You know who else
September 16, 2015 12:39 AM Subscribe
"Hitler the politician was right that a rapturous sense of catastrophic time creates the potential for radical action. When an apocalypse is on the horizon, waiting for scientific solutions seems senseless, struggle seems natural and demagogues of blood and soil come to the fore."
Timothy Snyder draws parallels between, on the one hand, WWII, the Nazi concept of lebensraum and the holocaust and, on the other, skepticism of science and collective action regarding climate change today in a wide ranging essay for The Guardian.
Timothy Snyder draws parallels between, on the one hand, WWII, the Nazi concept of lebensraum and the holocaust and, on the other, skepticism of science and collective action regarding climate change today in a wide ranging essay for The Guardian.
This post was deleted for the following reason: Hey, I know this is a different essay than the recent open Snyder Hitler post, but there are very many sites with Snyder essays re Hitler on them right now since his new book just came out, and maybe we can keep them in the open post. Please contact us if you have questions. -- taz
It's the same author about the same person, but the framing and content is entirely different.
posted by Happy Dave at 1:53 AM on September 16, 2015
posted by Happy Dave at 1:53 AM on September 16, 2015
The author and Nazis are almost the only things in common between the two, which I guess is a fair bit, but the two essays are heading in entirely different directions.
posted by deadwax at 1:57 AM on September 16, 2015
posted by deadwax at 1:57 AM on September 16, 2015
I must say that I have a lot of fears in common with Snyder. It's why I have been so concerned about the rightward drift in rhetoric in Europe, as well as the erosion of post-war governance structures and public goods. It really doesn't take that long (in human lifetime terms) for lessons to be forgotten, and we're wrong to think that as a species we've somehow become incapable of mass murder and brutality in the span of 75 years. I mean, right now there's several active wars where immense cruelty and suffering happens every day, although we're thankfully not killing and brutalising each other on the immense scale we did last century.
But it's a fragile system, founded on a welter of underlying assumptions about energy, water, food supplies, weather patterns and a myriad of other factors that have allowed us to more than double the planet's population since the guns fell silent in 1945. Those assumptions could crack and break in future. And the one thing we can be sure there won't be a short supply of will be charismatic autocrats who promise that they will build a better future, atop a pile of other people's skulls if needs be.
posted by Happy Dave at 2:08 AM on September 16, 2015
But it's a fragile system, founded on a welter of underlying assumptions about energy, water, food supplies, weather patterns and a myriad of other factors that have allowed us to more than double the planet's population since the guns fell silent in 1945. Those assumptions could crack and break in future. And the one thing we can be sure there won't be a short supply of will be charismatic autocrats who promise that they will build a better future, atop a pile of other people's skulls if needs be.
posted by Happy Dave at 2:08 AM on September 16, 2015
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posted by Joe in Australia at 1:50 AM on September 16, 2015