Many people probably know about FA Hayek. road to serfdom.Few people know about Wilhelm Röbke Solution to the German problem. Although the two books basically agree on the political and economic factors that led to the rise of the Third Reich, Ropke's greater emphasis on economic culture makes it difficult to understand what is or is not true. When faced with what appears to be a truth, a timeless insight into the human capacity for blindness was gained. , it's too sad to look at.
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discussion of road to serfdom and Solution to the German problem The basic parts overlap. Immediately after the Potsdam Accords, both sides fired warning smoke bombs at anyone attempting to view them. Hayek threatened: „We must now state the unpleasant truth that it is Germany that is now in danger of repeating that fate.'' A year later, in his book, Mr. Ropke warned, „Both the British and the Americans should not become too convinced that „that can't happen here.'' why? Both believed that fascism and socialism should not be understood as distant and irreconcilable enemies, but as relatives with a common essence, the most important being collectivism.
A feature of Ropke's argument was the claim that it was a kind of cultural disease that explained the rise of Nazi Germany, a disease that Germany shared with the West. Solution to the German problem This is a wide-ranging book that covers a wide area, tracing back to the forests of medieval Germany in search of the cultural sources of the Third Reich. While these paths in this book are interesting, it is not my purpose to provide a summary. Instead, I will focus here only on the main argument of German blindness. and the rest of the world The reason for the Nazi threat was a „weakening of moral reflexes.“
The result was that people were „blind because they assumed they were blind“ in the face of „unprecedented barbarism.“ In this modern tragedy, people „simply didn't want to know because it was inconvenient knowledge.“ In this scenario, there is a „universal passivity“ and „paralysis“ that arises as a result of „mental and moral addiction,“ and people „go to the wall to postpone the day of reckoning and buy insurance for several years.“ I decided to ignore the words written on it. Peace and comfort were the price of the most terrible final catastrophe. ”
You really have to go to Röpke's humane economy look types of virtues This culture, which grew out of a rich cultural soil, was necessary, he thought, for a people better able to cope with situations like pre-war Germany. In his diagnosis of „mental and moral addiction“ Ropke had this broad cultural basis of virtues in mind, but various concrete examples of their lack in society can be pointed out. History of the rise of the Third Reich This is a stabbing myth that allowed many Germans to blame civilians, especially Jews, rather than the people for losing World War I and signing the armistice. military; the reluctance of the parties in parliament to unite in a unified opposition to the National Socialists even after the Beer Hall Putsch; The Allies were unwilling to take action even after Germany's open rearmament began, which clearly violated the terms of Versailles. In the years leading up to the invasion of Poland, Churchill's repeated warnings were met with collective silence. To this list we might also add certain American isolationist impulses. recent books; I hasten to add that this is sometimes an impulse connected with something else. weird antisemitism.
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Wilhelm Ropke cannot be added to that list. A professor in Germany at the time of the Third Reich, he believed that his program gave him an obligation to „speak a word of warning“ and wrote and distributed leaflets appealing to his fellow Germans. . „Common sense and their conscience“ shows „how horribly deceived they were.“ Although his warnings fell far short of actual atrocities at the hands of the Nazis, he was „laughed at and taunted.“ Then, coincidentally, he gave a speech on the very morning that the Reichstag was set on fire in February 1933. In it, Ropke warned that the Nazis were „on the path to turning the garden of civilization into fallow land and allowing it to return to a primitive jungle.“ This speech attracts the attention of the Nazis, and he soon defectes, but through the overt trauma of war, more people come to see clearly that he was right all along.
Bill Redinger has been a professor of political science at Regent University since 2010. Prior to that, he taught political science at Wheaton College in Illinois and the University of South Texas. He received his bachelor's degree from Grove City College in Pennsylvania, and later earned his master's and doctoral degrees. He received his PhD in political science from the University of Illinois, where he studied the history of political philosophy and American political thought.You can also see Redinger's post In the OLL reading room.