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I definitely would stock the Bible, yes -- with the argument that Western societies and cultures are riddled with biblical metaphors and everyday customs, so it
by marttt 3y ago
I definitely would stock the Bible, yes -- with the argument that Western societies and cultures are riddled with biblical metaphors and everyday customs, so it does make sense for the kids to be familiar with them.
Not sure about stocking e.g. Mein Kampf, though. This one I would probably pass, due to disgust towards what the Nazis did. From another angle, I might be "brainwashed" here -- by the cultural meme that this is a Dangerous Book. I don't really know. In the end, it is still just a book. Can a book be dangerous in itself? Not sure that possessing it would turn somebody into a Nazi; a youngster's appreciation of those ideas is surely more complicated a mechanism than just reading a book.
Tangentially related: in my (post-soviet) country, there has been discussion whether former Soviet military buildings are a part of cultural heritage, or should they all be demolished. As a regular person, I'm definitely siding with keeping some of those buildings -- the Soviet occupation was a sad, devastating part of our past, and younger generations should have physical examples of what it was like. Whether those buildings will be used as some kind of cult objects etc -- this is a matter of values education at school or at home.
So I fully agree with @j7ake's comment in this thread that reading (or -- my addition -- possessing) a book is not the same as agreeing with its premises. Hiding the past won't work, I think.
Great angle @kjellsbells, though. Interesting to think about. Thanks for bringing this up.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- sambapa 3y agoBetter to read Evola
- actionfromafar 3y agoHow so?
- jl6 3y agoMein Kampf is worth at least a skim, because it demonstrates that Hitler was a human being. History positions him as an inhuman monster, and rightly so metaphorically. We are conditioned to think that he was uniquely evil in an otherworldly sense, totally unlike us, and someone like him could never arise again because we don’t have monsters these days. But he wasn’t a unique demon. He was a human, with human emotions and motivations and failings. It’s important to recognize him (and all the rest of the Nazis) as human, because the humans of today absolutely do have the capacity to become him again.
- marttt 3y ago"Mein Kampf is worth at least a skim, because it demonstrates that Hitler was a human being." Excellent phrasing. I think you would love "The Kindly Ones" by Jonathan Littell [1]. What an incredible book -- oh, and, being released in 2009, it also fits my interpretation of "Lindy". 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kindly_Ones_(Littell_novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kindly_Ones_(Littell_novel...
- watwut 3y agoNo and this is also a thing only people do not know what is in it say. Or people who want to be edgy say. And I am saying that as someone who attempted to read it, so have passing idea about content. If you want to know who Hitler was as a human, read either "Hitler, by Kershaw Ian" or "Third Reich Trilogy by Richard Evans". If you want someone to realize Hitler was not unique, make them read about other genocides, about Italy at the same time, about Stalin, about Japan, about slavery, about genocide of native americans and so on. Also, I would highly NOT recommend it for someone who does not know actual German history, because that book contains ... well quite a few untrue claims. If you are in general interested in that period and read a lot, nothing wrong with reading it. But if you are not and this is the one historical book you decided to pick and recommend over all the others, then I have hard time to believe you are neutral in your pick.