Sunday, April 13, 2014

The Unknown Known or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Don Rumsfeld

At the beginning of a documentary trailer, two time former secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld is asked to read. He reads "All generalizations are false" and then he adds "including this one". It turns out, Rumsfeld was given to read a partial quote attributed to Mark Twain. I looked it up.

 
While thinking about the Hitler post from yesterday morning (I didn't add to it any thoughts of my own) it occurred to me that if all generalizations are indeed 'false', then, it follows that someday, some, if not all those generalizations, which guide and shape events today, might not be so (false) then. In other words, what we think we know today, what we think we are certain of today, may not be regarded as certain and true tomorrow.


There is no more rock solid generalization of moral certainty, today, than Hitler was evil. It's incontrovertibility is tantalizing. And yet, for the truth of Hitler's evil to be irrefutable, it seems to need to be constantly proven. We need to be constantly reminded of how evil Hitler was. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it said George Santayana.


We need to be reminded that there are certain things, we know we know. And we know we know them because they are true, well beyond the selfie photo op, meant to remind people, yet again, as if they needed to be reminded, that Obama is not Bush... My goodness gracious!

Loosing sight of the certainty of what we know we know, even if only so slightly as to be mistakenly interpreted, opened the door to someone who was also watching and interpreting. Putin had reset button ideas of his own. Putin can also take selfies.

42 comments:

Shouting Thomas said...

The evil "truth" that stuck over the long haul about Hitler has already proven to be false.

The left has been driven since the Holocaust by the professed desire to ensure that such an event never happens again.

Over the long haul, the left concluded that the cause of the Holocaust was some unique moral failing of Nordic/Germanic gentile men.

Events since then have proved the left wrong. Greater genocides occurred in the Soviet Union and China. Smaller genocides occurred in Cambodia and Rwanda.

Genocide isn't caused by the moral failings of a particular race or nationality. Like all other evils that plague humans, the urge to annihilate your opponent is a universal part of the human condition.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

The evil truth about Hitler is that it could have been ANY other man in that position that led people into madness.

The evil truth is that is wasn't just ONE man it was people as a group who actively participated in, facilitated or just ignored the evil.

People can be evil.Some people are very evil. People in mass groups can easily be led into temptation and act in evil ways. It wasn't "Hitler" who was the cause of the evil. He was just a catalyst.

Try try to blame A man for this is to miss the entire point.

Conversely a leader who is not a catalyst for evil, but rather for good can also lead people away from temptation and into the good. Be careful who you elect or choose as your leader since the people will follow.

edutcher said...

Compared to Stalin and Mao, Al was a piker (14 million versus 45 and 66, respectively), yet he is the gold standard of Eeeevilllle.

Could this possibly be because the media and academia are dominated by the Left?

virgil xenophon said...

@edutcher/

Yes, this is one of the points the French academics who produced The Black Book of Communism make, that and the fact that the SU and China were never defeated and occupied in the way Nazi Germany was; so all the damming files on their inhumanities were never fully exposed in the way that those of the Nazis' were.

virgil xenophon said...

@DBQ/

Your points are well taken, but while the social conditions in post WW I Germany were "necessary" for a Hitler to thrive, they were not "sufficient" unto themselves. They needed a catalyst like Hitler to create Nazism. Hitler would have never come to power had not the proper sociocultural millieu existed, without a man exactly like Hitler, however, Nazism in the form it took would never have come to fruition. One needs BOTH; the man AND the right conditions. But those social "conditions" were not self-actualizing, they needed a particular leader to give voice to an otherwise incohate zeitgeist of the times. It was Hitler's vision and his alone which shaped and gave rise to Nazism, so, yes, it is well and proper to blame the man. Look at what is happening in the here and now to America by a man (Obama) using highly authoritarian unconstitutional powers to enforce his own "Weltanschauung." No Obama, no Obama-care. No Hitler, no Nazism. Now, BOTH being voted into office by "the people" the "people" were "necessary" for the rise of both Hitlerism and Obamism, but they were not "sufficient." Without either of those two men the shape of the 30s Germany and present-day America would have been FAR different.

(PS: I'm not really fundamentally disagreeing with the main thrust of your argument, just presenting a slightly different gloss..)

Aridog said...

So long as the post originator allows that shit faced miserable TOP hobbit to comment here, your threads are barren.

Good luck with that.

Lem, don't you recognize it when someone shits on your blog?

