It's a scary world, after all.
August 22nd, 2008 | 
Author: My dad sends me quite a few forwarded emails (fewer since I introduced him to snopes.com) and most of them are groaner jokes or interesting conspiracy theories about oil, regular dad-forward type stuff.
He sent me this the other day, and I finally got around to reading it. If you have a chance, give it a read, and then at the end I have a little exercise for you to try.
A man, whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War II, owned a number of large industries and estates. When asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our attitude toward fanaticism. “Very few people were true Nazis,” he
said, “but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come. My family lost everything. I ended up in a concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my factories.”
We are told again and again by “experts” and “talking heads” that
Islam is the religion of peace, and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace. Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the spectra of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam.The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history.
It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honor- kill. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque.It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. It is the fanatics who teach their young to kill and to become suicide bombers.
The hard quantifiable fact is that the peaceful majority, the
“silent majority,” is cowed and extraneous.
murder of about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant.
China’s huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese
Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people.The average Japanese individual prior to World War II was not a warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way
across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel, and bayonet.
History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all
our posers of reason we often miss the most basic and uncomplicatedof points: Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence.
Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don’t speak up, because like my friend from Germany , they will awaken one
day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun.
Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs,
Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, andmany others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late.
As for us who watch it all unfold, we must pay attention to the
only group that counts; the fanatics who threaten our way of life.Lastly, anyone who doubts that the issue is serious and just
deletes this email without sending it on, is contributing to the passiveness that allows the problems to expand. So, extend yourself a bit and send this on and on and on! Let us hope that thousands,world wide, read this and think about it, and send it on — before it’s too late.
Emanuel Tanay, M.D.
Okay, nothing all that shocking or new or surprising, however, something occured to me as I was reading this, and I wonder what you guys think.
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The problem with emails like this, is the generalizations that they take as fact.
I agree, in general, that standing idly by during a conflict and allowing it to happen is, in effect, giving it an unspoken permission to occur. However, everyone also has that choice to make…
If you are willing to give up your right to dissent, then you have no right to argue when the time comes.
It isn’t that people actually WANT war, they just tend to go along with whatever someone tells them is best for ‘the greater good’. Look at the U.S. 7 years ago…they were screaming for blood against whoever was responsible for 9/11…they DIDN’T CARE WHO IT WAS, as long as someone PAID.
Any person in authority could have said; “Um…Botswana!!!” and holy shit, the populace had someone to focus on. Didn’t matter WHO it was, just THAT it was someone/someplace where they could seek revenge.
Now, 7 years later, people are saying, louder and louder,”END the war, pull out.” Which is great, but leaves the political leaders in a sticky wicket. But that is a different story…
The point is, is that everyone has a right to dissent. But there is a vast majority that is easily swayed by big events or grand gestures. That majority, is a lot like cattle, you tell them what they want to do, tell them what they want to hear, and they will do whatever they are told. You may need to condition them a little, but you will get to do what you wanted to in the first place. It is THAT group which has given up it’s voice, but also makes up the ever-important majority.
I hate to throw Americans under the bus, however, they are this conditioned type of people. They are insulated from the goings-on in the world. For example, these freshly-passed Olympics. I was in the ‘States for the first few day of the Olympics and never-once heard about ANY other country competing in the games. It was if they are being treated to think that they USA is the only country that matters out there, and the rest is irrelevant. I am all for a little patriotism, but at least recognize that there are others competing.
Same goes for what is taught in school. During this same visit, I was asked where I was from, ‘Cuz [I] talk funny’ (how delectably astute) I responded that I was from Canada.
[Blank look]….”where’s that?”
me: *sigh* “Oh, you know, where bacon comes from…”
Being conditioned to think that your country is the only one of significance, shocking the majority with a grand event, then giving them an object/place/person to focus the hurt and rage upon. Is a perfect example of how the majority can be manipulated so the those in power can do as they wish. People need to speak up, and speak out, and for fucks sake THINK before they do something they can’t back out of.
