[was: Re: [PEN-L:9662] Re: Re: US Consumer Confidence index surges]
Louis says:
> Luxemburg argued that the rising standard of living and democratic openings were
>largely
connected to the rise of imperialism which allowed the class struggle to be co-opted in
countries like England and Germany. While the Kaiser was instituting the first social
security system in modern times, he was at the same time turning the territory now
called
Namibia into a concentration camp, which served as a model for Hitler's camps years
later.<
two notes: (1) it's important to remember that at the same time the Kaiser stole the
Social Democratic program -- and adapted it to his purposes -- he also banned the
Social
Democratic Party. Though this is hardly as bad as what he did in Namibia, it indicates
that a simple "the Social Democrats were bought off" story is exactly that -- too
simple.
The Kaiser -- or rather, Bismarck, who was acting as the Kaiser's Dick Cheney -- used
not
only the carrot but the stick.
(2) What the Kaiser did to Namibia was not the same as what Hitler did. The former
involved looting, robbing, enslaving, to attain wealth by any means necessary (i.e.,
killing lots of people who were assumed to be "inferior"). The latter involved a true
social psychosis, seeing certian paraiah groups -- Jews, gays, the mentally retarded,
etc.
-- as being so horrible that they needed to be totally and utterly exterminated. Forced
labor and looting were more side-effects, efforts to deal with the labor shortage (due
to
the war), etc.
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