Not Mentioned in History Class - Pt. I

The Nazi campaign against the Jews was a German idea, true?  Not exactly.

In the decades before the holocaust, distrust of Jews and attacks against them increased ... in America and elsewhere in the world.

The International Jew is a four volume set of booklets published and distributed in the early 1920s by Henry Ford, the American industrialist and automobile manufacturer.

In 1920, Ford had his personal newspaper The Dearborn Independent report on what he considered to be the "Jewish menace". Every week for 91 issues, the paper published some supposedly Jewish-inspired evil in a headline. The most popular and aggressive stories were reprinted in four volumes called The International Jew.  

The first volume of the series is titled The International Jew, The World's Foremost Problem.  Hitler had a copy in his personal library. 

At a ceremony in Dearborn, Michigan, Henry Ford was presented with the Grand Cross of the Supreme Order of the German Eagle, an honor created in 1937 by Adolf Hitler. This high honor represented Adolf Hitler’s personal admiration and indebtedness to Henry Ford. 

After the war at the Nuremberg Trials, Nazi youth leader Baldur von Schirach tells how The International Jew had made a deep impression on him and his friends in their youth and influenced them in becoming antisemitic. He said: "... we saw in Henry Ford the representative of success, also the exponent of a progressive social policy. In the poverty-stricken and wretched Germany of the time, youth looked toward America, and apart from the great benefactor, Herbert Hoover, it was Henry Ford who to us represented America." 

Marianne Clemens in her Hitler Youth
uniform; she was automatically enrolled
in the Hitler Youth at the age of 10, and
drafted to work in munitions factories at
age 16.  She was told that concentration
camps were just prisons, and had no idea
of the truth. "We heard nothing from
the outside." Marianne says her eyes
were opened when the allied forces
arrived. "The Americans showed it
on their newsreels... and then we
saw … it was unbelievable."

Disappointing. The problem of prejudice is more broadly evident than in just one fanatical leader.  Wrong thinking, quickly stuffing others into a category, grouping all of them together and attributing the worst of traits and motives to all of them.

Among the surviving victims of such wickedness are those who were led down the pathway.  A moment's reflection unveils the horror of the Hitler Youth, the Hitlerjugend, the youth organization of the Nazi party in Germany.  

Beginning in Munich in 1922, children were recruited and taught the Nazi ideology. They were told it was true, right, and noble in every way. As young children are wont to do, they believed it all.  They didn't know.

Membership was compulsory nationwide after 1936, even if parents objected.  Parents were told their children would be taken away if they weren't allowed to join.  There were 8,000,000 members by 1940, perhaps 80-90% of the nation's youth. There were a few who privately disagreed with the Nazi ideology; some even managed to resist.  

Hitler Youth - precious
children, they didn't
understand what had
been done to them.

For those responsible, it would be better for them to have a millstone tied to their neck and be dropped overboard than to lead a little one astray.  They were just children.

So then, Henry Ford and antisemitism in America were at least part of the problem, and the 8,000,000+ Hitler Youth were among the victims. I doubt we will hear much about such things in our history classes.

Ford, a great man in so many ways, is reported to have been shown newsreel footage of the Nazi concentration camps; when he "was confronted with the atrocities which finally and unanswerably laid bare the bestiality of the prejudice to which he contributed, he collapsed with a stroke – his last and most serious."*

(Such shallow thinking as Henry Ford's view of Jews continues to be seen among us today.  Whether we're pointing out a political party, a philosophical ideology, or some subcultural group, we tend to dismiss all of  'them' as immoral and destructively motivated.  It is stunningly rare today to hear anyone suggest that those who disagree with them have any thoughtful rationale for doing so.)

     ____________________

... and Herbert Hoover was their great benefactor?
That will perhaps be our inquiry for Not Mentioned in History Class - Pt. II


*Robert Lacey,  Ford: The Men and the Machines

Child Abuse

Perhaps the greatest challenge every little girl will face ... self-acceptance.
Perhaps the greatest impediment every little girl will face ... the opinion of others.

Abuse by cultural norms, more
common than the sun rising.

In western culture particularly, a woman's hyper-awareness of appearance is imposed on her and persists for a lifetime.  It stems from her earliest years when she was introduced to pretty, cute, style, fashion, and a comparison of herself to others on that scale.

In middle-school and later, she will live in a world where the top percentage of girls, generally based on physical appearance and dress, will receive the most attention, the most encouragement, the most approval, and the best support for their self-image and acceptance.  The farther down the percentage-ladder a girl finds herself, the greater her difficulty in accepting herself, and the greater the likelihood of her struggling to find a place of acceptance in her social surroundings.

Her position on that ladder will tend to shape her entire life along a narrow pathway with only a few exits available through the years. Surprisingly, the cultural shaping adversely affects them all, regardless of their position on the ladder.  Insecurities and coping difficulties are likely to persist throughout their lives.

Young men face a similar battle, but are less encumbered by the same appearance issues.

