"Friday, April 20, was Hitler's fifty-sixth birthday. The radio announced that Hitler had come out of his safe bomb-proof bunker to talk with the fourteen to sixteen year old boys who had 'volunteered' for the 'honor' to be accepted into the SS and to die for their Fuhrer in the defense of Berlin.
What a cruel lie! These boys did not volunteer, but had no choice, because boys who were found hiding were hanged as traitors by the SS as a warning that, 'he who was not brave enough to fight had to die.' When trees were not available, people were strung up on lamp posts. They were hanging everywhere, military and civilian, men and women, ordinary citizens who had been executed."
Dorothea von Schwanenfluegel, The Battle For Berlin
“Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
That really is the problem isn't it, as captured in those two seemingly disparate quotes by Bonhoeffer. How does one speak out without judging, or rather falling into the fault of being judgmental? And yet not to fall into that more terrible complicity of silence?
What complicates the matter is that the people tend to enjoy when someone is speaking out against those things which they do not like. But they tend to react with almost violent indignation when anything with which they have emotionally identified themselves is brought up for judgement. Not intellectually, but emotionally identified.
The more a thing may disappoint them, the more it may be proven false, the more readily it is debunked and shown to be a falsehood, or even evil, the more strongly some will embrace it, as if by sacrificing their own integrity, and perhaps even their souls, for something so unworthy will silence the criticisms and redeem it.
As noted in the first quote, I was always puzzled by the mass hangings of those who were not showing sufficient enthusiasm for the Fuhrer during the Battle of Berlin, even as the Russians were rolling into town and the war was obviously lost. Why weren't these brave SS fanatics fighting for their city, rather than going around and hanging boys and old men?
But it makes perfect sense, if one thinks of it in terms of the credibility trap.
For to admit that the Reich was a lie, and a mistake, that they were fanatical fools, and Hitler an incompetent creature of evil would be to admit that one was wrong, a failure, and worse, had become an accomplice to an unimaginable evil.
To accept that guilt, to admit one's complicity in such a horrendous assault on justice, to humble oneself and ask for forgiveness, would have taken a heroic act of self-awareness, humility and repentance. And worse, for these fanatics, it would diminish their pride, which was at the foundation of the most fervent supporters of such flamboyant excess.
That, and a desire to become beasts, to lose themselves in their mindless fanaticism, and escape the pain of being men. And so they struck out, and killed everything that held up a mirror to their darkened souls, and showed them their pride was based on a lie.
So odd, that after having lost a long and costly war that was based on hatred and lies for the economic benefits of a few, that men would dress up in their costumes, which in any other context would be ridiculous, and rampage around, lynching the innocent.
Pride is the mother of all sin. This is the descent into hell. This is the unwillingness to let go of the lie, for the sake of pride and its power, and cling to evil as it draws one into the abyss.
This is why some thinkers say that the door to hell is indeed locked— from the inside.
And not all violence in the service of evil has to be physical. In modern times the weapon of choice is often economic and financial.
Stocks ended the week quietly, having struck their level for the stock option expiration today.
There will be a precious metals option expiration on the Comex next Thursday the 24th. I have included those calendars below.
Have a pleasant weekend.
