Mein Kampf.

[Ned]

Originally posted by BeBro


I read it, what parts are you reffering to?

It's been a number of years since I read Germania, but when I read it I was struck by one passage where Tacitus says the Germans have a race superiority complex. They thought that they were the best people on Earth - or something to that effect.


Even the Germans who invaded at the time of Marius were extremely arrogant.

[st_swithin]

Snapple must be made of Germans, by that argument, and clearly, it's not.

[Ned]

paiktis, your point about Americans classifying anyone who is not "pure" white as "black" or such is a growing point of irritation among many who are of mixed race. They want to choose 2 or more races or say mixed when the government-mandated questions are asked. They clearly are proud of both sides of the their ancestry, but have to choose between white/black/asian or hispanic regardless.

Then you have the likes of Hallie Barry (sp) who is half black and half white. Her white mother was in the audience and the camera was focused on her when Barry launched into her "sermon" on Hollywood's supposed discrimination against black women. I found her speech, in this context, disconcerting.

[GePap]

Well, the greeks labelled anyone who did not speak Greek as barbarians..I don;t see how this is better than Germans thinking themselves superior back in Tacitus; day.

Mein Kampf is hardly an imaginative book, as Chris62 said. His style is that of lousy Viennese journalists, rambling. They do seel the book (had to buy it for my facism class). They are ususally low key with the cover.

[Evil Knevil]

It's a horrendous book. However its the kind of thing that OJ Simpson would write if had been convicted, or like Archer already has emitted from prison.

Many good books were written in prison? ...Gramsci and ?

[Bereta_Eder]

GePap, I'll have to correct you there: Greeks called people who didn't speak Greek Barbarians because their language sounded to the Greeks like "bar, bar, bar".

Barbarian did not have the meaning it has today. It simply meant "not Greek, not speaking Greek". It did not mean savage.

[Evil Knevil]

Then how come Aristotle claimed that the races of Asia were industrious and cultured, but lacked the gumption to rule properly or earn freedom? Or that the races of Europe were strongly independant and freedom loving, but lazy, cultureless savages?

Of course the Greeks posessed the perfect traits of industry, culture and independance.

[Bereta_Eder]

He said that? They didn't teach that at school!
I stand corrected. (I was already starting to wonder about the soundness of my argument because of other examples as well).

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Evil Knevil
Of course the Greeks posessed the perfect traits of industry, culture and independance.

Weren't the people in the south supposed to be rather intelligent but lazy and the people of the north to be hardworking but dumb ? (and of course the Greeks to be better than the others in all regards)

[Evil Knevil]

I thought it was my way around, but I don't remember (so you're probably right).

I didn't think Aristotle granted the trait of intelligence to either side.

Paiktis, did they also teach you that Aristotle said mangoes and swordfish cause erections? Or that he said semen comes from the brain?

[Bereta_Eder]

Spiffor, Evil
I guess he was getting a bit c0cky then. Although the etymology of the word Barbarian is what I described. Bar, bar, bar and the Greeks wondering what's he talking about?

[Spiffor]

Paiktis:
Yep, I've learn it as well. But hasn't in fact the word "Barbarian" been chosen (instead of, for example, the actual name of the foreign tribe) because of the contempt of the Greeks for Barbarian cultures, as inferior and simplistic cultures ?

[Bereta_Eder]

Originally posted by Evil Knevil
Paiktis, did they also teach you that Aristotle said mangoes and swordfish cause erections? Or that he said semen comes from the brain?

Nope. They only went about what a great man he was and how much Alexander learned from him and how proud we must be that he was our grandpa. The usual. Later on they forced us to read some of his Rhetorics though.

[Bereta_Eder]

Originally posted by Spiffor
Paiktis:
Yep, I've learn it as well. But hasn't in fact the word "Barbarian" been chosen (instead of, for example, the actual name of the foreign tribe) because of the contempt of the Greeks for Barbarian cultures, as inferior and simplistic cultures ?

I think you are right. There are many examples where the word was used in this context coming to think about it. Even between Greeks to diminish one another (as an insult).besides the etymology obviously it had bad conotations from those times.

[Solly]

Recommended book if you want to explore the connection between colonialism and Nazism/The Holocaust: "Exterminate all the Brutes" by Sven Lindqvist, a work which at the time was quite groundbreaking and a damn fine peice of fiction interpolated with non-fiction to boot.

I'd rather read something which didn't try to sway the reader through a provocative title and use of fiction. You might have liked it though since it pandered to your self-hating prejudices.