The great failure and staggering tragedy of European Jews is that they could not accept that some of their neighbors were not as decent, humane and educated as they were. A culture that learned to survive by turning inward simply never was willing to face the reality of what they were up against; namely, that hoping for compassion and humanity from the likes of the Nazis was akin to reading poetry to a hurricane. This denial --- and that is the only word for it --- is, in the final horrible analysis, a form of unconscious arrogance, a refusal to see things for what they are. A people of astonishing internal beauty simply could not look into the face of such ugliness without turning away. And now they are dead.Whittle is very sympathetic, but he's either ignorant or incredibly naive, or both. He's also simplistic and condescending, leaving out a hell of a lot of facts so he can make his point (such as: all the Jews who tried desperately to leave but were rejected by other countries - including ours, or the years of repeated warnings of what was happening, or the steady stream of Jews leaving throughout the 30s, or a hundred concentration camp victims guarded by 5 Nazis are starved, sick, and have nowhere to run even if they did overpower the guards, and some did anyway, or the massive retaliation by the Nazis for every rebellion, such as Kristallnacht, or the existance and fate of the White Rose, or if the Jews were so "inward," how come they were so well-integrated into the professional classes in Germany that some were totally assimilated, or - well, I could go on, but it's late and the kinds of conclusions people like Mr. Whittle come to about Germany and America and Jews have been effectively challenged elsewhere, so I'm not going to waste any more time on them).
I suggest Mr. Whittle begin to get a clue by taking his "denial" and "people of astonishing internal beauty" and shoving them up his ass. Then he can read this, and go on to Goldhagen's Hitler's Willing Executioners and related commentaries.Then he can ask himself whether it could or could not happen here, and whether widespread gun ownership by citizens would have anything to do with the results. Then he can write his next polemic for gun ownership without propping it up with insulting and false victim-blaming stereotypes.
I've read this kind of crap before, always by some martial artist or gun collector with (presumably) great fighting skills but zero understanding of organizational behavior or social systems. Which means they don't get that the battle for a free tolerant society is won or lost way before the secret police show up at your front door to take away your armory.
UPDATE: Yowzah! Meryl, Haggai, and Alisa pile on, critiquing other sections of Whittle's lengthy thesis.
UPDATE: This discussion is continued here.
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