[Xmca-l] Re: Hitler's World by T. Snyder

[Huw Lloyd]

Hi David,

Your last paragraph concerns "what is the power that moves peoples?".  This
is the criteria which, I believe, qualifies a historical account of a
pan-continental kind to be of a high standard, i.e. it doesn't merely
describe, it seeks to explain, which is what the Tolstoy quotes were
concerning.

As I understand it, the 'educated and civilized' people of Germany did not
adopt these ideas, but rather suffered them.  Interestingly with respect to
rational responses, Jung thought of rationality as a very feeble defense
against the tide of social attitudes engulfing Germany at the time.  We do
not really need to look to the extremes to see this at work.   A mere
refusal to sing a royal national anthem can enrage those in its thrall, as
we see with labour's first glimmers of liberal leadership from Jeremy
Corbyn (see
http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2015/sep/16/jeremy-corbyn-and-the-national-anthem-a-press-chorus-of-disapproval
).

Best,
Huw


On 16 September 2015 at 20:59, David Preiss <preiss.xmca@gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear colleagues,
>
> I am sorry. I can't follow your thoughts. I just think that the essay is
> informative and worth reading. I liked two ideas of the essay:
>
> -The brute notion of nature adopted by Hitler, a strange mix of
> pseudo-darwinism and, maybe, pseudo-romanticism? In some way it is a
> naturalisation of culture as well.
>
> -The paradoxical relationship Hitler established with science (or
> technology) and how he understood the relationship between science and
> nature. Technology was part and parcel of nature, ethical thinking not.
>
> It is shocking how such strange blend of ideas could be used to rationalise
> the extermination of the family of my grandparents and be adopted by such a
> large amount of presumed civilised and educated people to support the
> criminals that took over Germany 80 years ago.
>
> When we see what is going on in Syria and Iraq these days, one wonders what
> is the strange combination of ideas driving human beings to massacre each
> other in a genocidal way again and how those ideas are not adequately
> challenged by all of those that witness the events.
>
> David
>
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, Sep 16, 2015 at 1:04 PM, HENRY SHONERD <hshonerd@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > This thread is enough to make a Buddhist out of one.
> >
> > With Peekaboo we’re back to Annalisa’s video of the child and the baby
> > gorilla at the zoo playing peekaboo. I googled “peekaboo” and found that
> it
> > “...is thought by developmental psychologists <
> > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developmental_psychology> to demonstrate
> an
> > infant's inability to understand object permanence <
> > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_permanence>.” Am I wrong, or isn’t
> > Heisenberg showing us that it’s impossible to prove such permanence?
> > There’s no there there. As well, the “God particle” is no particle at
> all.
> > It’s a field. Then there’s the closing of each of Mike’s posts from
> Boesch:
> > "It is the dilemma of psychology to deal as a natural science with an
> > object that creates history.”
> >
> > Thanks to Huw for Tolstoy. War and Peace challenges (some) conceptions of
> > freedom and human agency. So does the quote from Boesch that ends each of
> > Mike’s posts. But doesn’t Snyder point precisely to the failure of
> Hitler’s
> > nihilistic project to come to terms with Boesch’s dilemma? I guess I’m
> > pointing here myself to the crises of psychology that are at the heart of
> > Vygotsky’s work.
> >
> > And, aren’t comedy and tragedy both figure and ground to one another?
> Back
> > to Buddhism. Or am I totally off thread and off my rocker?
> >
> >  Henry
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > > On Sep 16, 2015, at 8:32 AM, Huw Lloyd <huw.softdesigns@gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > > Peekaboo is the difference between comedy and tragedy.
> > >
> > > Huw
> > >
> > > On 16 September 2015 at 15:02, mike cole <mcole@ucsd.edu> wrote:
> > >
> > >> ​Peekaboo, not Hitler's view of the world, is the topic thread here.
> > >>
> > >> mike​
> > >>
> > >> On Tue, Sep 15, 2015 at 9:50 PM, Annalisa Aguilar <annalisa@unm.edu>
> > >> wrote:
> > >>
> > >>> I hovered in uncertainty to reply, but, um…am I missing something?
> > >>>
> > >>> Honestly, I got more out of watching a toddler play peekaboo with a
> > baby
> > >>> ape: I certainly didn't feel nausea at the end.
> > >>>
> > >>> Oh and by the way, happy new year.
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> --
> > >>
> > >> It is the dilemma of psychology to deal as a natural science with an
> > >> object that creates history. Ernst Boesch
> > >>
> >
> >
>