Just as this discussion was taking place, I was in Vienna on a family gathering. And just as some people I was with were saying that education wasn't bad in Austria, and that it was much better than, say, the propaganda in the US, we saw children marching. They were between 8 and 10 years old, and frankly, they made me shiver. Their expressions were what you would expect from a new "nazi youth". They signs said the usual Greta BS, "If you are not a vegetarian you are killing the planet", "the Earth will die because of you", etc. Yikes... I heard that the new rule in some schools was to demonstrate like that every Friday.
Although it could be obvious that this is like "nazi youth" Austria did apparently not encourage the Austrian relationship with the Nazi movement to be a subject for much discussion. It was no longer politically correct after May 10, 1945. WW II is now 75-80 years ago, a long time if one is not a interested in history or encouraged to study the lessons. When I looked up H
itler Youth on the Wiki, Austria was not mentioned. In the German version "Österreich" is mentioned one time but not connected to Hitlerjugend. This is actually almost nothing short of amazing - because if one changes to German language search entries and skips the common Wiki, one gets a completely different picture. One short entry is here:
Hitlerjugend, HJ and a longer is found on
Hitlerjugend – Wien Geschichte Wiki which Taken together they informs us that in Austria from March 25, 1939 all other youth association were dissolved and membership of Hitler Jugend including full military training became mandatory. This programme was for those of 14-18 years of age, while there for those of 10-13 years of age was a different programme, just as there was also a programme for girls. In the Wiki about the German Hitler Jugend, one learns that it already began in 1922 and gradually grew to take over all the scout clubs and all the Christian youth clubs, the sport clubs, in fact the whole German youth in the late 1930'ies. Fortunately the Greta Thunberg climate strike mobilization has not yet reached that level of control.
Before the invasion of Austria by Germany, there could be something else to remember, the preparation. In connection with
another thread,
I found a description of a book "Zwischen Hitler und Himalaya: Die Gedächtnislücken des Heinrich Harrer" regarding a well known name in Austrian alpinism. A text about the book written more than 20 years ago gives an idea of Austria in the days before 1938.
Originally Posted by REINHOLD MESSNER from the magazine "Alpin", Munich, September 1997: "I've always known about Harrer's SS membership and I do not think he should now make a rope out of it." Who was not there at the time? but do not understand: Today, at the age of 85, he still glorifies the ideals of those days, why does he not question them? He still believes that what the Nazis preached is correct. I have repeatedly pointed out how much National Socialism is above all else rooted in mountaineering ...
So-called virtues, like those of the alpinists of that time, were synonyms for "the German"; Ideals like roped-up, mountain companionship, faithfulness to the death. Many of Hitler's ideas came into being in the minds of alpinists. The illegal Nazis of the thirties in Austria came mainly from mountain climbing. The huts in the mountains were conspiratorial meeting places where the connection was prepared. The Austrian Alpine Association still has a lot of educational work to do in this area. We alpinists should know that we have responsibility for the Nazi period. The case of Harrer reminded us. Alpinists had delivered food with their Berg-Heil ideals, with which National Socialist construction and war should succeed ...
I criticized Harrer in front of the camera for not having realized which lie hides behind the ideal of the roped party. In 1988, after 50 years, we celebrated the first ascent of the Eiger North Face in 1938. It came to a television scandal between Harrer and me. Again and again he emphasized that the "rope team" was the great value of his life. Again and again came from him the criticism that we boys could no longer rope for life, we lacked intensity, loyalty and perseverance. In the hack-hack with me about these ideals, he remained obdurate, reproachful, even offensive. It is the ideals of his youth, ideals of Nazi propaganda, and beyond that, his life-lies that make me perplexed. How can an old man lie to himself like that? Man is not hard as Krupp steel, he is fragile and weak, makes mistakes. "
So, yeah, it's even happening in places that used to be more on the conservative side, and nobody is immune. I feel extremely sad for the new generations, and especially the children born after 2010 who don't seem to have any chance left of escaping some serious indoctrination and brain-washing. And the parents... the amount of denial that THEY go through and facilitate just to feel that the world is a safe place, is plain scary... They COULD and SHOULD know better if they only looked back a few years, but they seem to be too busy with their phones and trying to appear cool and open-minded as is dictated by the system into which they have dumped their children.
Might one say that the attitude of the parents to some extend is related to postmodern thinking?