Keep the TOP hobbit around, intentionally changing the post direction and topic, and you will soon be all alone. Bank on it.

Chip Ahoy said...

The lesson I read is what is inherent in us that allows it?

Ease. That's what.

I saw it with my own eyes and I was horrified. It caused me to withdraw more completely. Big time. Withdraw socially altogether. For now. Until I can figure out how to cope with this bit.

Riding up front in a van full of men and supplies, back from a full day, a news item about Travon Martin comes on the radio and the driver, a nice man regularly, outbursts "That son of a bitch." adding "I hope they get him good."

Two opinions. Exceedingly harsh opinions.

Obviously woefully misinformed. The van erupted inside with all people agreeing entirely.

Full on agreement.


I checked them all at once and was shut down immediately by the guy who did the original outburst and already delivered his two opinions.

I.

am.

so.

tired.

of.

that.

I refused being shut down and was shut down immediately again. I overrode the second shutdown and forcefully delivered what I knew of Zimmerman's good points and what I knew of Martin's bad points, the main points without getting into damning finer points and avoiding all illegal political machinations I knew of, no time for all that because the third shutdown would ruin the whole day for everybody involved. But I did get the main points out that nobody hears before the third shut down whereupon I reverted off politics and onto pleasant singing. An immediate reversal in mood. Like a dog.

But since then I view the whole thing as a lynch mob. A proper well-organized lynch mob on a national scale, and now I see clearly exactly how lynch mobs are formed even among nice people, how easy that was to pull off, with each member feeling just so m'tjhr' fk$*@#ing sanctimoniously self-righteous. It hurt my soul. I'm better off apart. But I see how it happens.

My first question is where do you get your information? From the likes of Al Sharpton.

Meade said...

"Who shall we sit on first?" said the voice [of Aridog].

Dust Bunny Queen said...

@ virgil

One needs BOTH; the man AND the right conditions.

Yes. Agreed! The combination of events and ingredients, if you will, to create the situation. The right(if you want to call it right) man at the right time to create the horror of WWII Germany. Should Hitler not have existed there might there have been a vacuum to fill? Had another person with a different vision stepped up, how differently would our history be and our present be?? Would it be the same? Can history be changed? or is it predetermined in some sense? Set by the circumstances. What alternate paths could have been generated if Hitler didn't exist. What alternate presents and futures if Obama didn't exist

Every choice we make puts us on a path in an infinite selection of paths. Once taken, you can't go back....or.....maybe not. Choose wisely. This postulate is a favorite in alternate history, time travel scenarios and sci-fi novels.

Meade said...

Potentially not.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Excellent cross Chip. I hadn't thought of that jump, and I generally jump. I have to purposely avoid it for the sake of a clear concise post.

I have to remember to save the jumps for the comments.

ricpic said...

David: Saul has killed his thousands and David his ten thousands.

Hillary: I'll break that glass ceiling by killing millions of my ENEMIES! Right wingers, bitter clingers, anyone who dares call me Ol' Crusty, they'll all die. Don't just stand there gawking, Huma, find me a pantsuit that fits!!!

Meade said...

"Thief, thief, thief! We hates it, we hates it, we hates it forever!" [said Aridog.]

Meade said...

[sniffled, snuffled, whimpered, whined, wept, cried, blubbered, and boo-hooed Aridog.]

Trooper York said...


All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

Thank you Aridog for stating the obvious to the oblivious.

Meade said...

Jim Dolan said...
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

Thank you Aridog for stating the obvious to the oblivious."

Speaking of obvious and oblivious... man what a dolt!

Trooper York said...

Jill Johnson: [phone rings]
[answers]
Jill Johnson: Stop calling me you sick...
Officer Burroughs: Jill, Jill. We traced the call! It's coming from inside the house! Do you hear me? It's coming from inside the house! You need to get out! Jill?
[power goes out]
(When a Stanger Calls, 2006)

Aridog said...

Rumsfeld & Cheney helped Nixon do many things, such as his disastrous price controls...and just sort of stuck around government ever since.

Booyah!

virgil xenophon said...

When at grad school for my PhD in IR and Bureaucratic decision-making I had a visiting professor from Duke, an old Pole named Kulski who had been in the pre (WW II) Polish Diplomatic intelligence service. He had been present at Munich, among other things and had some interesting stories. But one of his words of wisdom was: "Do you know the second worst thing to happen besides losing a land-war with China?" Ans: "Winning it." "How could we possibly ever occupy and administer a nation like China?" he opined. Do you realize the limited number of Mandarin-speaking people of ANY kind/qualification we have in America?" In short, he was warning against the "tar-baby" syndrome, i.e., be careful what you wish for..

