So its -20c here and I happened to stumble upon a documentary on the Siege of Stalingrad and it occurred to me that this is a movie best viewed in winter and the colder the better! You might want to pause the movie half way through and go for a walk and if you dress a little light for the temperature… great… better still, lay in the snow motionless for a few hours! View movie here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-LZKo74VGg&spfreload=1
I doubt the makers of this film exaggerated the conditions during this event but even if it was half as bad, it would have still have been hell!
For anyone interested in “humanity” (or the lack of) its an interesting study. It seems that Hitler was a tad mad and a little too ambitious; whether he was acting FOR the German people or himself or both its unlikely we will ever know.
One thing I got from the movie was his detachment from the reality his minions had to face; he probably never lost a finger, toe or foot to frostbit nor did he ever go without a meal during the kerfuffle he and his fascist pals created! Had he spent a day at the eastern front and failed to relent, then he would have confirmed his insanity!
Its this lack of empathy (or actual experience) that drives right-wing ideology. Its probably also handy to harbor a good deal of narcissism; those traits together lock-in the hard-ass sociopaths reality? If you are born into wealth, poverty is a concept you may not be able to comprehend — they’re just people without money… that’s all, their suffering is a total mystery. I recall a story about G.W. Bush; Dubya was, for some strange reason, attending the opening of a grocery store, he had to be enlightened (by a cashier?) as to what a bar code scanner was! That’s how detached Curious George is! He’d never had to purchase grocery’s… a servant took care of those tasks!
Back to the eastern front; Joe Stalin was also reputed (by history) as a tyrant, every bit as nasty as his right-wing counter-parts. This is troubling to me; Stalin was not the aggressor in this conflict. Stalin’s ideology was (I assume) for the people? That’s how leftists think, equality for all, benevolence, selflessness, all-for-one-and-one-for-all, etc?
Tyranny may have been a corner Stalin was forced into; as fascist elements through wrenches into the communist machinery! Imagine you are a wealthy baron, living an enviable life. Communism is the last thing you’d want to catch-on, you’d do everything in your power to thwart the concept! Hell, a communist neighbour would be a terrifying affront to your prestigious lifestyle! The wealthy would set aside any differences and unite against such a threat, wage all out war on the concept! Propaganda was one tool but the threat was so unthinkable to the elite class that war was also an option.
For now consider how propaganda was used to gum-up the workings of communism. In the 60’s we hated the godless, dirty commies! None of us ever knew why, other than they were dirty and didn’t believe in God… and their leaders were unelected tyrants… and that they threatened not only our way of life but our very lives (with atomic annihilation!) In the 90’s when the soviet collapse came, it was proof of the inferiority of communism!
In between those events (the siege and the fall) the communist threat spawned two major wars; Korea and Vietnam and many third world atrocity’s mostly Latin American, involving the good old CIA and their sack full of wrenches!
I know of one historian Michael Parenti who argues that WW2 was not intended to be waged against fascist elements but originated due to the threat of communism… and unintended consequences ensued (blow-back.)
They say that “Truth is the first casualty of war” You might say its the first causality of capitalism? Which isn’t working very well at the moment for the majority of the planets inhabitant… the 99percent!
The Fractured Snap Of Ginger Rogers 