A Warning to the Incurious

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Untitled - Image © Kel Harvey

Just a short word tonight that I'll amplify later. Because I've been mulling over the disturbing similarities between our current political zeitgeist and that of pre-war Europe, with the obvious caveat that we have not yet witnessed paramilitary activity on the streets; and because the email round from the Lads has now gotten round to actually voicing these comparisons - I didn't want to be the first and seem overly hysterical - it's probably time to try and unpick the bones of it all.

The sad fact is that Trump, Johnson et al, are all employing a methodology that first saw the light of day in the inter-war years in Germany. They say that truth is the first casualty of war, but the lies and slander employed by the NSDAP, a tactic Adolf Hitler abstracted from the Social Democrats, whom he loathed, were to be employed throughout the thankfully brief life of the Third Reich to great and tragic effect. Truth is sidelined long before conflict itself - the seeds are are sown well in advance.

While it would be crass in the extreme to make a direct comparison between Nazi Germany and our current situation - that should need no explication - the methods currently being employed by various heads of state and their advisors owe much to that sorry period of our collective history. That there are agendas beyond simple governance and a desire to serve one's country and people is incontestable: where this all leads us is a different question entirely. Given the vaulting ambition and personal weaknesses of at least two of the major players in this game, I would not personally be surprised if things got very unpleasant for the majority of us in the very near future. A warning from history indeed.

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