By Mark Weber
Published: 1995-09-01
„Militaristic“ Germany? As this recent Canadian
newspaper chart shows, the notion that Germany has been a particularly warlike
country is a myth. Of the 278 wars fought by Europeans between 1480 and 1940,
Germany was involved in only eight percent. The most „warlike“ countries were
England, France and Spain. (This information is also given in A Study of War by Prof.
Quincy Wright, cited in R. F. Keeling, Gruesome
Harvest [1992], pp. 131-132.)
If
anything, Germans have suffered disproportionately as victims of war. During
the devastating Thirty Years War, 1618-1648, at least one·third and as much as
three-fifths of the German people lost their lives. Some historians estimate
that this protracted conflict reduced Germany's population from 17 million to
eight million. Many cities and whole regions were laid waste.
During
the First and Second World Wars, Allied propaganda portrayed Germans as
pathologically aggressive and „war loving.“ Today, American television helps to
keep alive this hateful stereotype.
Coercing Opinion
„Subject opinion to coercion: who will you make your
inquisitors? Fallible men; men governed by bad passions, by private as well as
public reasons. And why subject it to coercion? To produce uniformity. But is
uniformity of opinion desirable? No more than of face and stature ... Is
uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the
introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet
we have not advanced an inch toward uniformity. What has been the effect of
coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To
support roguery and error all over the earth.“
—Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782
—Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782
No comments:
Post a Comment