The Cause of Hitler's Germany

“You can’t be sure of that. I mean, we really can’t know anything for certain, there’s so many variables and everybody sees things through their own lens. Their own experiences help them decide what is right and good. And besides, what’s right for you might not be right for me; we are different people and have different needs.”I turn away.“Well, I don’t mind really. You know, sometimes we have to sacrifice our desires for the common good. That’s part of living in community – knowing that sometimes they have to come first. If that means a few people get screwed in the process, that’s just the way it is – there is a social contract after all. We all have to do our fair share; it’s just the right thing to do.”I get up, moving to the back of the train.“I hate the sheeple. Look at all these idiots around us, living their miserable lives. They are so stupid, willing to follow the next moron right off a cliff. What a waste. Not me, I am my own man, I think for myself. Nobody can tell me what to believe.”I shrug – there is no escaping it.If Satan’s greatest trick was convincing the world he did not exist, so too the philosophers. Not that I’m saying philosophers are the devil. Having a handle on our own epistemology is valuable as it helps us to see and to live in a world where things are clear, where we understand why. There are many fraudulent ideas out there that masquerade as truth to prey on the uninformed. Some of these ideas are so attractive, and so often repeated that it’s easy for even the most sophisticated among us to become confused – not only to our own peril but that of those around us.Cue Hitler’s Germany, because this is exactly what happened; a story masterfully explained in Leonard Peikoff’s “The Cause of Hitler’s Germany”.Most of us like to think of Hitler’s Germany as a result of some sort of genetic deviation in the Aryan chromosomes. “Surely the Germans are just a warlike people who have barbarity in their blood, right? They’re a tribal people, just like the Rwandan Hutus who committed the genocide – I’m sure of it. It could never happen here, that’s for sure; we just aren’t like that. We are different.” This explanation is comfortable, soothing even.Unfortunately, it is wrong. The reality is that the death of the Weimar Republic and the advance of Nazism was a direct result of bad epistemology advanced relentlessly for centuries. The holocaust was a result of a particular philosophical outlook on man, his role in society and to each other. As Peikoff’s book outlines the precursors to the madness, presenting the ideological baggage of the German nation in the run-up to the war, it’s hard not to notice the selfsame ideas peddled so freely in our own societies – all of them.The problem actually starts at the very beginning, in the dual of ideas between Plato and his greatest student, Aristotle. Plato was a proponent of the power of the state and the responsibility of its citizens to each other. He was (albeit simply put) the father of authority. Aristotle took a different path, as the world’s first and greatest advocate of reason and individualism, he challenged Plato’s statism.But Plato did abide.In Nazi Germany, the Platonic view of state authority was met with a cohort of sympathizers who presented those ideas as mainstream, as incontrovertible. Then, as is wont to happen, they made their way into the universities. From there they progressed into art and literature and then into pop culture and finally into the minds of normal men. Ideas that challenged the right of the individual to reason and to question. Speeches that placed state authority above individual responsibility. Plays that lauded the irrational and the incoherent. Nihilism ensued, as did a strange form of faith that allowed and even encouraged the hate. The death of self upon the alter of the other.This was all well and good, and did not seem to have any real impact until a perfect storm hit. Post-war reparations, national humiliation, high unemployment. Hate, resentment, frustration, a people looking for excuses and scapegoats. And then finally, a soothsayer. By the time Hitler arrived, the Weimar Republic was so far gone that they could do nothing but watch him seize power. They had trashed their own liberties one by one – there was nothing to protest in what Hitler proposed, he was the final result of their ideas. When he came after men’s bodies – there was not any individual left to fight him, for they had surrendered their minds long ago.For those who think this was a once-off, take a look around. It happens all the time; the most recent case in Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela. After fifty years of social democracy, that country too fell to a soothsayer at a moment of national stress. Same for Argentina, and for Ecuador, and for Bolivia, and for Nicaragua, and for Greece, and soon in Spain. For those who do not agree, I entreat you to read “The Cause of Hitler’s Germany”. Lest we cease being attentive and it happens next to us.

