reacted by turning to the political right to restore previous social norms. Old order Mennonites are so pacifist that they literally turn the other cheek when facing violence. They avoid politics.

Yet whole German Mennonite communities were inspired
by promises to restore social order. They became politically active. The younger ones joined the Nazi party. By the end of WW2, several Mennonites were in the Gestapo. Some were concentration camp guards.

We are not that bad off here. We.have long established institutions, but they are being eroded. What I learn from the Mennonite example is how people can radically change in circumstances that appeal to their emotions about losing social norms. They do not see that their 'remedy' strays even farther from social and moral norms.