Adolf Hitler on 'Causes of the Collapse', part 2

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Continuing with passages from Mein Kampf, 2017 Thomas Dalton translation. See here.

In the ongoing 'Causes of the Collapse', Part 2 (Chapter 10), Hitler points first to the influence of international finance, its belief that expanded trade could make up for the inability to produce enough goods at home. This caused the agricultural sphere to suffer while urban industrialization increased, leading to imbalances and greater class divisions. Next, he explains the poisonous, unregulated Jewish press in a way that we can instantly recognize in today's media empires. Nothing has changed along those lines.

P441 10.5 TOXINS AND SYMPTONS

During the long period of peace prior to the last war, certain evils were evident here and there—although, with one or two exceptions, very little effort was made against the virus. Here again, these exceptions were first and foremost those economic phenomena of the nation that were more apparent to the individual consciousness than the harmful conditions existing in many other spheres.

[…]

The amazing increase of the German population before the war brought the question of providing daily bread into a more prominent position [...]. Unfortunately, those responsible couldn't decide to arrive at the only correct solution, but preferred to reach their goal by cheaper methods. Renouncing the idea of acquiring fresh territory, and substituting for it a mad desire for global economic conquest, was bound to eventually lead to unlimited and harmful industrialization.

The first and most fatal consequence was a weakening of the agricultural class, whose decline was proportionate to the increase in the proletariat of the urban areas. In the end, the equilibrium was completely upset.

The big barrier dividing rich and poor now became apparent. Luxury and poverty lived so close together that the consequences were bound to be deplorable. Poverty and frequent unemployment began to wreak havoc with the people, leaving discontent and embitterment behind them. The result of this was to divide the population into political classes. Discontent increased despite commercial prosperity. Matters finally reached the point at which everyone felt that 'things can't go on as they are,' although no one seemed able to visualize what was really going to happen.

P443 10.6 THE RULE OF MONEY

Far worse than these, however, were other consequences that became apparent as a result of the economization of the nation.

In proportion to the degree that commerce assumed definite control of the state, money became more of a god, to whom all had to serve and bow down. Heavenly gods became more and more old-fashioned, and were stuffed away in the corners to make room for the worship of Mammon. And thus began a period of utter degeneration. This was especially pernicious because it came at a time when the nation was at its critical hour, and more than ever needed an exalted ideal. Germany should have been prepared to protect with the sword her efforts to win her own daily bread through 'peaceful economic labor.'

Unfortunately, the domination of money was sanctioned in the very quarter that should have opposed it. His Majesty the Kaiser made a mistake when he raised representatives of the new finance capital to the ranks of nobility. Admittedly, it may be an excuse that even Bismarck failed to realize the looming danger in this respect. In practice, however, all ideal virtues became secondary considerations to those of money; it was clear that having once taken this road, the nobility of the sword would soon rank second to the nobility of finance.

[...]

[F]rom the standpoint of blood-purity, such a development was deeply regrettable. The nobility began to lose more and more of the racial qualities that were a condition of its very existence. In many cases, the term 'ignobility' would have been more appropriate.

[…]

To Hitler's portrayal of how things were prior to WWI, I will compare today's 'business-friendly' conservative politicians (i.e., Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney types) who approve of allowing third world immigration that provides cheap labor to American businesses and wealthy citizens, which undercuts both the traditional working class and our nation's White racial majority. For these people, profits come first.

P457 10.12 STATE AND PRESS

It is an overriding interest of the state and nation to prevent these people [referring to the simple and credulous majority “who believe everything they read”] from falling into the hands of bad, ignorant, or even vicious-minded teachers. Therefore it is the duty of the state to supervise their education and prevent every form of mischief. Particular attention should be paid to the press. Its influence on these people is by far the strongest and most penetrating of all, because its effect is not transitory but continual. It's immense significance lies in the uniform and persistent repetition of its teaching. Here, if anywhere, the state should never forget that all means should serve the same end. It must not be led astray by the drivel of so-called 'freedom of the press,' or be talked into neglecting its duty, and withholding from the nation that which is good and which does good. With ruthless determination, the state must keep control of this instrument of popular education and place it at the service of the state and the nation.

