24 July 2007

Putting The Socialist Back In National Socialism.

An interesting post over at the Volokh Conspiracy, reminding us of an 'inconvenient truth' that our friends on the Left would rather not face - Nazism did not have it's origins in free-market ideals of the right, but rather those of the collectivist left.

"The idea that Nazism was an extreme form of "capitalism" and Hitler primarily a tool serving the interests of "big business" is a longstanding myth that even now retains a measure of popularity in some quarters. This, despite the fact that the full name of the Nazi Party was the National Socialist German Workers' Party, and that Nazi political strategy was explicitly based on combining the appeal of socialism with that of nationalism (thus the choice of name). Once in power, the Nazis even went so far as to institute a Four Year Plan for running the German economy, modeled in large part on the Soviet Union's Five Year Plans."

Those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it. Read the whole thing, as they say.

UPDATE: The comments debate below this post is pretty lively, so take a look if you have the time. (Comments over at Volokh, not here. No one ever comments here.)

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