EVIL PHILOSOPHY AT WORK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23489, 28 October 1939, Page 1 (Supplement)

EVIL PHILOSOPHY AT WORK

Inevitable Product

By MATANGA

J IN strict truth, history never repeats itself. The hackneyed aphorism about that is fallacious. No set of circumstances ever "'recurs precisely, l ancl even if this happened the factor of human action and reaction upon circumstances could not be trusted to operate ( witliout making new departures. The essence of history is this selfsame human capacity for deviation from former conduct; take • that awav and there would result, not a record of life, but a series of dull demonstrations in mechanics. However, although repetition in a full senso iloes not occur, there is often a sufficient resemblance in former events to be instructive, and this is especially tlio case when developments within a single sphere of experience, as among a particular people, can be studied. It is useful, therefore, when constrained to seek reasons for German aggression in 15)39, to look back to the • previous German/ instance, if no further, in an endeavour to understand the present onslaught. Perfectly true it is that the Nazi doctrine and the Nazi leaders, rather than the German peoplo, arc responsible for this.evil,# but it is also true that neither the Nazi philosophy of force nor the Nazi inculcation of this philosophy could have had auy degree of success in Germany unless the German people had been inclined to give the philosophy itself a welcome. Looking back for light upon tho matter, we may 'profitably seek the •deeper cause of the war of 191-1-1918. What we find may not exculpate Hitler and his associates, ,yct it may explain, in part, both their opportunity and their easy use of this opportunity. How came that war?, Flimsy Pretext The chain of events can be readily recalled. Two pistol shots at Sarajevo gave Austria a flimsy pretext for an opeli breach with Serbia; the scene of the assassination was fifty miles outside the Serbian border. The plucky little State refused' to consent to more than eight out of the ten unreasonable demands made by Austria. Russia, Serbia's natural friend, thought it well to anticipate a call for assistance. Germany gave Russia twenty-four hours to cease mobilising, and not getting immediate compliance rushed big battalions on France, Russia's covenanted ally. Britain long strove to preserve the peace of Europe, and took up arms only when all possible overtures bad been rejected by Germany; then Germany set about hacking a way into France through Belgium, and this perfidious deed compelled a resolute alliance on the field against a reckless general menace. ' I Bub these events themselves need explanation. The 'war did not really originate with Austria. That ramshackle Empire knew the risk of trying to fasten a, Bosnian crime .upon hapless Serbia; to do so was to anger the Russian bear, likelv to growl and bite to some purpose. But liis taming cciuld be left to masterful Germany, prepared and Austria would never have stirrecl without the connivance of Germany. Clearly, that war was "made in Germany." Where in Germany? In the High Court at Berlin? At Krupps' in Essen? Possibly, to an appreciable extent. But whence arose the practical creed that dominated and directed the Kaiser's coterie and gave the great gilns value? A war of aggression is not begun by chance, or accident. What motive actuated it 5 An Unspiritual Creed The answer emerges from a study of two generations of German thought. Germany had become a willing prey to the cancer 'of materialism—an ideology, to use the later word, of deadly influence upon wholesome spiritual ideals. • Haeekel lind much to do with the fostering of this, malignant growth. Learned and painstaking in natural science, he- overstepped the rational limits of his scientific field and set out to give the nation an unspiritual creed, cheerless, self-sufficient and nakedly, cruel.'To him, man was no more than the . flesh and bonCs of his body. This bold anatomist, survivor of a iost legion of . materialistic thinkers, galvanised a moribund fancy with his tempestuous", ardour of enunciation. Largely, he helped to give Germany • the muscle-law of right—"you may do lili ibat you can." .Nietzsche, another of the makers of r that war. was a lunatic under rigid control when lie died, in 188!); but he "was mad long before. '1 he man that calmly reiterated that Jesus Christ was a knavt; and a charlatan could never have been in his senses. He was. an admirer of slavery—as a ' necessary physical status*for'the many in order that the privileged few might have culture;. . To him pangs of conscience were indecent. "What is'good?" he asked, and gave quick answer: "All that elevates the sense 'of power, the will to power, and, power itself. What »is bad? All that proceeds from weakness. What is happiness? The feeling that power increases, that resistance is being overcome." Tush! So a new-born baby is evil in its helplessness, -and the Tliugs came nearest to being supcr- . men I Such Sandowism in ethics was a liriliiant abomination. Bent on domination Then came a little stone-deaf professor of .history,' Treitschke, applying to national policy Nietzsche's dogma of brute force. "The/ State is power," he proclaimed: the nation that can get ■dominion' ought to get dominion, and lio other, consideration was worth a thought. "We arc the people who arc able; therefore, we are the fittest to hold dominion; therefore, we have tho right." So ran his argument. Bernhardi. ambitious soldier, openly advocated the putting of this principle of "tie polities of might" into operation. planning conquests. For nearly 20 years lie had "the ear of Germany. Hevontloiv, Keim, Frobenius, and a host of like-minded fanatics, expounded and preached the principle It was taught systematically in German schools. The whole Ktnpire was expected to imbibe it. There were sane unbelievers, but .soon they did not/ count with the men in high places. When a nation rots, once asserted n keen observer of human doings, it begins to rot at the. top. That happened then in Germany The Bismarck) an creed of blood and iron descended to the ; coinl'non people; the Kaiser, in his shining armour of proud arrogance, became a popular model. A war of. "Deutschland über Alios" was inevitable. Disillusionment ,came with defeat and an effort to adopt democracy was made. Foreign' sympathy and aid were active. Germany patiently reaching after better things when Hitler's National Socialism thrust her back into a worse whirlpool of power politics.