By Timothy Birdnow ——Bio and Archives--June 8, 2011
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As adolescents gathered in groups to bolster a weak sense of personal worth and belonging, so many Germans fell prey to a ganglike behavior in which surrogate siblings emerged as leaders. [...]The vulnerability rested upon the presence or absence of a social order capable of inspiring and maintaining basic trust. Not only had Hitler's father failed to establish that trust for young Adolf, but Germany as a nation had abdicated its parental responsibilities. The situation was intensified by the punitive attitude of the allied victors after World War I, which drove Germany deeper into despair. Certainly Hitler's elderly and unloving father warped the child Adolf in unimaginable ways, and if Erikson is right a similar process occurred in Germany as a whole, leading the angry and bitter Hitler to rule over that nation in monstrous ways. Remember, the younger generations, the one raised in the chaos of post-war Germany, suffered a dearth of male roll models and would be likely to follow a masculine model. It should come as no surprise that Fascism in all it's forms was strong across Europe after the Great War. That does not mean that the United States will become Nazi Germany, but it does suggest that there will be profound changes in the psyche of the American People. Belief in the efficacy of the State seems to be a likely outcome of this. Even where fathers live with the mothers, there is a sense of fragility that will be imparted to the children, an understanding that the tenuous relationship may fall apart. Something will be needed to provide bedrock for the child. That something is apt to come from the State. There was a time when religion would provide that stability, or the community, but the liberal program has destroyed both. The left has purged the Church from public life, and local communities have surrendered their authority to the central government. Atomization of neighbors has occurred through government intervention and increased mobility, and so the sense of community is missing in many American cities. The child will have no grounding, no sense of roots anchoring him or her down. Only the State will remain. Hillary Clinton once said it takes a village to raise a child, but we have no villages anymore. What we have is an enormous, impersonal, despotic entity that usurps the roles of father, of community, of church. It is no more village than the Roman Empire. It forces everyone into the same mold, for how else could it deal with millions of people? What kind of father does that make it? What sense of security does it provide? It is much like Hitler's father; cold and impersonal. What will become of a generation raised without solid families? Welcome to the new Weimar family!
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Timothy Birdnow is a conservative writer and blogger and lives in St. Louis Missouri. His work has appeared in many popular conservative publications including but not limited to The American Thinker, Pajamas Media, Intellectual Conservative and Orthodoxy Today. Tim is a featured contributor to American Daily Reviewand has appeared as a Guest Host on the Heading Right Radio Network. Tim’s website is tbirdnow.mee.nu.