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Monday, May 5, 2014

My Struggle (Mein Kampf )




In the process of doing some research on Hitler , I  also ,but naturally, read up on his autobiography.  On going  ( read flipping) through  the book it seemed to me that Mein Kampf is more of an exposition  and a justification of Hitler's ideology and political views and less of an autobiography. But there were two things which I found striking : firstly, the title ,which translates to 'My Struggle' ,and secondly , an uncanny similarity between Hitler's thoughts and the thought process of our politicians.

The best thing about the book , for me, is the title. I am sure if any  of us was asked to pen our thoughts for a book titled 'My Struggle' we would have no problem/s in doing so. We would never experience logjams such as 'writers block' or paucity of material . This is not to say that life itself is a struggle -on the contrary life is joyous; truly a gift to be savored .It is when we come across  some others ( please note the 'some' as opposed to 'all' ) with  whom we do not share the same wavelength, or ,to put it more bluntly, are on diagonally opposite wavelengths, that the struggle begins. The struggle of being polite, keeping up appearances, not being rude (because one believes that life is a karmic cycle) etc . Of course ,there are other struggles also -struggle for freedom ( Gandhi) ;for independence ( most Asian women ); against corruption ;against cancer ...the list is endless and that is why I believe that 'Mein Kampf' is a universally applicable title.

Now, coming to the' similarities' between you know who and whom. Consider these Hitlerisms :

"If you wish the sympathy of the broad masses, you must tell them the crudest and most stupid things."
When I look at some of the gems spoken by our politicos it is hard to ignore the fact that either they are very naive or they believe the junta is and that is why they spout the  absurdities that they do.

Another one - "Life never forgives weaknesses."
Is this why our honorable and' honest 'P.M is perpetually silent? He does not want to acknowledge any weakness for the fear of not being forgiven?

 He doesn't know that the present has already judged him -as will history .And that  the judgment is not very forgiving !!


5 comments:

  1. You make an interesting comparison there with the present PM :) I remember reading this book many many many years ago as part of a course...

    Nice write-up, Anju!
    Beauty Interprets, Expresses, Manifests the Eternal

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  2. Hitler is the gargoyle on the edifice of human civilisation.

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  3. Thanks Anju, I have always been wanting to read the book, a good motivation for me to start. As much as I am against the philosophies of Hitler, I have always wondered how strong he was internally - To make a part of the world believe in the ideology of one person is a magnitude of leadership, might be a wrong notion but still one hell of a strong character.

    Its funny how the similarities work wooing the masses, keeping appearances, I guess we all do it in our own small ways too. Something I really liked about is that Public rarely forgives weakness.. Quite simply a very powerful statement on its own.

    Thank you for the spurt of motivation, I think I should get to the book soon :)

    Cheers,
    V

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    1. Yes, Vinay, we all have our weaknesses, beliefs and foibles- just that Hitler managed to exterminate almost an entire race because of his belief system.
      I think Hitler will always fascinate for generations to come!

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  4. amazing thought, give a good opinion

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