In
Postmodern thinking of millennials
Breo posted a comment that may add some details to the concept of "Austrian talk" mentioned in Political Ponerology by Andrew M. Lobaczewski. Included in the post is also a video that shows scenes from the ecstatic reception Hitler received in Vienna in 1938. In a
different video with more commentary and analysis, but in German, they say it was a genuine feeling, but the sound track in the video Breo posted shows the intensity clearer than words.
The post by Breo begins with a quote from Laura:
In the European languages, “Austrian talk” has become the common descriptive term for paralogistic[1] discourse. Many people using this term nowadays are unaware of its origin. Within the context of maximum hysterical intensity in Europe at the time, the authentic article represented a typical product of conversive thinking[2]: subconscious selection and substitution of data lead to chronic avoidance of the crux of the matter. In the same manner, the reflex assumption that every speaker is lying is an indication of the hysterical anti-culture of mendacity, within which telling the truth becomes “immoral”.
There is a joke like saying that describes the Austrian paralogistic mentality:
"Austrians managed to make the world believe that Beethoven was an Austrian and Adolf Hitler a German."
And then there is the historical fact that Austria was involved in the start of both World Wars.
The catalyst event for the outbreak of WW I in 1914 was the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Habsburg throne in Sarajevo. And Adolf Hitlers birthplace, who provoked the second World War, is in Upper Austria.
How closely Austria is connected to both World Wars is
not explicitly taught in Austrian schools and
not present in the average Austrian consciousness. When this is mentioned in a conversation the mildest typical Austrian reaction is uncomfortable bewilderment. At its worst it is "The mania for taking offense at the drop of a hat provoking constant retaliation, taking advantage of hyper-irritability and hypo-criticality on the part of others."
What is taught in Austrian schools is that Austria has been the victim of the annexation („Der Anschluss“) by Nazi Germany, which is legally correct but in stark contrast to the reality of how the majority of the population reacted. 1938 the masses frenetically welcomed Hitler in Vienna. A vivid example of „subconscious selection and substitution of data leading to chronic avoidance of the crux of the matter.“
The term „Austrian talk“ is typically not known or used in Austria of today, also not by educated intellectuals.
Having said this much about Austria, one could add that there was also the author Bertha von Suttner who wrote a book "
Lay Down Your Weapons" in 1889. It is a book about the cruelty and meaninglessness of war and also the role of women. It was translated into 16 languages and became an unexpected international bestseller of the 19th century. Before
1905 it came in 37 German editions! Suttner died only 7 days before the murder of
Archduke Franz Ferdinand in
Sarajevo, that led to the beginning of
World War I only four weeks later which killed 20 million people! (Btw, Suttner must have been in Vienna at the same time as
Hitler, Trotsky, Stalin and Freud.) During her life Bertha von Suttner became a friend of Alfred Nobel and convinced him to institute a Peace Prize in addition to the other prizes he already had on his mind, like chemistry, physics, medicine, and literature. Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite and allegedly also the owner of 90 arms factories, was Swedish. Now if there is any relationship between the punch that Greta Thunberg is having, her Swedish background, and that many educated people in the world are well aware of the Swedish philantropist, Aflred Nobel, concerned about the knowledge of mankind, is a question one can ask oneself. Far out isn't it, but If one was a marketing agent or communications expert, selected to make a campaign one would probably prefer Sweden, to a number of other options say Malawi, Ecuador, Cuba, Burma, Israel, the US, China, Brasil, Russia or the UK? There is a lot of politics behind Greta Thunberg, though an easy way for Sweden to cut CO2, if they really want to, would be for people to migrate south, because it is much more energy consuming to live in a cold country.
that toes will be safe when I step with this reply. I watched the videos and for me the emphasis was made albeit quite softly, on the environmental catastrophe coupled with counting money and worrying about profits. That is an interesting aspect, since becoming so prominently visible in a relatively short amount of time requires quite a bit of money and PR, which shows planning, dedicated execution (manipulated or not) and motivation to make more money. In other words, there is no business like show business. It is such a pity that making money has been amalgamated as an industry and it is accepted as such. It has open the door to moneyfy everything, even nature. Once environmental taxes will be imposed and green bonds will be created and swapped and traded, only a sudden pole shift or an asteroid could make an impact stopping the mega show of the financial systems.
