The Marmot’s Hole

2 Comments

1. dokdoforever
   Posted December 11, 2007 at 3:49 am | Permalink

   The writer argues that the disproportionate presence of Jews among the leadership of the Communist movement in the 1920s contributed to Hitler’s attachment to anti-semitism. Could be true. One thing I find strange in a way is not only the disproportionate Jewish influence in the left at that time, but also that Jews have been criticized for disproportionate influence in the capitalist world as well, as owners of banks and holders of large sums of capital. Jews are the scapegoats for both the extreme left and the extreme right. It’s kind of a puzzle to me how one group could end up exercising so much power on Both sides of an ideological struggle.

   As for Hitler and his strategy - imagine how successful and powerful he could have become had he harnessed all that human capital instead of marching it to the gas chambers? Sure, in the short run the Nazi state stole Jewish property and assets, but the NAZIs would only be hurting themselves in the long run.

2. mateomiguel
   Posted December 11, 2007 at 9:55 am | Permalink

   His description of Hitler before he became powerful really stuck with me. I think I’ve met people like this before back home in the States.

   The world’s misfortune is that this ill-educated, hate-filled nonentity also happened to be a born agitator and an extremely shrewd political organizer, and one whose racism and antisemitism would have stood out at the time only in their intensity rather than by the very fact of their existence.

   I’ve known people that were entirely unremarkable except for the profound passion of their hatred for something, whether it be “those goddamn fags,” “the fucking jews,” “porch monkeys,” or as the song says, “long-haired freaky people.” To imagine that someone like those idiots that made up the phrases I just quoted actually had the ability to take over a country is pretty frightening, because it might happen again.

   And since this is a Korea-centric blog, I gotta apply this to the Korean experience. Based on this description, a Korean version of Hitler could be driving a taxi in Seoul right now!