Gargouille, page 6

There is a plaque at Bergen Belsen that lays all the blame of the holocaust at the feet of the German nazis. In light of MOTK's remark -"All are responsible", I've compiled the following note.

The psychological consequence of living under pathocratic rule for centuries on end, rule that is justified by violence with fleeting regard to social justice, is a cyclical flowering of brutal social eruption. An eruption of violence so pathological that it's history needs to be examined to be understood.

Jews are well aware of the centuries old practice of progroms enacting by every European monarch and authority looking for a scapegoat on which to vent the rage of the populus. As a result of their religious dictates to use only fresh running streams, black plague was attributed to their of poisoning the wells. Whenever authority was helpless to address a wrong or responsible for it, the Jews made a good scapegoat for the frustration and rage of the citzenry. The Jewish diaspora lived under constant persecution in the West and the holocaust was an extension of that tradition.

Every Machiavellian politico knows that a good scapegoat is key to achieving support from a citizen base, especially when they are concerned with diverting issues. Napoleon chose the aristocracy. Hitler knew a good scapegoat when he saw one. He gave the people what they wanted. That's not to say that everyone supported Hitler's actions, but the response of Western governments to the refugees pouring out of Germany at the time seems to suggest they did. Not one would open their borders; they sent them all back to be killed. Shanghai was one of the only ports open to Jewish refugees at the time. Hitler himself was shocked and pleasantly surprised with the lazy acquiescence with which the Western nations condoned his progrom.

It probably contributed a great deal to his madness and nazi 'animal kingdom' certitudes that heaped so much contempt on humanity. Hitler the vegetarian liked to disparage Goering's appetite for hunting and meat - "Pigs eat pigs", he once said, so convinced of his own discerning social refinements. The nazi's loved justifying their actions with Darwin's theory of evolution. Today we often see natural selection cited as the reason for 1 billion people using 86% of all the goods on the market, leaving 14% for the remaining 5 billion. Hitler was shot up in the morning by his doctor to wake up, shot up all day to keep going and shot up at night to go to sleep. The man was obviously pathological. The world is content to lay full responsibility for these atrocities at his feet. Yet the world sat idly by and encouraged the massacre by doing nothing. What drugs or madness gripped the German people and the Western nations that condoned his pathology. The racist, fascist doctrines of nazi Germany have not been eradicated, they have evolved.

Today we see a great deal of current nefarious social behaviour still pinned on the nazis. Without regard to the place in which it fits into social and economic expectations, it's fruitless to lay blame without taking any responsibility for the contribution they have made in maintaining the disparity in the distribution of goods. They've done the job the people expected of them, then and now. The pursuit of power, in the name of perpetuating a military and economic advantage. Our history has never surpassed that of warring tribes fighting over resources and now the game is global. The very mention of socialism elicits a knee-jerk sneer from many a 'good' North American who will then go on to crow about the generosity of their charity. While the foreign aid our governments send overseas is more often than not directed toward bolstering social systems and military dictatorships that insure poverty will worsen for the many and wealth will increase for the few. Norway is consistently voted best for human quality of living and they are a socialist government with a free market. Yet, socialism is still regarded by many in North America as a form of communism. The nazis have fostered North America's rise of corporate fascism in the name of freedom. Sharing is a dirty word.

The night of Kristallnacht, was not enacted or condoned only by brownshirts, it was made possible by historical anti-semitic precedents. Just as the 'God's cleaned up the slums' response to the dead and dying of New Orleans has it's social history in the scapegoating of the poor. Many German's didn't see the camps, they could pretend it wasn't real. The response to Katrina revealed many people take a homicidal pleasure in watching the eradication of the poor; muted and cowed outrage from the rest. There has been no accountability for the crimes of negligence and outright malfeasance committed there. Reminiscent of the scapegoating policies of earlier campaigns, the conservatives won a provincial election by blaming the poor for government debt. Social programs were eradicated, single mothers were told to go 'work the strip with the other pigs'. (75% of divorced men don't pay child support and only 5% ever miss a car payment.) All managed by a spin doctor who also supported Ollie North's bid for government office. But the plight of women so entrenched in secondary status among all the cultures is easily scapegoated with dismissive contempt.

The province was further in debt when they left. Many citizens of wealthy nations never see the devastation wreaked as a result of disparity in the distribution of goods, they pretend it's not happening or that it's natural selection. Every Westerner has 5 slaves, they will never meet and do not feel responsible for. Every man, woman and child for themselves. New Orleans was our Kristallnacht.

Greater balance in the economic arena would not result in equal misery for all unless one measures happiness by the acquisition of material wealth. If we are really interested in spiritual ascension and the pursuit of mind over matter then the first place to start is with the pleasure of altruism. Not charity as it is characterized by cruelty and frailty, but a true vision of the nurturing of man's soul. So far the only thing in human history to give in abundance to both rich and poor is the earth.

There is a picture at Bergen Belsen of smiling SS officers, those same smiling faces are on all the citizens of the wealthy nations who support or remain willfully unaware of the economic platforms that starve and degrade entire continents into extinction. Water is now more expensive than gas, but because people here are not yet thirsty, they continue to buy it up supporting an industry that literally forces people to die of thirst. Plastic bottles choke landfills and leech into groundwater. Creating a vicious tightening circle of greed for the trillion dollar a year industry. Under Nafta and Gatt, water is a human need, not a right - if there's no money for it, a person will die for want of it. Even if it falls from the sky. Smiling people drinking fashionable water.

The camps should remain as reminders not only of how evil some SS men were, but of the evil of which all of humanity is capable. Victor Frankel in his book, "Man's Search for Meaning" about his experience as a prisoner in Auschwitz, points out that the brutal conditions of the camp turned both inmates and guards into monsters and much more rarely - both inmates and guards into people willing to risk their own lives to go against the rules and be kind under the most barbarous and dehumanizing conditions. Germany ended in devastation. Was it the result of thought creating matter for them. They imagined they were creating a superior society but in fact produced genocide and terror.

So who is responsible? All are responsible.