Every so often, I remind myself of and relish in watching the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. I find this documentary particularly instructive because most of the content is from first-person sources. It reminds me how an enlightened society can be seduced into mass delusion and ultimate destruction. If it happened in Germany 90 years ago, then it can happen here in the present day. Make no mistake, morons. No nation — no matter how democratic or authoritarian — exits without the explicit or tacit consent of its citizens. Do not believe the myths that the average German citizen did not approve of the Nazis nor did the majority vote for them. They voted with their silence and their carrying on, accepting the trade-off of economic insouciance for nationalist conquest — if it was ever really a trade-off.
There is one poignant line in the second episode by the narrator regarding Kristallnacht: “If you were Jewish, you understood now your neighbors would either ignore or applaud your destruction.” And that is, indeed, the seed of destruction. When good people stand by and do nothing, nations fall. Oh, well. Welcome to stupid America!