History, Security

Why Hitler Named His Party “National Socialist German Laborers” (Nazis)

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“Nazis” chose a very cynical and dangerous “getürk” name for themselves, which The Atlantic in March 1932 plainly explained to American readers (who then headed to the polls to elect Franklin D. Roosevelt their President).

…[Hitler] reorganized in 1926 as the National Socialist German Laborers Party of to day.

This new party Nazi, or Fascist, it is commonly called is ‘National’ because Hitler’s fundamental ideal is nationalism. It is ‘Socialist’ (in Hitler’s own meaning of the word) because he saw that the people would have to be made comfortable before they would listen to his gospel. It is ‘German’ because his national aspirations are for Germans only. It is a ‘Laborers’ party because Hitler intended to appeal particularly to the laboring masses.

What were some notable attributes of the deceptively named National Socialist German Laborers Party, as revealed in 1932 reporting?

One, an inability to share risk, distrust in all credit handling he didn’t run; Hitler described trust in any financial systems as a devastating loss of his own absolute control.

Hitler fears the banks and all newfangled ideas for controlling credit. He objects to stock companies and stresses the value of personal ownership. In short, he believes in the ruthless subordination of economic interests and economic leaders to racial and national considerations.

Two, the subjugation of truth to whatever political or economic aims Hitler cooked up as lies, to shape and curate public sentiment with propaganda, meant to stoke faith in his latest messaging (saturated with “social” fantasies and false fears).

In Hitler’s mind the word ‘propaganda’ seems to bear no relation whatever to truth. The mass of mankind is an instrument to be played upon, nothing more. Propaganda is a means of making people believe what is for the moment effective in moving them to do what he wishes. No moral considerations are involved. His mind is in the herd stage, and he is as grossly material in his politics as Freud in his psychology. Utterly contemptuous of the intelligence of the people, he seems quite to ignore the unwholesome aftereffects of a diet of lies. He is deliberately building upon the weakness of the mass mind, and in this he proves himself a genuine demagogue — honest, no doubt, in believing that what he does is for the general good, demagogue just the same.

That reminds me of a certain doctored photograph.

Nazi leader Adolf Hitler is pictured with his Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, who was later taken out of the frame for unknown reasons, but likely because Hitler discovered that Goebbels believed “the truth will always win”.
Poetry

Bored

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by Margaret Atwood, in memory of her father (Carl Edmund Atwood, an entomologist) and the things he taught her.

All those times I was bored
out of my mind. Holding the log
while he sawed it. Holding
the string while he measured, boards,
distances between things, or pounded
stakes into the ground for rows and rows
of lettuces and beets, which I then (bored)
weeded. Or sat in the back
of the car, or sat still in boats,
sat, sat, while at the prow, stern, wheel
he drove, steered, paddled. It
wasn't even boredom, it was looking,
looking hard and up close at the small
details. Myopia. The worn gunwales,
the intricate twill of the seat
cover. The acid crumbs of loam, the granular
pink rock, its igneous veins, the sea-fans
of dry moss, the blackish and then the graying
bristles on the back of his neck.
Sometimes he would whistle, sometimes
I would. The boring rhythm of doing
things over and over, carrying
the wood, drying
the dishes. Such minutiae. It's what
the animals spend most of their time at,
ferrying the sand, grain by grain, from their tunnels,
shuffling the leaves in their burrows. He pointed
such things out, and I would look
at the whorled texture of his square finger, earth under
the nail. Why do I remember it as sunnier
all the time then, although it more often
rained, and more birdsong?
I could hardly wait to get
the hell out of there to
anywhere else. Perhaps though
boredom is happier. It is for dogs or
groundhogs. Now I wouldn't be bored.
Now I would know too much.
Now I would know.

Poetry, Security

Nick Cave’s “two qualities that will improve your life immeasurably”

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Sage advice from a brilliant artist, published on The Red Hand Files blog:

…look to two qualities that will improve your life immeasurably.

The first is humility. Humility amounts to an understanding that the world is not divided into good and bad people, but rather it is made up of all manner of individuals, each broken in their own way, each caught up in the common human struggle and each having the capacity to do both terrible and beautiful things. If we truly comprehend and acknowledge that we are all imperfect creatures, we find that we become more tolerant and accepting of others’ shortcomings and the world appears less dissonant, less isolating, less threatening.

The other quality is curiosity. If we look with curiosity at people who do not share our values, they become interesting rather than threatening. As I’ve grown older I’ve learnt that the world and the people in it are surprisingly interesting, and that the more you look and listen, the more interesting they become. Cultivating a questioning mind, of which conversation is the chief instrument, enriches our relationship with the world. Having a conversation with someone I may disagree with is, I have come to find, a great, life embracing pleasure.

He expands the thought further in a later blog post.

…beyond disagreement, the fortifying agent in any relationship is forgiveness – the ability to expand one’s heart in order to accommodate the infractions, perceived or otherwise, of the other. …don’t be afraid to disagree, but be ready to forgive and be forgiven, and let love and understanding reach audaciously across the divide.

See also: Red Right Hand Video

Food, Security

BirdBeSafe: Scientific Study Explains Why Bright Colors on Cats is for the Birds

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A study back in 2015 apparently proved that color-vision prey (birds and reptiles) survive more easily when their predators wear bright colors (e.g. putting a large vivid safety color collar on a cat).

Source: “Birds be safe: Can a novel cat collar reduce avian mortality by domestic cats (Felis catus)?” Global Ecology and Conservation, Volume 3, January 2015, Pages 359-366

A second study then confirmed the findings about avian color perception.

Bird vision on the right. Source: Photography of the Invisible World, Dr. Klaus Schmitt

The concept of prey safety through color vision has an intriguing twist: predators struggle to learn and implement effective countermeasures. While a cat is known to overcome and bypass a jingle bell, it is currently believed that cats have not yet figured out this particular challenge of being made more visible.

Such reliability makes me think how avian (and lizard) vision research could help a subtle shift in communication dynamics, reminiscent of the impact from infrared vision technology advancements. Drawing inspiration from birds (and lizards), goggles could bring humans into light spectrums we usually miss.

Source: “What Birds See” by Timothy H. Goldsmith, Scientific American, 2006

Think of signals using patterns and colors visible only with avian (and lizard) lenses. With potential applications in many forms of observation, such lenses could subtly alter communications. Embracing nuances of avian (and lizard) perception, this technology offers a neutral, practical approach to broad ranges of signaling including threat differentiation, opening up possibilities for those tuned into the secrets of the natural world.

Source: U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence, 1918