For today's westernized woman, her natural face is rarely seen in public. Her natural hair is rarely good enough on its own.  She will spend innumerable hours attending to such things as a function of being accepted in her world, equating appearance with worth.

The alternative?

The key piece that appears to make the most difference is a strong, healthy family coupled with education and broad opportunity.  The farther she goes along the path of personal development, built on healthy support by mom and dad and extended family, the healthier her self-image will be.  It gives her the freedom to be a person of substance.  True?

Children have no choice of where they are born.  No choice about the family in which they are raised, the community in which they live, or the things they experience in the early years.

The universally available choices fall to mom and dad; they shape the world in which their children are formed.  A father who loves and enjoys her for the person she is; a mom who does the same and doesn't make a big deal about cutesy fashion or perfect hair ... it's the opportunity of a lifetime, literally.

There are many variables within a culture and more across cultural lines, of course, and all can be significant.  Too, the struggle might become an occasion of strengthening and personal growth.

Curious how your culture thinks?  Google images for 'magnificent women' and  'magnificent men', or just 'man' and 'woman'.

A Woman's Unbiblical Place

You're supposed to stay home and

cook in high-heels, apparently.

  A woman's place is in the home?

That was the narrative offered us when I was a kid in the 50's.  It was the man's job to provide and the woman's job to be a housewife, taking care of  kids and meals and such.  They said things like that in our church.  She's supposed to stay home.

The Victorian Era: 1837 to 1901

Also known as the industrial age, the years saw great
advancements in technology. Queen Victoria
 ruled at the time. It was the age when the
'housewife' was born. It only worked
 if you were wealthy.

As a teen, I sometimes wondered how come my mom and dad both had regular jobs.  Were they doing it wrong?

Years later, my young wife and I grew past the narrow description we'd been offered and enjoyed the opportunities we had for work and education and raising a family much like mom and dad had.

A reality check shows a woman's role through all of history.

In a West African village, everybody pitches in.  Friends interrupted our conversation to go
do their part.  The kids help, too, and they're skilled.  Click on the pic for a detailed look at
families and community in action.  And notice where the babies are.
This is the real world, the way most folks live.

Women have always been workers much like the men beginning in early cultures. Everyone turns out to plant or harvest.  Men often take the more physically demanding tasks, but women don't ever just stay at home ... unless they are wealthy.  Normal families are extended, tasks are shared, and there is a lot of work to do for everyone, all day, every day.  That's always been and is still the case for more than 80% of the world's folks; carrying water, collecting firewood, tending crops, landing the fishing boats and hauling in the nets like in the picture here ...

In some ancient writings, a king tells of the advice his mother gave him, "A good wife is hard to find," his mom says, "and worth far more than diamonds.  Her husband trusts her and has no reason to regret it."

Then he lists some character and behavior traits his mother offered to make her point.

 

• She’s like a trading ship that sails to faraway places and brings back exotic surprises.
• She’s up before dawn, preparing breakfast for her family and organizing her day.
• She looks over a field and buys it, then, with money she’s put aside, plants a garden.
• First thing in the morning, she dresses for work, rolls up her sleeves, eager to get started.
• She senses the worth of her work, is in no hurry to call it quits for the day.
• She’s skilled in the crafts of home and hearth, diligent in homemaking.
• She’s quick to assist anyone in need, reaches out to help the poor.
• She doesn't worry about her family when it snows; their winter clothes are all mended and ready to wear.
• She makes her own clothing, and dresses in colorful linens and silks.
• Her husband is greatly respected when he deliberates with the city fathers.
• She designs gowns and sells them, brings the sweaters she knits to the dress shops.
• Her clothes are well-made and elegant, and she always faces tomorrow with a smile.
• When she speaks she has something worthwhile to say, and she always says it kindly.
• She keeps an eye on everyone in her household, and keeps them all busy and productive.

This doesn't sound anything like 'a woman's place is in the home', does it.  It doesn't sound like long skirts and no sports either.  It doesn't sound like weak or unskilled or uneducated or unproductive.  It sounds like a good business woman well fitted to her culture, a person engaged in meaningful work across a broad spectrum.

The king's mother goes on to say, "Her children respect and bless her; her husband joins in with words of praise: 'Many women have done wonderful things, but you've outclassed them all!'”

And she closes with, "Charm can mislead and beauty soon fades.  The woman to be admired and praised is the woman who lives with a whole heart for God.  Give her everything she deserves, and fill her life with praise."


This particular account was written around 2,700 years ago; Proverbs 31.  It wasn't new, just laying out wisdom like parents do for their children.  They were biblically correct in their understanding even before the Bible was written, and the record remains for our instruction.




A great woman  will be fully engaged in family and culture, focused on living life and serving well with a good heart.  At least that's the way it looks to me if you read it in the Bible in the context in which it was written.

Then, of course, what is a man's place?  Same problematic phrasing; there's no place, per se, only purpose.

