Students snap up copies of Mein Kampf .....???

outfctrl · May 2009

Booksellers told The Daily Telegraph that while it is regarded in most countries as a 'Nazi Bible', in India it is considered a management guide in the mould of Spencer Johnson's "Who Moved My Cheese".

You have got to be kidding.

LINK

Hazmal · May 2009

You can't argue with his motivational and management results. Sure, the goals weren't admirable to say the least, but he was good at what he did.

outfctrl · May 2009

What's interesting is In Germany the book's copyright is held by the state of Bavaria where its publication is banned until 2015, 70 years after Hitler's death.

With that said, could you get in trouble for having the book in Germany?

popinjay · May 2009

Originally posted by outfctrl
Booksellers told The Daily Telegraph that while it is regarded in most countries as a 'Nazi Bible', in India it is considered a management guide in the mould of Spencer Johnson's "Who Moved My Cheese".
You have got to be kidding.
LINK

I think you're missing the point of the purchases.

Indians (and some others) are not buying the book because they share Hitler's social values. They are buying the book because Hitler was a former nobody peon who as a drug addicted, schizophrenic, syphillis afflicted occultist, was able to delude an entire nation of people and took Germany from a bankrupt, destitute country to a military powerhouse and economic juggernaut a heartbeat away from running the entire planet.

They want to see if there is anything they can extrapolate from the book in business terms and individual motivation to help them do improve their own lives. I wouldn't take this as a sign that India is about to start purging the lower castes or something, lol. Rational people do this sort of thing all the time. If you don't learn from mistakes in the past, you will repeat it in the future; and if someone has good management practices or something, you cannot simply say "The guy was a dictator, so everything he does is void." I don't like Newt Gingrich's views, but I have the UTMOST respect for his management abilities; the same for Karl Rove. He's slime, but the man is highly intelligent and knows how to get things done for his own evil ends.

I see nothing wrong with owning the book. I don't myself, but if there is good that can come from the book for positive uses, I'm all for it. The U.S. Military thought enough of the German army to copy their helmet style after Vietnam because it was better than our "cookpot" lids, so you can always get good from bad. I'm not one for the banning of books generally. I think it shows a general emotional insecurity and personality flaw.

But kudos, usually threads devolve into Hitler discussions. You eliminated the middleman and got the ball rolling early, hehe.

outfctrl · May 2009

This was an interesting statement from that news clip:

"While it could be the case that management students are buying the book, my feeling is that it has more likely influenced some of the fascist organizations operating in India and nearby."

popinjay · May 2009

Originally posted by outfctrl
This was an interesting statement from that news clip:
"While it could be the case that management students are buying the book, MY FEELING is that it has more likely influenced some of the fascist organizations operating in India and nearby."

Nothing interesting at all about someone having a "feeling", sorry.

tayschrenn · May 2009

It's actually an interesting book to read because of who wrote it and what it is about. I would suggest reading it to anyone if they asked.

That being said it is a bit of a difficult read. Hitler (well his ghost writers anyway) are not the best at creating a free flowing book. It skips about all over the place and is full of historical innaccuracies, prejudice and hate. BUT. Read it. It never hurts to educate yourself.

Dekron · May 2009

I've read Mein Kampf. It was simply to get into the mind of a madman. It opens your eyes to understand the power of cohersion and persuasion and the type of people easily influenced by such indoctrination.

It was easy to see that type of speech in the current leader of the US and how it influenced his followers.

Sabiancym · May 2009

Originally posted by Dekron

I've read Mein Kampf. It was simply to get into the mind of a madman. It opens your eyes to understand the power of cohersion and persuasion and the type of people easily influenced by such indoctrination.
It was easy to see that type of speech in the current leader of the US and how it influenced his followers.

Yea, you better be afraid. We're coming for you.

Gameloading · May 2009

I have never seen any reason to ban the book.

Dekron · May 2009

Originally posted by Sabiancym

Originally posted by Dekron

I've read Mein Kampf. It was simply to get into the mind of a madman. It opens your eyes to understand the power of cohersion and persuasion and the type of people easily influenced by such indoctrination.
It was easy to see that type of speech in the current leader of the US and how it influenced his followers.

Yea, you better be afraid. We're coming for you.

If you thought I was making a connection to Hitler and Obama on grounds of ideals, well, you are wrong. I was simply stating the power of influence over their followers. Obama is not a great speaker [without his teleprompter], but he does have the power of persuasion.

popinjay · May 2009

Originally posted by Dekron
I've read Mein Kampf. It was simply to get into the mind of a madman.

Not sure why you feel the need to vindicate or absolve some kind of guilt for reading it. Adults should be able to read what they like for any reason, and not feel they have to rationalize it to others.

Just say you read the book, period. No adult is going to accuse you of Nazism, lol.

Dekron · May 2009

Originally posted by popinjay

No adult is going to accuse you of Nazism, lol.

I wasn't concerned of that - I was simply stating an interest. If I stated why I was interested in reading Dante's Inferno, I would not be defending myself from those who think I wish to go on a trek of hell - I would simply state why I was interested in it - which, interestingly enough, would be the same reason I read Mein Kampf.

