Socialism is Socially Unacceptable? Part I

“If there’s one thing you can say about mankind

There’s nothing kind about man

You can drive out nature with a pitchfork 

But it always comes roaring back again”

Tom Waits: Misery’s The River of The World

“Arbeit Macht Frei – Work sets you free” was the legend above the gates of Auschwitz-Birkenau and the single biggest lie ever sold to the world. For more than one million Jewish people this was the gate to interminable suffering and eventual death. It was only when the war was brought to an end and the gates to this hell on earth were thrown open, that the world witnessed the extent of the atrocities that the Nazi’s had wrought on humankind. 

Along with the Roma, Sinti and Slavic peoples, gay men, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the disabled, beggars, homeless people, alcoholics, prostitutes, and career criminals, six million Jewish people perished at the hands of the Nazi’s and all because of the twisted ideology of Adolf Hitler. To Hitler all of these people belonged to one category -the Untermenschen (sub-human). Had you belonged to this category in the days of the Third-Reich, then your days would certainly have numbered in the worst possible way.

And what factors contributed to the rise of the Nazi Party? A mixture of economic and political instability alongside the powerful oratory of Hitler and an effective campaign of propaganda. Eighty years on and we find ourselves staring down the barrel of a far-right gun once more with similar socio-economic factors and a propaganda campaign being waged on all fronts.

When people argue for socialism it is often argued against by those who equate it with fascism, due to the fact that Hitler’s party was called the  National Socialist German Workers Party. But of course Hitler just cherry picked words, ideas and symbols from everywhere, twisting and perverting their meanings to suit his own ends. The Swastika, the most identifiable of fascist symbols and the word itself did not belong to Hitler but had in fact been plucked from Hinduism and the Sanskrit language. Hitler held negative and racist views towards the Indian people whom he saw as part of that Untermenschen category. But this did not stop him from appropriating its language and imagery for his own foul ends. 

Whilst Germany’s participation in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade had been limited and the motivation differed, the notion of racial inferiority was similarly a driving force for Hitler. Winston Churchill, despite having been one of the leaders in Britain’s National government, consisting of members of the Conservative, Labour and Liberal parties, often talked in disparaging and racist terms about the Indian People ‘breeding like rabbits’ and their ‘beastly religion’. What does this say about the forces at work trying to defeat fascism whilst holding views that Hitler would have approved of. The picture is a complex one, but what it does portray quite clearly is that the moment that we set about de-humanising a people we end up with stains on our own humanity be it the Shoah (Holocaust), the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade or the famine of Bengal, and the list goes on and on… and on… and on.

In the end the gains are political and economic capital for the state but not the people who are sent out to die in foreign fields. We, the poor ,have no skin in the establishment game, the benefits of such murderous and inhumane behaviour only make our lives worse and we must ensure that those who went before did not die in vain. We must work with and protect each other, always seeking ways to end conflict not escalate it.  

It is only now, as the British empire recedes into the past, that we begin to see, although we are still not accepting, that without stealing growth through slavery and being top of the pile, growth is not possible or sustainable or, if humanity is to survive, wanted. Our future must be less about possessions and more about how we live with each other, how we interact, how we help each other. This is how we honour those who died back then to allow us to live now.

One final thought relating to this; remains were discovered in a cave in Iraqi Kurdistan of a Neanderthal Man, known as Shanidar I. The remains showed that this individual had been blind in one eye, likely from some blunt force trauma. Part of his right arm was missing, maybe amputated, and deformities in his legs, possibly brought on by some form of paralysis from the earlier injury to his arm, suggested that this would have been an individual that could not have looked after himself, yet he lived to about 40-50 years old; the equivalent of about 80 by todays standards. What this skeleton shows is that Neanderthal people did not just leave the sick to die, they looked after them in such a way as allowed them to live into old age. Similarly our future as a species relies on us acknowledging the better side of human behaviour and looking after one another. Being social is not about being political it is about survival.