More on the subject for the Biblically curious ...

Nothing says, "I love you" like ...

Nothing says "I love you" like cheap crap made in China by slave labor, sold by a company owned by billionaires benefitting from corporate welfare, paying slave wages to employees ...

Welcome to Walmart,
 
   the stored owned by six mega-billionaires,
     the store that pays the worst wages,
        and costs taxpayers the most.

Wait, wait; stores aren't supposed to cost taxpayers anything!
 

A formal study noted, "...Walmart’s low wages and benefits, which often force workers to rely on various public assistance programs,” have a pricetag that communities pay.  The report concluded that, “... a single Walmart Supercenter cost taxpayers between $904,542 and $1.75 million per year, or between $3,015 and $5,815 on average for each of 300 workers.”  Americans for Tax Fairness made this estimate using data from a 2013 study by Democratic Staff of the U.S. Committee on Education and the Workforce.

To be fair, Walmart isn't the only low-wage payer, and wages aren't the only problem.  Recent decades (3) have seen stagnation in wages and upward-employment opportunities.  Progressively more adults/parents are stuck in low or minimum wage traps without real opportunity for advancement.  Corporate profitability has soared, but the gains have paid owners, not workers.  The economic inequality inherent in today's business practices has ended what we once counted on; economic mobility.  We expected to start at the bottom of the ladder, but we didn't expect to stay there.  More and more workers find themselves in that position.

This year, about 15 percent of Americans (about 47 million people) fall below the poverty threshold.  The numbers are worse for women and minorities, of course.  And children.

Farther below, there are about 1.5 million Americans in 'extreme poverty' or effectively living on nothing at all.  The numbers have perhaps doubled since '96 following welfare reforms and stagnation in the jobs market.  There are perhaps 1 billion people in the world in such circumstances.

Imagine if you will, not a day of distress but a lifetime.  Not enough for heat or food or water, for clothing or transportation or healthcare, not enough to give your own children a hand up.  Persistent poverty, passed on from generation to generation, all in a time when there still plenty for everyone.  There's no actual food shortage; there's still enough for everyone, at least for now.  The difficulties are social and political, not availability.  

Returning to the subject at hand ... nothing says 'I love you' like lending a hand, helping out, making a difference, helping things change for the better.  Happy Thanksgiving.

Eaten by a shark?

"I haven’t been eaten by a shark yet which I am pretty happy about as that seems to happen quite often here. According to all the signs that we have encountered on the way everything in Australia is quite dangerous. We came across signs such as ‘’Rock risk area’’ while climbing in a cave, ‘’Tree climbing risk area’’ in the forests and a whole bunch of ‘’Coast risk area’s’’ in coastal areas on the way as well.  It’s kind of sad to realize that we live in a world where people can’t think for themselves anymore, where these signs are actually necessary because if anything happens to them they blame others… But we had heaps of fun anyway."

Her story ... 
She set out at age 14 to circumnavigate the world ... solo.

 Far from cultural norms one might expect for a teenager making her way into adulthood, she chose her path early on and, with her parents support, pursued it to this first goal and beyond.

Thoughtcrime

In Orwell's '1984', holding an opinion that opposed or doubted the ruling party is a criminal act, a 'thoughtcrime'.  The narrative portrays the fear-filled lives of folks trying to color only inside the lines.  With life or death in the balance, freedom is a distant dream.

Thinking must conform.

Orwell explains how folks in his fictional world learned to cope, to manage their own thoughts.  "Crimestop," he tells us, "is the (learned) faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought. It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments .... Crimestop, in short, means protective stupidity."

It's commonly clothed in Doublespeak/Doublethink (veiling disingenuous thinking from ourselves)
"To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it...."  ~ Winston Smith

So folks spend their energies, struggling to explain away distinctions between right and wrong, freedom and oppression, choice and constraint.

We'd never personally accept such self-negation in western culture, of course.

Turn a blind eye, keep your distance, don't dig deeper or think it through ....  a Pavlovian response of adapt, adjust, acquiesce, survive, succeed. 

Is there a time and place to take a stand, or should we, as is common, just acquiesce?  On what issues?  Is there a threshold beyond which we must change our response?


Concessions begin small, usually.  We easily adapt to the norms of our own culture.  I recall being asked in another country by a couple of young Christian men what I thought about a husband beating his wife.  They were struggling with the question; one held that she should be beaten routinely to keep her in line while the other insisted that it was only appropriate if she was disrespectful.  These were fine, honorable young men, mind you.

Like cultural norms, the economic circumstances in which we find ourselves are persuasive.  We're inclined (biased) to accept ways that ensure our survival.  Wall Street, for one example, insists that pumping wealth out of the world is acceptable regardless of the harm done, and they continue unchallenged.  Despite clear connection between unethical practices in the financial industry and the death of hundreds of thousands in the developing world, there is little being done to address the cause. Acquiescence is a narrow pathway, and treacherous.