Ominous Parallels is a unique and revolutionary intellectual work by Dr. Peikoff, illustrating the role of philosophical ideas in shaping a society and its history. Using Plato, Kant, and Hegel as the antipode of Aristotle, he explains how their theories in opposition to reason, reality and individualism served as the framework for The Third Reich. Hitler sought obedient followers to carry out his "ordained will" and impose this on the world. Dr. Peikoff illustrates how he accomplished this.In Germany many years before the rise of Hitler, philosophy replaced reason with faith, instinct, feelings or the wisdom of the German people in the name of the collective good as defined by authority. The individual became non-existent, subservient to the German race and fearful of committing the ultimate crime: an act of self-interest. Thus, without a mind to know the world and without a self to be concerned about, the German citizen became the obedient follower of Hitler's will to power and his mystical claim to knowledge and omnipotence in defiance of reason and reality.Individual conscience and the concept of right and wrong based on the value of man's life were, according to the Nazis, instruments of selfishness and contrary to the interests of the German people. Thereafter, morality became what was right for the German people or Aryan race as determined by Hitler and the Nazi party. Individuality and self-interest were obliterated; the "organic whole" of the German race and people the principle of moral action.As Dr. Peikoff explains, the violence, death, and annihilation that followed were consequences of the anti-reason and anti-individualism of the major branches of German philosophy and not random occurrences, merging together at the same time in history. Fascism and Nazism were not consequences of the innate depravity of the German culture, nor a collective deathwish, nor consequences of a Marxist integration of opposing forces. They were consequences of German philosophy, the Kantian and Hegelian influence that eradicated reason and enshrined self-sacrifice and service to others thus insuring a obedient populace.While Ominous Parallels is relevant to any dictatorship or authoritarian regime, Dr. Peikoff points out that fascism and communism share the same philosophical base and that Hitler eagerly recruited former communists, believing them psychologically matched for Nazi ideology. In the sixties and seventies, the media advanced the theory that communism and fascism were polar opposites but Dr. Peikoff explains that they are branches of the same irrational, anti-reason, anti-individualist foundation. Both negate the power of the mind to know reality and sacrifice the individual to the needs and whims of society, obliterating the autonomous ego, and merging him into the "organic whole" of state power, embodied in an all-powerful charismatic leader a la Hitler, Franco, Stalin, Mussolini, or Castro.As the first book by an Objectivist intellectual other than Ayn Rand, Dr. Peikoff follows in her illustrious path, showing how the role of reason and individualism are crucial fundamentals of any free society, and in contrast, how irrationality, mysticism, and altruism lead to the insane violence, savagery, and destruction of Nazi Germany.While ominous parallels exist between Germany and present-day America, Dr. Peikoff speculates that the American people are still guided by reason and individuality and it is the intellectuals, who are destroying the country. Combine this with the surging popularity of Ayn Rand's ideas and their integration into the culture, and one can see the possibility of a new American renaisance of reason and individualism that can recapture the spirit of the Enlightenment and its respect for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Two important, illuminating, relevant modern themes in this 37 year-old book by a disciple of Ayn Rand: (1) our currently prevalent collectivist, statist philosophy is real and significant and can be defeated only by a better idea — Peikoff proposes Ayn Rand’s (and Aristotle’s) individualism and objectivism as that better idea; and (2) the Ominous Parallels between pre-Nazi 1920-1930 Germany and 21st Century America.I had previously been unaware of the leading role of the pre-Nazi German intellectuals in developing and popularizing the philosophical foundation for the rise of Hitler. (Although Peikoff’s finger pointing at Plato, Kant, and Hegel strikes me as bit overdone.)But the overall cultural, sociological, educational, economic and political comparisons of pre-Nazi Germany with America today are obvious and chilling. (“When I hear the word ‘culture,’ ” said Hanns Johst (President of the Reich Theater Chamber), in an immortal line, “I slip back the safety-catch of my revolver.”)The questions remaining to be answered are: (1) which of the competing political ideas in America will emerge as “the will of the people;” and (2) who will be the leader embodying that will?Will the end of our political argument be that “the enemies of the people,” whomever they may be determined to be, are required to mark their clothing, observe curfews, and live and work only in designated ghettos, before their delivery to the killing fields?Unfortunate multiple typos in the Kindle edition, an unnecessary minor flaw.Highly recommend for those who believe we can learn from history.

Dr Peikoff is a real intellectual gem.Every other book on this topic deals with EFFECTS and not CAUSES. Politics, economics, circumstantial issues... you name it... every other book talks about these as being the reasons for Nazi Germany happening. How can they be so wrong?They simply don't understand conceptual philosophy - or any, it might appear - like Dr Peikoff does. Politics is a byproduct of earlier philosophical branches (metaphysics, epistemology and ethics). Dr Peikoff BRILLIANTLY shows how Nazi Germany happened and why we should remain vigilant today.If you read only one book, read this.

As the heir to the ayn rand throne of objectivism the author does a great job of comparing modern America to prewar Germany

Arrived very quickly, thank you. Bought as a Christmas present, for my son. It was his request, so he is more than pleased. ( it would bore me to tears!)

interesting bookarrived when expected

good book, great seller