Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site cadre.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!mcnc!idis!cadre!geb From: geb@cadre.UUCP Newsgroups: net.auto,net.legal,net.politics Subject: Re: Laws Nobody Obeys ARE NEEDED Message-ID: <89@cadre.UUCP> Date: Tue, 27-Nov-84 08:53:25 EST Article-I.D.: cadre.89 Posted: Tue Nov 27 08:53:25 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 29-Nov-84 06:06:24 EST References: <84@cadre.UUCP> <1207@dciem.UUCP> <87@cadre.UUCP>, <1269@eosp1.UUCP> Organization: Decision Systems Lab., Univ. of Pgh. Lines: 24 What made the Nazis special was not their bent for perversity. Many, many times in history have masters as cruel as Hitler reigned. Just ask anyone who knows the history of the middle east or Russia about the Mongols, the Huns, the Turks, the Crusaders, etc. The difference was that with the Nazis, modern technology was applied in an effort to commit genocide against a group of people whose numbers included leaders of world culture (the Jews). When the Turks genocided the Armenians in 1915, the outcry wasn't nearly as great. It is believed that Stalin starved and executed more people than Hitler, and until Solzenitzen started writing, no one realized it. Films of the death camps and modern means of communications plus the fact that the Jews are intellectual leaders in most countries assured that the world was not allowed to conveniently ignore or forget Hitler's atrocities. Other atrocities in the past have seemed more remote and didn't carry the emotional impact. The logistics of exterminating 6 million people were so great it took all the effort of the German industrial state to effect it (Zyklon B gas, etc.). But I believe that the scale of the massacre was because of the methods available, not because of a lack of desire on the part of past demonic rulers. And, it could happen again, and probably will, if we don't blow ourselves up first.