The crazed mind interests me.

popinjay · May 2009

Originally posted by Dekron
Originally posted by popinjay

No adult is going to accuse you of Nazism, lol.
I wasn't concerned of that - I was simply stating an interest. If I stated why I was interested in reading Dante's Inferno, I would not be defending myself from those who think I wish to go on a trek of hell - I would simply state why I was interested in it - which, interestingly enough, would be the same reason I read Mein Kampf.
The crazed mind interests me.

Originally posted by Dekron: It was simply to get into the mind of a madman.

Yes, you were... and the word "simply" underscores it.

But suit yourself, rationalization is a great human coping mechanism. It allows humans to overcome fears and to achieve great things.

Actually, it's one of the things that allowed Hitler to overcome some of his fears and weaknesses. He blamed the Jews for his own failures in life, rationalized it around and told everyone the same thing. Then a monster was born.

Perhaps this is one of the lessons those Indians, Germans and Crotians are trying to learn.. how to turn rationalization to a personal advantage, but for good.

Dekron · May 2009

Originally posted by popinjay

Yes, you were... and the word "simply" underscores it.

Believe whatever you must so you can feel, in your mind, you were right. I'm not going to dance and play with you on what my words meant.

tayschrenn · May 2009

Originally posted by popinjay

Actually, it's one of the things that allowed Hitler to overcome some of his fears and weaknesses. He blamed the Jews for his own failures in life, rationalized it around and told everyone the same thing. Then a monster was born.

Perhaps this is one of the lessons those Indians, Germans and Crotians are trying to learn.. how to turn rationalization to a personal advantage, but for good.

Actually thats not strictly true. Hitler was a deeply patriotic man and blamed the Jews and Marxists for th edownfall of Germany post WW1. He never blamed them for his own failures.

olddaddy · May 2009

Originally posted by outfctrl

Booksellers told The Daily Telegraph that while it is regarded in most countries as a 'Nazi Bible', in India it is considered a management guide in the mould of Spencer Johnson's "Who Moved My Cheese".
You have got to be kidding.

I don't know about you, but I don't think I would like to work for an employer that used Mein Kampf as a management guide.

........just a funny feeling about that.

outfctrl · May 2009

Harmless book? No way

Can the Koran be compared to 'Mein Kampf'? There are close resemblences.

LINK

popinjay · May 2009

Originally posted by outfctrl
Harmless book? No way
Can the Koran be compared to 'Mein Kampf'? There are close resemblences.
LINK

But apparently, Hitler chose the Bible as his inspiration:

My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded only by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God's truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was His fight for the world against the Jewish poison. To-day, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before in the fact that it was for this that He had to shed His blood upon the Cross. As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice.... And if there is anything which could demonstrate that we are acting rightly it is the distress that daily grows. For as a Christian I have also a duty to my own people.... When I go out in the morning and see these men standing in their queues and look into their pinched faces, then I believe I would be no Christian, but a very devil if I felt no pity for them, if I did not, as did our Lord two thousand years ago, turn against those by whom to-day this poor people is plundered and exploited.
-Adolf Hitler, in his speech in Munich on 12 April 1922

In the Bible we find the text, 'That which is neither hot nor cold will I spew out of my mouth.' This utterance of the great Nazarene has kept its profound validity until the present day.
-Adolf Hitler, speech in Munich, 10 April 1923
[The Bible quote comes Jesus speaking in Revelation 3:16]

We are a people of different faiths, but we are one. Which faith conquers the other is not the question; rather, the question is whether Christianity stands or falls.... We tolerate no one in our ranks who attacks the ideas of Christianity... in fact our movement is Christian. We are filled with a desire for Catholics and Protestants to discover one another in the deep distress of our own people.
-Adolf Hitler, in a speech in Passau, 27 October 1928, Bundesarchiv Berlin-Zehlendorf, [cited from Richard Steigmann-Gall's The Holy Reich]

If positive Christianity means love of one's neighbour, i.e. the tending of the sick, the clothing of the poor, the feeding of the hungry, the giving of drink to those who are thirsty, then it is we who are the more positive Christians. For in these spheres the community of the people of National Socialist Germany has accomplished a prodigious work.
-Adolf Hitler, in his speech to the "Old Guard" at Munich on 24 Feb. 1939

Congratulations dude... you just made your own thread Jump The Shark.

Hazmal · May 2009

Originally posted by popinjay

Congratulations dude... you just made your own thread Jump The Shark.

To jump the shark, wouldn't it have to be good first? The writing needs to decline from some point - this is kind of the same.

Munki · May 2009

edit: well on second though, I was pretty much just reiterating what popinjay said about learning from the guys strengths.

So I guess I can trim this down and just say "read popinjays" post again :P

But seriously, Its not a nazi training book, Hitler was one of the great minds who overcame a lot to get to where he did.

You can blanket everything he did with "hes evil" or you can try to pull something constructive out of it.

Its terribly naive to look at it as a tool for neo-nazi extreemists.

Oh and Hazmal.. Touche!

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Students snap up copies of Mein Kampf .....???

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Students snap up copies of Mein Kampf .....???

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