MKVolII

CHAPTER TWO OF VOLUME TWO, THE STATE, is quite long so I will present my selected excerpts in several separate installments--as many as it takes. It begins with a description of different conceptions of the State, followed by comments on the policy of so-called  “Germanization.”

(See here for series introduction)

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GENERALLY SPEAKING, one can distinguish three different conceptions [of the State].

(1) Those who hold that the State is a more-or-less voluntary group of men under a ruling authority … those who worship legalized authority; the will of the people has no role whatsoever. This is the largest group.

(2) The second group ... includes those who desire a uniform system of governemt, but also a uniform language—though solely for technical reasons of administration. State authority … must also promote the good of its subjects … it's primary duty is to ensure the economic well-being of the individual citizens. The chief representatives are to be found among the average German bourgeoisie, especially our liberal democrats.

By Carolyn Yeager

TWO YEARS AGO, I ran a series of excerpts from Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf, Vol. One, taken from Thomas Dalton's new 2017 German to English translation.

I'm now into Volume Two, and will do the same (summarizing the chapters) with it. I'll begin right at the beginning this time with Chapter 1, WORLDVIEW AND PARTY. But I'm going to START at subheading 1.4, page 25, “The Folkish Concept:

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ALL KINDS OF PEOPLE, with all kinds of divergent opinions, are parading around under the 'folkish' banner. [...] The word 'folkish' doesn't express any clearly specified idea. It may be interpreted in several ways, and in practice it's just as vague as the word 'religious,' for instance. [...] The word 'religious' acquires a precise meaning only when it's associated with a distinct and definite form through which the concept is put into practice.