Comments on: Germany Associates Homeschooling With Mental Illness http://www.veraverba.com/blog/2008/01/26/germany-associates-homeschooling-with-mental-illness/ True Words Tue, 06 Jan 2009 05:50:24 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.1 By: Sean Hastings http://www.veraverba.com/blog/2008/01/26/germany-associates-homeschooling-with-mental-illness/#comment-12 Sean Hastings Wed, 30 Jan 2008 20:25:08 +0000 http://www.veraverba.com/blog/2008/01/26/germany-associates-homeschooling-with-mental-illness/#comment-12 Marc notes that the authorities are "acting under the power of a statute promulgated under National Socialism." It is interesting that laws passed during the fascist madness of the early 20th century are still on the books in Germany. Espescially considering that this is a country that officially reviles the Nazis so much that it is practically illegal to even engage in academic discussion of the politics of that era. But Germany is not the only country where this is true. Many different countries that came under the control of fascism during the early 20th century still embrace much of the legislation that was enacted during that time, even when that legislation was forced on them by invading armies and governments of occupation. For example: every country that was controlled by Nazi occupation retains the imposed laws that individuals must register their addresses with the government, such that they can be easily located by the authorities as necessary. Later governments claiming to hate the ideas of fascism have found the laws enacted based on those ideas to be useful, and are happy to continue to exert the same sort of controls, as long as they have different icons - new leaders, a new flag, and a new name. This fallacy that icons are important, and that changing the symbols for something without changing its nature makes any real difference is a common cause of ongoing human misery. Again and again, throughout history, horrible governments have been overturned by bloody revolution with huge human costs, only to have the new governments continue (or quickly re-learn) the same practices that lead to the revolution. Under the guise of new icons, the same collective ideological parasites continue to wreck havoc, destroying peace and prosperity. Notice what happens whenever strong collectivism is overthrown. A horrible system of central authority causes enough human misery that it becomes intolerable. Either free people outside the system that fear its encroachment or people within the system that have suffered enough to realize things are not ever going to get better without action, band together and produce enough force to defeat those still acting in the name of the original collective. In doing so, they create a new collective with new leaders, a new flag, and a new name, but there is no guarantee that this "new" collective will be very different from the old. The key factor ends up being where the blame for what happened is placed. If people demonize the icons of the old collective - its name, flag, and leaders - then there is little reason for them to question the deeper issues of strong collective governance and how it leads to individual misery. If people all say "Hitler was a monster - thank God we have defeated him" then it was a bad individual who was the problem, not the nature of collectivism. The bias that the individual is bad and the collective is good slips through into the next system of government, and it becomes easy to keep the Nazi imposed laws as long as you call the new system something else. However, if the rhetoric of the day targets bad ideas like "taxation without representation" and points out the failings of strong centralized power, then a better system for self rule might just come into being. At least for a while... Marc notes that the authorities are “acting under the power of a statute promulgated under National Socialism.” It is interesting that laws passed during the fascist madness of the early 20th century are still on the books in Germany. Espescially considering that this is a country that officially reviles the Nazis so much that it is practically illegal to even engage in academic discussion of the politics of that era.

But Germany is not the only country where this is true. Many different countries that came under the control of fascism during the early 20th century still embrace much of the legislation that was enacted during that time, even when that legislation was forced on them by invading armies and governments of occupation. For example: every country that was controlled by Nazi occupation retains the imposed laws that individuals must register their addresses with the government, such that they can be easily located by the authorities as necessary.

Later governments claiming to hate the ideas of fascism have found the laws enacted based on those ideas to be useful, and are happy to continue to exert the same sort of controls, as long as they have different icons - new leaders, a new flag, and a new name.

This fallacy that icons are important, and that changing the symbols for something without changing its nature makes any real difference is a common cause of ongoing human misery. Again and again, throughout history, horrible governments have been overturned by bloody revolution with huge human costs, only to have the new governments continue (or quickly re-learn) the same practices that lead to the revolution. Under the guise of new icons, the same collective ideological parasites continue to wreck havoc, destroying peace and prosperity.

Notice what happens whenever strong collectivism is overthrown. A horrible system of central authority causes enough human misery that it becomes intolerable. Either free people outside the system that fear its encroachment or people within the system that have suffered enough to realize things are not ever going to get better without action, band together and produce enough force to defeat those still acting in the name of the original collective. In doing so, they create a new collective with new leaders, a new flag, and a new name, but there is no guarantee that this “new” collective will be very different from the old.

The key factor ends up being where the blame for what happened is placed.

If people demonize the icons of the old collective - its name, flag, and leaders - then there is little reason for them to question the deeper issues of strong collective governance and how it leads to individual misery. If people all say “Hitler was a monster - thank God we have defeated him” then it was a bad individual who was the problem, not the nature of collectivism. The bias that the individual is bad and the collective is good slips through into the next system of government, and it becomes easy to keep the Nazi imposed laws as long as you call the new system something else.

However, if the rhetoric of the day targets bad ideas like “taxation without representation” and points out the failings of strong centralized power, then a better system for self rule might just come into being.

At least for a while…

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