Mitch H. said...

The internet is a massively parallel experiment simulating and stimulating Arndt's "banality of evil" on the one hand, and Auden's dictum ("Those to whom evil is done Do evil in return") on the other. Every troll a pocket hitler. Except everyone doesn't become a troll online. Which is to say, there are many potential hitlers in the general populace, but it's not all of them, nor even is it a large percentage. Not even every sociopath is hitler in embryo.

(Meade, btw, is a walking master-class in Auden's dictum. There is no-one so trollish as a put-upon moderator on busman's holiday in someone else's forum.)

Meade said...

"someone else's forum"

@Mitch: What exactly, in you opinion, makes this any less my forum than, say, yours?

Mitch H. said...

It's neither of ours, but rather Lem's. Did I claim ownership? The only thing mine online these days is a defunct little blogspot page that I myself only use as a portable set of links.

Meade said...

Well then that really makes you the "walking master-class" in doing evil, doesn't it?

Meade said...

@Nick, I'm far more gay than Putin.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Well, so much for an intelligent or thoughtful conversation about Hitler, social dynamics, the nature of evil, predestination, history. Discussion of the literary device killing an important historical figure like Hitler and how might that have changed things...or not changed them.

Welcome to the retarded 7th grade locker room insulting mentality.

Shouting Thomas said...

I'd ask what Mead's problem is, but he might tell me, and I really don't want to know.

Meade said...

Why do you think anyone would care about what you want, Shouty?

Shouting Thomas said...

Some do, some don't.

Same as with everybody.

Meade said...

I'm familiar with some who don't.

Who are the some who do?

Shouting Thomas said...

Considering your continuing response, that would be you.

Meade said...

Aw, that's sweet, Shouty — you want my continuing response.

Ask me if I care.

Aridog said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Aridog said...

Another thread hi-jacked by the sniveling sojourner from TOP. Wonder what the topic was originally?

Lem, maybe you can advise me?

I thought your post was interesting and worth discussion on its own merits. When 33% of the comments are by one individual and off topic. What is the point?

The staccato posts by the hobbit on Deborah's thread, where she finally gave up blocking them, is an example of his intent...to never quit until the thread is ruined.

Sorry Virgil...I will respond to your germane post elsewhere if and when appropriate. It is one of my firmly held convictions that you posed...also dating back to my college daze, ill spent as they were...then my time in a couple parts of Asia.

Meade said...

The first "off topic" comment was yours, Aridog. The first "trolling" comment was yours. In fact, it was you who killed the tread, you hypocritical bitch.

Unknown said...

Eh. While Obama's press secretary hangs delightful images of Soviet propaganda on his walls for decoration - reality.

Unknown said...

Excellent posts/points by DBQ and Virgil.

Aridog said...

Meade you little piss ant, never quit, always get that last post. The topic was Rumsfeld... I gather you missed that you little sniveling weasel.

Can I come over to your mommy's place and do the same thing...without deletion and not trace? Chicken-shit?

dopn't worry, I'd sooner shit in my own soup as post on you mommy's sorry blog.

Hey, isn't it time for you to accuse someone of being a fraud or something...you crying bitch boy?

You are a fucking little bug fucker, Meade; in your imagination you are both tough and brilliant, in reality, not so much...in fact not at all, especially "tough."

Aridog said...

If I (finally) killed the thread, good. At least someone did. Th little dick sniffer won't leave once attached to the member, ya' know.

Lydia said...

Thanks for the reminder of the Katyn massacre, April Apple. Someone should send it to Jay Carney and his wife, Claire Shipman.

I think they must be just plain stupid, hanging stuff like that on their walls. And then letting them be photographed, not realizing it might not be so very cool. Then again, all the folks they hang out with find Mao and Soviet stuff nothing more than kitsch.

Here's the link for those who haven't see the Carney's taste in home decor.

Aridog said...

Lydia...And thank you for the link to the real Carney values...reflects this administration to a "T".

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

All that photo shopping of Shipman and Carny.

It's just like what they do to the news. they polish it and massage it and spin it to the point where it's unrecognizable from reality.

Aridog said...

Lindyhop ....er, 'cuz we have spent our entire lives with cranky women? :-))

PS: My better half for 30+ years has never been cranky, so I try to learn from her.