Fear is a bigger enemy

then the enemy we fear

Today I listened to the book: The Nazi and the psychiatrist: Hermann Göring, Dr. Douglas M. Kelley, and a fatal meeting of minds at the end of WWII by Jack El-Hai. Dr. Kelly concluded at the end of his stay at the Nurenburh trials as a psychiatrist that there can be a hidden Nazi in most people. I can agree with that, and though this book doesn’t go into detail about why he came to that conclusion, it is still a good read if you want to get an inside into the psyche of some of the top Nazies on trial at the and of WW2 and where psychiatry was in the 1940s.   

“Naturally, the common people don’t want war … but after all it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.”

Hermann Goring