"People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage."
John Kenneth Galbraith
"This is the way in which he conceals from you the kind of work to which he is putting you; he promises you illumination, he offers you knowledge, science, philosophy, enlargement of mind. He scoffs at times gone by; he scoffs at every institution which reveres them.
He shows you how to become as gods. Then he laughs and jokes with you, and gets intimate with you; he takes your hand, and gets his fingers between yours, and grasps them, and then you are his."
J. H. Newman, The Time of Antichrist
"The Nazi’s crisis is principally a financial one. The layer in the party interested in theories has always been extraordinarily thin. The intellectuals already parted company with the party. The majority of party members consist of the dumbest of the dumb, with the brown-shirts’ cadres held together by cash payments, and not by convictions. The party’s head office has been spending like there’s no tomorrow, living off the attitude that it would spread itself over the state with its plagues of locusts in the foreseeable future.
The Hitler Party likes to emphasize its uniqueness, and it really should not be measured against conventional yardsticks. Even if it were to explode into smithereens today, the fact would remain that it recently won fifteen million voters. It must satisfy not only a particular political need, but also a specifically German emotional condition. Its brutality, loud-mouthedness and brainlessness have acted not as a deterrent but rather as an attraction, and have generated unconditional and subservient followers. This fact cannot be easily brushed aside.
The great, nativist Führer, who has all the allures and outer appearance of a Gypsy Virtuoso, might have his box-office hit and fade with it. But the evil and ugly instincts he has called up will not blow away so easily, and will plague the whole of public life in Germany for long years to come. New political and social systems will replace the old ones, but the after-effects of Hitler will also rise again, and later generations will have to step up for the wrestling match that the German Republic was too cowardly to fight."
Carl von Ossietzky, Winter Fairy Tale, 3 January 1933
Alas, Carl von Ossietzky's estimate of the demise of the National Socialists was overly optimistic, and badly mistaken about the depths of the moral cowardice and opportunism endemic in people of privilege, and the behind the scenes deals being made by politically influential Germans.
On November 19, 1932 a letter signed by 22 important representatives of industry, finance and agriculture, had asked Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as chancellor. Hindenburg reluctantly agreed to appoint Hitler as chancellor after the parliamentary elections of July and November 1932 had not resulted in the formation of a majority government.
At the end of the same month that he wrote his Winter Fairy Tale, a new German cabinet was sworn in during a brief ceremony in Hindenburg's office. The NSDAP gained three posts: Hitler was named chancellor.
Following the February 27, 1933 Reichstag fire, which the NSDAP used to seize power and crush all opposition, Ossietzky was arrested and held in 'protective custody' in Spandau prison. Ossietzky underestimated the speed with which the Nazis would go about ridding the country of unwanted political opponents.
In 1936, he was awarded the 1935 Nobel Peace Prize but was forbidden from traveling to Norway and accept the prize. After enduring years of being systematically starved, tortured, and generally maltreated in various Nazi concentration camps, Ossietzky died of tuberculosis in May 1938 in a Berlin prison.
Stocks managed to shake off any concerns that might have remained and rallied into the weekly close.
The VIX fell further as a feeling of 'confidence' returns to the speculation.
The Dollar took another leg lower onto the 106 handle.
Gold and silver moved higher into overhead resistance.
PPI next Tuesday.
"If there are damned souls in Hell, it is because men blind themselves.”
E.A. Bucchianeri, Faust: My Soul Be Damned for the World
Vanity, wealth, and power are the idols and masters of this world. But they have been overthrown through the death and resurrection of the Lord, who took on our nature, so that we might partake in His. He has ransomed us from ourselves, freed us from the tyranny of the world, and raised us up, giving us the choice to serve Him not as slaves, but in freedom.
Serve then whom you will, but know well who you serve. For it is that which you love, and with whom you and yours will abide.
Have a pleasant weekend.
