Interesting, I forgot for a moment the dietary restrictions. Anyway, here follows the Hitler quote, I promised. It was a while ago that I had read this and I guess as I was recollecting it here at SI I had forgotten the context in which it was cited in the book and, in fact, I don't think it really is a quote of Hitler but I will quote anyway because I said I would. The book is The Life and Death of Adolph Hitler by Robert Payne, Praeger Publishers, NY, 1973. These are the concluding remarks of the book and I'm sure everyone will make different interpretations of its parallels to the Middle East.
"For all the foreseeable future he will remain to haunt us, more alive than ever, although he is dead. He hides in shadowy places and at the pinnacle of power, always urging men to commit the ultimate crime (Yassin? -- ET), the perfect atrocity, the most ferocious massacres. Into the ears of general and politicians he whispers: "Be merciless. It is very easy to kill people, and it simplifies problems. You will find it much easier now becaue I have lived. I have reduced the value of man to a fraction of what it was before. You will find, if you continue along the path I have opened for you, that the value of man will decline still further. Remember, mankind is almost valueless and its only use is to service our interests. We alone are the transmitters of civilization and the peope are nothing but cattle. Napalm is good for them."
So he whispers, and there are far too many ready listeners. The voice is seductive, and his logic, if his premises are accepted, is unimpeachable. The totalitarian way, with all that it means in terms of extermination camps and the suppression of liberties, of bombing defenseless villages or pouring flaming napalm on them, is always tempting to politicians, who find the complexities of democracy painfully inefficient. Hitler showed that it was possible to solve the problems of governmnet simply, effectively and efficiently, and he did it by destroying the government and substituting an armed police force, with himself as the Grand Policeman or Supreme Law Lord at the head.
In Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, one of the brothers relates the story "The Grand Inquisitor," set in an imaginary Spain at the time of the Inquisition. We see the Grand Inquisitor wandering through the streets of Seville and encountering Christ, who has come down to earth to bring solace to the people. The Grand Inquisitor is startled, for he believes in his own absolute authority over the people and his own power to bring them solace, and he therefore orders that Christ should be burned at the stake. The story is told on many levels, but essentially it is a study of the authoritarian temper (Arab religious authority --ET). Armed with mystery, miracle and authority, the Grand Inquisitor rules over his flock, those weak and pitiful people who are frightened by all the insoluble problems that confront them in the world, and he tells them there are no problems, they have merely to obey, and their doubts and hesitations will be resolved for he has removed from them the burden of conscience and given them a childlike happiness in place of despair. In perfect submission to the will of the Grand Inquisitor they achieve a sense of peace and communion with another. "At a sign from me," says the Grand Inquisitor to Christ, "they will heap up the hot coals around thee and burn thee."
The gentle Alyosha Karamazov, who has listened to the story told by this brother, says that it is quite impossible.
"No such fantastical creature as your Grand Inquisitor could ever exist," he says.
Ivan Karamazov disagrees; he has not the least doubt that such a creature has existed and will continue to exist.
"The Grand Inquisitor," he says "succumbs to the dread spirit of death and destruction, and therefore accepts lying and deception, and leads men consciously to death and destructions (Arafat et al -- ET) and always deceives them, so that they do not know where they are being led, and all the time these poor, blind creatures believe themselves to be happy."
So the face of Hitler merges imperceptibly into the face of the Grand Inquisitor, glowing with a kind of satanic majesty and leading men consciously to death and destruction. Alyosha Karamazov could not believe in his existence. In the present age we are only too aware of his existence, for he still walks among us." |