But what dish did that German press serve up to it's readers, in pre-war days? Was it not the worst poison imaginable? Wasn't the worst form of pacifism injected into our people at a time when others were preparing, slowly but surely, to pounce upon Germany? Even in peacetime, didn't this self-same press of ours already instill into the public mind a doubt as to the sovereign rights of the state itself, thereby limiting its means of defense? Wasn't it the German press that understood how to make all this nonsense about 'western democracy' palatable to our people, until an enthusiastic public was eventually prepared to entrust its future to the League of Nations? Wasn't this press responsible for promoting moral decay? Weren't morals and public decency made to look ridiculous and old-fashioned, until our people finally became 'modern'? By means of persistent attacks, didn't the press continue to undermine the authority of the state, until a single blow sufficed to bring this institution down? […]

P459 10.13 JEWISH PRESS TACTICS

The function of the so-called liberal press was to dig a grave for the German people and the German Reich. We need not mention the lying papers of the Marxist press; for them, lying is as much a vital necessity as the mouse is to a cat. Their sole task is to break the national backbone of the people, thus preparing the nation to become the slaves of international capital and its masters, the Jews.

And what did the state do to counteract this mass poisoning of the nation? Nothing, absolutely nothing at all! A few silly decrees, a few fines for criminality, and that was it. By this policy, they hoped to win the favor of this plague by means of flattery, with a recognition of the 'value' of the press, its 'importance,' its 'educational mission,' and similar nonsense. The Jews acknowledged all this with a knowing smile and a sly thanks.

[…] No one had the courage to employ any thoroughly radical methods. Everyone piddled around with halfway prescriptions. Thus, instead of striking at its heart, they only irritated the viper. The result was that not only did everything remain the same, but the power of the institution that should have been combated grew stronger year by year.

[…]

P461 10.14 THE 'RESPECTABLE' PRESS

It must be admitted that all this was the result of, on the one hand, extraordinarily crafty tactics on the part of Jewry, and on the other, an obviously official stupidity or naivete. The Jew was too clever to allow a simultaneous attack on the whole of his press. No: one section served as cover for the other.

In the most despicable manner possible, the Marxist newspapers reviled everything that was sacred, furiously attacking the state and government and inciting certain classes of the community against each other. At the same time, the Jewish bourgeois-democratic papers knew how to camouflage themselves as models of objectivity. They studiously avoided harsh language, knowing well that blockheads can only judge external appearances and never penetrate to the real depth and meaning of anything. They measure the worth of something by its exterior and not its content. The press owes its esteem to this human frailty.

For these people, the Frankfurter Zeitung [like the New York Times in the USA] was the essence of respectability. It always carefully avoided coarse language. It rejected the use of every form of physical force, and persistently appealed to the nobility of fighting with 'intellectual' weapons—an idea that was, curiously enough, most popular with the least intellectual classes. This is one of the results of our half-education, which turns people away from the instinct of nature, and pumps them with a certain amount of knowledge without being able to create a complete understanding [This is why, under Hitler, public school consisted of less academics and more sports and citizenship-moral training until an academic specialization was chosen in higher grades. Common sense was encouraged.] […]

Man must never fall into the insanity of thinking that he was meant to become lord and master of nature, which a half-education has helped to encourage. Man must realize the fundamental necessity of nature's rule, and realize that his existence is subject to the law of eternal strife and upward struggle. He will then feel that there cannot be a separate law for mankind in a universe in which planets orbit suns, moons orbit planets, and where the strong are always the masters of the weak—subjecting them to such laws, or crushing them. Man must submit to the eternal principles of this supreme wisdom. He may try to understand them, but he can never free himself from their sway.

It's for just such intellectual hedonists that the Jew writes his so-called intellectual press. The Frankfurter Zeitung and Berliner Tageblatt are written for them; the tone is adapted to them, and it is on them that such papers have an influence. While studiously avoiding all crude forms of expression, poison is injected from other vials into the hearts of the readers.

[…]

The moment any attempt is made to proceed against a member of the gutter press, all the others rush to its assistance—not to support its policy, God forbid, but simply and solely to defend the principle of freedom of the press and of public opinion. This outcry will succeed in cowering even the staunchest critic, because it comes from the mouths of the 'respectable' papers.

[…]

I believe that our present generation could easily master this danger, if they were rightly led. It has gone through certain experiences that surely strengthened the nerves of all those who didn't lose them completely. In days to come, the Jew will surely raise a tremendous cry in his newspapers, if a hand is laid on his favorite nest, if a move is made to end this press mischief, and if this tool of education is brought under state control and no longer left in the hands of aliens and enemies of the people. I believe that this will be easier for us than it was for our fathers. A 30-cm shell hisses louder than a thousand Jewish newspaper vipers—so let them hiss!

To be continued ...