Völkerringen: Total War

[T.K. Baha]

Something I have been thinking about while watching the WWII channel. It is amazing in WWII how valiantly some fought while facing certain death and defeat. I saw footage from the end of the war of Berlin, with whole city blocks being piles of rubble and not a single structure left undamaged. At the same time, you see a large "Heil Hitler!" spray painted on what used to be a support wall. Children and old men swearing an oath of allegiance surely to be shoveled up and burned a few hours later.

The question I have is why people would follow like lemmings into obviously stupid situations. Your life isn't worth giving for a sinking ship. The only thing I can come up with is a people who have lived under a monarchy for near an era (The Hapsburgs) and then under the Kaiser. When Hitler came to power the people had already been conditioned to blind obedience and total loyalty to the state and they kept doing what they were told as if it had been the Kaiser.

Thoughts?

[Ebola]

I think there was more to it than just conditioning of the old.
Since 1941 Hitler was openly against "bolshevism" and "communism" which was seen as a very real threat against Germany, and even clearer as the Russians advanced. Though the jews were seen as "untermensch" (sub-humans) they were not posing a military threat, but the Russians were.
If anything the Germans were conditioned against "bolshevism" and frightened to death by the possibility of their "great" (ruined) city falling into the hands of the Russians.

This anti-communistic ideology was so strong, and not just in Germany but all over Europe and US, that we had the "Cold War" against the "evil empire" for years after with the predominant power being USA. On this point there seems to have been similiarities between USA´s and Hitler´s ideas...

The anti-communistic movement played a huge part in the German recruitment of foreign volunteers too. Jews were never mentioned. Here are three examples of recruitment posters from Denmark:
http://www.befrielsen1945.dk/temaer/angrebdemokrati/tysktjeneste/kilder/1214176.jpghttp://www.unique-century.dk/FrikorpsDanmark.jpghttp://img.kb.dk/tidsskriftdk/gif/ffo/ffo_1993_32-IMG/ffo_1993_32_0171_1.jpg
"Crush bolshevism", "For Denmark against bolshevism" and "Danish deed on the eastern front"

[docus]

The anti-communistic movement played a huge part in the German recruitment of foreign volunteers too. Jews were never mentioned. Here are three examples of recruitment posters from Denmark:

"Crush bolshevism", "For Denmark against bolshevism" and "Danish deed on the eastern front"

They used the same slogans and techniques for their recruitment for the Flemish SS Sturmbrigade:

http://www.military.be/HPIM4473.JPG http://www.military.be/HPIM4463.JPG http://www.artsnotdead.com/v/vspfiles/photos/MB00002-2.jpg <- You can defend Belgium... By fighting on the eastern front!

I saw this in Sociology 101: during the 1930s, suicide rates for Western Europe were particularly high compared to other regions. When WW2 hit off, these rates dropped dramatically, almost to zero. Apparently, having a common goal, a common enemy, a Volksfeind, makes people forget their misery and take out their rage on that enemy. In Belgium, 10% of the population was either in nazi circles, or communist resistance movements.

So basically, war and death makes people feel complete.

[Struwwelpeter]

It's not that they were brainwashed in to giving up their lives for a "sinking ship", it is that modern people are brainwashed in to being horrified of violence and death, and they are incapable of sacrificing or exposing themselves to lethal environments due to a nagging fear of failure that is very deeply rooted in their minds. Modern people have "sold their souls to the devil" as John Denver put it, and so the idea of getting blown up or tortured or crushed seems awful to them, when to the Völk, it was nothing.

[docus]

It's not that they were brainwashed in to giving up their lives for a "sinking ship", it is that modern people are brainwashed in to being horrified of violence and death, and they are incapable of sacrificing or exposing themselves to lethal environments due to a nagging fear of failure that is very deeply rooted in their minds. Modern people have "sold their souls to the devil" as John Denver put it, and so the idea of getting blown up or tortured or crushed seems awful to them, when to the Völk, it was nothing.

That's sort of a contradiction in itself, isn't it? What makes you think the people of the war generation were any different from the modern ones? You don't think that if a massive empire was openly threatening to invade your continent people would just sit back and do nothing? All humans have a fighting spirit that can drive them to kill or be killed, although you're correct about it being dormant due to the absence of such a threat.

[Struwwelpeter]

What's different about modern people? They are fags. Just ask anyone over the age of 90. All humans have a fighting spirit when presented with a threat? We'll see about that when I Fuck Your Ass...

[Tachosomoza]

It's all conditioning of the poor by the elite. In the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, they'd give poor kids plastic keys painted gold, telling them that it was the "key to heaven". They were then sent out to the minefields. In nearly every war in every society since the beginning of time, the poor and lower middle class groups were hyped up with fancy parades, shiny medals and uniforms, and loud, blaring marches, along with the healthy dose of religious BS. They joined the service en masse, and were sent to their deaths by the general and officers' class, which was historically comprised of the upper classes/aristocracy. Even in the face of defeat, the sheeple fight to the death, because they've been programmed that way. They think that if they don't they'll be letting their family and all they hold dear down, and very possibly might go to hell. It's that simple.