"On Nation and Race" (from Mein Kampf) is a persuasive argument fueled by powerful emotion. The chapter inspired a newfound nationalism within Germany during a time of great depression and global humiliation. Hitler was not yet the supreme chancellor of Germany, but if one were to look carefully at his ideas within this essay, one would find the foreboding seeds of his Final Solution.
Unfortunately, at that time, most Germans were vulnerable to irrational logic and faulty rhetoric because of the grim outlook of their own living standards. Thus, most of Hitler's false claims went unnoticed and people accepted his conclusions as truth. When emotion is removed, logic rises to the surface and now, as we look back at Hitler's scientific, religious, and historical claims, we can demise that very little of Hitler's arguments are based in truth…which makes the destruction of over six million lives that much more devastating to understand.
The following lines from the chapter hold special falsehoods worth noting:
1. Claim: [Men] pass blindly by one of the most patent principles of Nature's rule: the inner segregation of the species of all living beings on this earth.
Truth: The human species today is the culmination of hundreds of thousands of years of evolution. Scientists have found evidence that there were a number of human-like species in earth's history; however, they all are extinct today with only the modern human surviving. This human does not have a sub species and all humans vary from each other to a small degree. Not even identical twins are exactly alike. Further, the biological functions between any two humans are the same. Variation, which can amount to .1% of genetic comparisons are found in the areas of physical characteristics including such features as eye color, skin pigmentation, and size. The major observable differences between humans are of culture, environmental influences, and diet.
2. Claim: Any crossing of two beings not at exactly the same level produces a medium between the level of the two parents. This means: the offspring will probably stand higher than the racially lower parent, but not as high as the higher one.
Truth:
3. Claim: The Germanic inhabitant of the American continent, who has remained racially pure and unmixed, rose to be master of the continent; he will remain the master as long as he does not fall a victim to defilement of the blood.
Truth:
4.Claim: The result of all racial crossing is therefore in brief always the following:
Lowering of the level of the higher race;
Physical and intellectual regression and hence the beginning of a slowly but surely progressing sickness.
Truth:
5. Claim: Everything we admire on this earth today-science and art, technology and inventions-is only the creative product of a few peoples and originally perhaps of one race.
Truth:
6. Claim: All great cultures of the past perished only because the originally creative race died out from blood poisoning.
Truth:
Roman_Empire_in_96_AD.png
Roman_Empire_in_96_AD.png
Roman Empire in 96 A.D.
7.Claim: Those who want to live, let them fight, and those who do not want to fight in this world of eternal struggle do not deserve to live.
Truth: Hitler is right when he suggests that the Jewish groups in Germany at that time did not support engaging in another war. The Jewish communities stood very aligned with one another about their fear of losing what little they did have and that the direction the new government should head towards is one of inner development and reconstruction. The Jews in Germany very much wanted to rebuild their communities and families after a devastating war but they did not believe that the loss of more life was going to help their situation.
The Search for Truth
"On Nation and Race" (from Mein Kampf) is a persuasive argument fueled by powerful emotion. The chapter inspired a newfound nationalism within Germany during a time of great depression and global humiliation. Hitler was not yet the supreme chancellor of Germany, but if one were to look carefully at his ideas within this essay, one would find the foreboding seeds of his Final Solution.
Unfortunately, at that time, most Germans were vulnerable to irrational logic and faulty rhetoric because of the grim outlook of their own living standards. Thus, most of Hitler's false claims went unnoticed and people accepted his conclusions as truth. When emotion is removed, logic rises to the surface and now, as we look back at Hitler's scientific, religious, and historical claims, we can demise that very little of Hitler's arguments are based in truth…which makes the destruction of over six million lives that much more devastating to understand.
The following lines from the chapter hold special falsehoods worth noting:
1. Claim: [Men] pass blindly by one of the most patent principles of Nature's rule: the inner segregation of the species of all living beings on this earth.
Truth:
The human species today is the culmination of hundreds of thousands of years of evolution. Scientists have found evidence that there were a number of human-like species in earth's history; however, they all are extinct today with only the modern human surviving. This human does not have a sub species and all humans vary from each other to a small degree. Not even identical twins are exactly alike. Further, the biological functions between any two humans are the same. Variation, which can amount to .1% of genetic comparisons are found in the areas of physical characteristics including such features as eye color, skin pigmentation, and size. The major observable differences between humans are of culture, environmental influences, and diet.
•The Human Family Tree
•http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-family-tree
2. Claim: Any crossing of two beings not at exactly the same level produces a medium between the level of the two parents. This means: the offspring will probably stand higher than the racially lower parent, but not as high as the higher one.
Truth:
3. Claim: The Germanic inhabitant of the American continent, who has remained racially pure and unmixed, rose to be master of the continent; he will remain the master as long as he does not fall a victim to defilement of the blood.
Truth:
4.Claim: The result of all racial crossing is therefore in brief always the following:
Truth:
5. Claim: Everything we admire on this earth today-science and art, technology and inventions-is only the creative product of a few peoples and originally perhaps of one race.
Truth:
6. Claim: All great cultures of the past perished only because the originally creative race died out from blood poisoning.
Truth:
7.Claim: Those who want to live, let them fight, and those who do not want to fight in this world of eternal struggle do not deserve to live.
Truth: Hitler is right when he suggests that the Jewish groups in Germany at that time did not support engaging in another war. The Jewish communities stood very aligned with one another about their fear of losing what little they did have and that the direction the new government should head towards is one of inner development and reconstruction. The Jews in Germany very much wanted to rebuild their communities and families after a devastating war but they did not believe that the loss of more life was going to help their situation.