If you've ever read Lord of the Flies, you know just how freaky kids can get. If you ever studied any bit of recent European history, or like me, happened to have had a grandparent who was tortured by the Nazis, you've probably heard a bit about the Hitler Youth. You might not have heard, however, that they led to the rise of the Nazi party in 1930s Germany. It was the HT that formed groups around Germany in the 1920s, directing teenage-style anger towards everything wrong in their country and using teenage-style rationality to blame it all on the Jews. They were outlawed for years and parents tried hard to keep their kids from joining the organization, but over time the movement grew, the Hitler Youth grew up, and voted Hitler into power.
Granted, the HT, were against the non-Aryans, and especially the Jews. Whereas the evangelical kids are against liberals, and especially gay people. The HT began as a "Boy Scout on Meth" type of an organization, focused on discipline and the militarization of youth. Whereas this evangelical movement only uses military lingo, calling their campaign a "Battle Cry" and their cause a "spiritual and cultural war".
And fortunately, the Hitler youth had a completely different flag!
The evangelicals were holding up signs that look like this:
...No resemblance at all...
4 comments:
Gee, you certainly seem over-wroght.
Where is your tolerance for diverse points of view -- and for the exercise of American freedoms?
http://rhymeswithright.mu.nu/archives/165133.php
Yeah, I tend to get a little "over-wroght" (sp? did you mean "over-wrought"?) about some of the nastly little things the Nazis did during WWII. And it scares me that young people in this country are being motivated and recruited by people who sell fear and hate. If that stuff doesn't bother you, you've got more to worry about than my blog.
Nice try on the "tolerance" angle. I love how people who spend all their energy being intolerant of others try to turn the t-word back on anyone who disagrees with them.
The difference between liberal tolerance and the "tolerance" fascist relgious groups ask for is pretty big:
- Liberal tolerance allows people to coexist however they want to as long as they don't hurt anyone else in the process. (Something about "right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness": you may have heard of it)
- Groups like the one I wrote about ask that we tolerate them while they preach hatred and discrimination against people they don't like.
They are free to exercise their freedoms. The more they do, the more they reveal themselves for who they are: using fear and the art of scapegoating to build a little army of angry kids. And I get to write about it. That's the beauty of this country.
Hibiscusfire, I read your note at Evangelical Update so I decided to visit you. EU was actually started by a non-evangelical liberal who happens to be a good friend of mine, trying to figure out what makes these people tick. I can see from your blog that you are a deep thinker. I share most of your thoughts here. Hope to see you around.
Hi Jennifer,
Thanks for the comment. I finally got a chance to catch up on the EU site and bookmarked it. It's refreshing to see that people are getting together in an attempt to understand this growing religous movement in our country. I try to be open-minded (and I do "know a lot of very nice Evangelicals"), but sometimes, as you can see in this blog, the anger and frustration just spills over. Its nice to see that on your friend's site, people can be more accepting.
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