Young Torless

A very good watch. Thank you for drawing my attention to it.

You are very right. This will probably sound silly or self-aggrandizing in a reddit comment, but I have studied my fair share of history, politics, and philosophy, especially that surrounding the earlier fascisms. To me, the writing is very much on the wall in the U.S. and in the West in general. To the extent that history repeats itself, it is preparing to do so again.

There is an excellent book which, since I first read it years ago, has transformed from an academic interest to a chillingly relevant document. I recommend picking up a copy if you get a chance. This conversation made me think of this passage, part of an interview with a former, reluctant Nazi:

"To live in this process is absolutely not to be able to notice it–please try to believe me–unluess one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us had ever had occasion to develop. Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occassion, 'regretted,' that, unless one were detached from the whole process from the beginning, unless one understood the what whole thing was in principle, what all these 'little measures' that no 'patriotic German' could resent must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One day it is over his head.