RE: Nazis & Moral Decline
Thanks for the response, JLA. I realized, shortly after posting my query, that I had misunderstood your original comment. I don't know whether you read my subsequent posts on this general subject, but if you did not, you might want to take a look at a couple of them.
Message 6074685
Message 6103257
A few additional comments.
The problem with using the term "decline of moral values", as I see it, is that it is generally used, these days, to condemn what people see as growing "moral laxity", the spread of "pornography," "hedonism", etc. This is precisely the sort of charge that the Nazis used to level against the democratic Weimar Republic in Germany.
But the kind of "moral values" the Nazis actually undermined themselves are values of a completely different order: the values embodied in the words compassion, tolerance of diversity, fellow-feeling, etc. All "liberal" values, incidentally...:-)
If this is what you really mean, I would agree.
BTW, an important point to remember, I think, is that although the Jews were the primary target of the Nazis, they were not the only ones. The extermination of the Gypsies, for example, is something most people (myself included) know very little about. Then there were the outspoken political dissidents, the mentally retarded, the homosexuals, etc. -- in other words, everybody "different". That is why, if it were up to me, I would have Intolerance declared the Eighth Cardinal Sin.
jbe
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