As far as the email goes, you can replace ‘Islam’ and ‘Muslim’ with “cake” and “Ice cream” and it still has the same effect.
mmmm….cake
This is why I thank the Nectar of the Gods every day that my Dad doesn’t have email.
Seriously.
Well its hard to disagree with the thesis of this mail, but remember that the silent majority doesnt have to stage marches and protests. All it has to do is to raise their children well and then time will do the rest.
Cake, Ice Cream, Nectar, and Kids….sounds like a birthday party!!
The Nazi’s even admitted that they just pushed the people into war.
*************************************************************
“Why of course people don’t want war. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a fascist dictatorship, democracy, pr a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do it tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”
–Hermann Goering,
Luftwaffe Commander
************************************************************
And laying back hoping for peace is no answer. Christ commanded us: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” That means feed the hungry, give to the poor and stand up for the powerless. It means giving up your life to serve others.
We don’t even give up small creature comforts for fear of being inconvenienced while people mere miles away starve to death. I’m as guilty as anyone else. And that’s a symptom of what’s wrong with us.
Dammit Steve!! I said CAKE!!!
There is a very interesting book you might like to read by a Daniel Goldhagen(?) called Hitler’s Willing Executioner’s it paints a very differnt picture of pre-war Germany than this email suggests; the majority of Germans after Versailles were very bitter about the treatment and anti-semitism wasn’t so much an ugly aberration by a vocal minority as much as it was just a fact of life; it was kind of ‘trendy’. I am with Jung, whilst one individual can be very smart, a large group of people exhibits all the collective intelligence of a crocodile, and they are much more easily persuaded to simply accept some rather vile tenets as sound than we might imagine is possible.
The book was controversial, because it suggested that the entire German people participated in the holocaust, at least in spirit if not action, rather joyfully.
The problem with emails like this, is the generalizations that they take as fact.
I agree, in general, that standing idly by during a conflict and allowing it to happen is, in effect, giving it an unspoken permission to occur. However, everyone also has that choice to make…
If you are willing to give up your right to dissent, then you have no right to argue when the time comes.
It isn’t that people actually WANT war, they just tend to go along with whatever someone tells them is best for ‘the greater good’. Look at the U.S. 7 years ago…they were screaming for blood against whoever was responsible for 9/11…they DIDN’T CARE WHO IT WAS, as long as someone PAID.
Any person in authority could have said; “Um…Botswana!!!” and holy shit, the populace had someone to focus on. Didn’t matter WHO it was, just THAT it was someone/someplace where they could seek revenge.
Now, 7 years later, people are saying, louder and louder,”END the war, pull out.” Which is great, but leaves the political leaders in a sticky wicket. But that is a different story…
The point is, is that everyone has a right to dissent. But there is a vast majority that is easily swayed by big events or grand gestures. That majority, is a lot like cattle, you tell them what they want to do, tell them what they want to hear, and they will do whatever they are told. You may need to condition them a little, but you will get to do what you wanted to in the first place. It is THAT group which has given up it’s voice, but also makes up the ever-important majority.
I hate to throw Americans under the bus, however, they are this conditioned type of people. They are insulated from the goings-on in the world. For example, these freshly-passed Olympics. I was in the ‘States for the first few day of the Olympics and never-once heard about ANY other country competing in the games. It was if they are being treated to think that they USA is the only country that matters out there, and the rest is irrelevant. I am all for a little patriotism, but at least recognize that there are others competing.
Same goes for what is taught in school. During this same visit, I was asked where I was from, ‘Cuz [I] talk funny’ (how delectably astute) I responded that I was from Canada.
[Blank look]….”where’s that?”
me: *sigh* “Oh, you know, where bacon comes from…”
Being conditioned to think that your country is the only one of significance, shocking the majority with a grand event, then giving them an object/place/person to focus the hurt and rage upon. Is a perfect example of how the majority can be manipulated so the those in power can do as they wish. People need to speak up, and speak out, and for fucks sake THINK before they do something they can’t back out of.
As far as the email goes, you can replace ‘Islam’ and ‘Muslim’ with “cake” and “Ice cream” and it still has the same effect.
mmmm….cake