I'm sure I'd have been blinded by the muzzle flash...
Chai Tea wrote:Did people more just ignore him/not take him seriously, or did anyone actually make jokes, point out to others in humor how insane his beliefs were?
I'm reminded of an article from
Spiegel a few months ago about a new book on
jokes during the Third Reich.
There was a recent book about jokes during Stalin's regime as well, though I've since lost the link. It's interesting that this more detached treatment of the 20th century's totalitarian regimes should come about now, either because they're safely enough in the past to be treated a little more lightly, or because they provide alternatives to the ways in which they've already been historicized, and/or some other reason altogether.
Here it is: Bruce Adams's
Tiny Revolutions in Russia. The link I provided is to a review from the
Moscow Times.
[quote="Chai Tea"]
Serious question re: Hitler
Did people more just ignore him/not take him seriously, or did anyone actually make jokes, point out to others in humor how insane his beliefs were?
[/quote]
Have you read/seen 'The Wave'?
It's the story of a school teacher whose class asked him similar questions.
How could people...?
Why did they not...?
I would never...!
So he came up with an experiment and founded a kind of club.
The children liked it.
Bit by bit he controlled people more and more.
To be in his good books, children started spying on each other, telling on each other, and being generally horrible.
The end was a miniature Third Reich.
The scariest thing: Apparently it's based on a true story.
OK, what I am trying to say: Hindsight is 20/20, isn't it?
We can now all see where things were leading.
But you must not forget that at the time, people were being fed bits and pieces of information as it seemed fit to the government.
Some people figured it out, I know, it was possible, often quite late, though.
Even sophie Scholl was a convinced member of the Hitler Jugend at one time.
You don't have to be bad to let bad things happen.
It's enough to be ignorant and indifferent.
I find this discussion from Christians quite amusing.
Satan is a Christian diety. The views of Satan that our society understands it gets from Christians. People who do not believe the Bible is true, don't believe in Satan either.
It strikes me as strange when Christians complain that non-believers may be giving tribute to one of their beliefs.
There is a book that I have where the good guys (i.e. the book condones each of these activities_...
- Speaking with demons.
- Speaking with dead people.
- Striking people with Blindness.
- Affecting genetic characteristics of livestock.
- Healing sick people.
- Raising the dead.
- Walking on water.
- Stopping the Sun from moving.
If you are willing to read this (in church no less) what is wrong with Harry Potter.
Today's Christians are such hypocrites.
Rather we should talk about equivalent works of literature such as the many versions of the Arturian tales. Two of my favorites are the one by John Steinbeck , and the one by T H White "The Once and Future King" which was a required reading assignment in the 6th or 7th grade IN CATHOLIC SCHOOL.
How about "The Stand" by Stephen King?
Why is Harry singled out?
Why not, its fundraising time among the Evangelicals and jacking up the fear of satan level a few notches will m ake the grannies dig deep and send these shiny suited heavaen hucsters their hard earned money.
Youve first gotta create a demon so you can use im.
Im sure that TAm TAm is just laughing up his or her sleeve at the attention the thread has generated.
Arella Mae wrote:Why don't we take these one at a time e_brown? You give me the scripture for your list and we'll talk about it?
If we're going to grant Tam Tam the liberty of making claims about Harry Potter without having read the books, let's do the same for e_brown.
Arella Mae wrote:Why don't we take these one at a time e_brown? You give me the scripture for your list and we'll talk about it?
If we're going to grant Tam Tam the liberty of making claims about Harry Potter without having read the books, then e_brown shouldn't have to cite chapters and verses. Or we could do as you suggested and take things one step at a time, in which case we should throw it back to Tam Tam.
Tam Tam, who seems strangely silent on the issue....
Arella,
I have a more important point to make.
There are lots of things in the Christian religion that are both good and important. It is frustrating to me when Christians focus on things that have nothing to do with either being closer to God (I won't go into what this means, but to those who are or have been practicing Christians this phrase has meaning) or loving your neighbor.
Harry Potter is a cute book that is fun for kids to read. It also has moral lessons including caring for others, working together and fighting evil. The "magic" in the book is a plot device, nothing else.
Anyone who has read the book will understand this.
Look, there are no kids flying around on broomsticks in spite of the number of kids who have read about it in Harry Potter. If you happen to think that flying around on a broomstick is evil.
I am not afraid that people might be able to fly around on broomsticks.
There is very real evil to be afraid of.
Right now there are people dying in wars. There is torture. There are fathers being kept in prison in a foreign country for years while their families (being deprived of their breadwinners in a conservative country) suffer.
All of these things are real and are causing suffering (much more than broom flying would cause even if it catchs on).
Furthermore these are all things that American Christians can work to end. We live in a democracy and these are all things that our government is responsible for , Christians who are supposed to oppose evil, love our enemies and be peacemaker could be a powerful voice for good.
But instead they are attacking fictional broom flying.
Forgive me, but I find this laughably sad.
I feel a good deal of regret I did not have these wonderful tales to grow up with in the 40s and 50s.
I've always avoided the Bible. People told me there are bad things like incest, adultry, rape, brutality, injustice, war, and torture throughout it. I wouldn't want a book like that to influence me, it might make me evil.
This is one of my favorite Bible stories where magical powers are used for good...
From 2 Kings chapter 2
Quote:
From there Elisha went up to Bethel.
As he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered at him. "Go on up, you baldhead!" they said. "Go on up, you baldhead!" He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the LORD.
Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths. And he went on to Mount Carmel and from there returned to Samaria.
Those of use who with thinning hair would appreciate this power.
borrowing a line from set
okbye.
This is my first time seeing you here so welcome.