Hmmm…

A few days ago, I walked by a group of people protesting outside the local alternative radio station. A couple guys had a big sheet they’d painted up with a bunch of slogans and there were people with signs and whatnot. I was in a hurry to catch a bus, but I did manage to catch the basic gist of their complaints, namely that Bush is evil for wanting to privatize Social Security. Lots of Hitler comparisons, some swastikas, humming Deutschland Über Alles, you get the idea.

Which I thought was a little weird. I mean, taken at face value the message seems to be that these guys want “Hitler” in charge of mediating the transfer of wealth from young to old. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be trying to convince him not to relinquish some tiny modicum of control over it, right? I mean, I don’t necessarily want to say Stockholm Syndrome, but let’s just say the thought crossed my mind once or twice during the ensuing four hours I spent stuck in traffic on that damn bus.

(And no, I don’t think they were savvy enough to recognize that you’d have to stretch the meaning of the word pretty far to classify Bush’s plan as “privatization”; a sense of irony and a Friday-afternoon political protest usually don’t mix too well)

7 Responses to “Hmmm…”

  1. Curt Says:

    I wonder what people used for purposes of wild hysterical hyperbole before Hitler came along. I mean, in the ’30’s you couldn’t say: “This Hitler guy, he’s as bad as Hitler!” Genghis Khan? A bit too remote. Ivan the Terrible? Too obscure. Was the Antichrist in vogue up until WWII? I should think it hardly needs to be said, but this just reinforces I point I made some time ago, that those who spend all their time protesting and fighting against something they really loathe tend to let their imaginations and entire lives become dominated by it, often to the point where they can’t imagine any real alternative to it (the last election, anyone?). Sort of like a spiritual law of the excluded middle.

  2. Andy Stedman Says:

    I’m not familiar with every program the Nazi party implemented and promoted, but wouldn’t it be safe to say that Adolf would be for social security as it is?

  3. shonk Says:

    wouldn’t it be safe to say that Adolf would be for social security as it is?

    Yes, I think that would be a safe assumption. Which, again, is more ironic than most people seem to be able to deal with.

  4. Rossamus Says:

    “The Hitler regime introduced major changes in individual programs and program administration. In 1934 the regime dismantled the self-governance structure of all social insurance programs and appointed directors who reported to the central authorities. The regime made many improvements in social insurance programs and benefits, but these changes were conceived to serve the regime rather than the population. In 1938 artisans came to be covered under compulsory social insurance, and in 1941 public health insurance coverage was extended to pensioners. In 1942 all wage-earners regardless of occupation were covered by accident insurance, health care became unlimited, and maternity leave was extended to twelve fully paid weeks with job protection.”

    Hitler seemed to advocate the opposite of Bush’s program.

  5. elliot Says:

    Ha..well done Rossamus. Where’s that from?

  6. shonk Says:

    Here, apparently.

  7. Curt Says:

    “The regime made many improvements in social insurance programs and benefits, but these changes were conceived to serve the regime rather than the population.”

    With most historians, this assumption that the goal of every government program is malevolent, or at least purely self-serving, only seems to apply to the Nazis, but, my ignorance of the specificities of social support programs notwithstanding, I can’t find any very striking differences between the Nazi pension program and its equivalent in, say, my fair country of residence, France.

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