“if he (the leader) does
not continually tell his followers quite clearly of the limited nature of his
task . . .if he allows himself to surrender to the wishes of his followers, who
would always make him their idol-then the image of the leader will pass over
into the image of the misleader.”
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer-
1933 would be a pivotal
year for the nations. This would be the year when they would elect the leaders
the people had been demanding for years: leaders who had a vision and drug
their countries along while they chased that vision. The countries were the
U.S. and Germany and the leaders would be, respectively, FDR and Adolph Hitler.
Both would be given
immense power as both countries were clamoring for a strong leader. America
wanted someone to end the Great Depression, and that someone was NOT Herbert
Hoover with his hands-off minimalist approach to government. At World War I
ended, the Treaty of Versailles had put the entire blame for the war on
Germany, and as a result had attempted to democratize Germany by overthrowing
the Keizer and establishing the German Presidency. The German people hated the
presidential position, they wanted a leader with power like the Keizer, someone
who knew what he wanted and didn’t have to persuade or cajole advisors or the
people to get it. The 1920’s was an uproarious decade as the groundswell grew
that would allow Adolph Hitler and his party to go from imprisonment in the
early 1920’s to control of the nation a decade later.
I’m not saying the people ask
Hitler to kill the Jews, but when you set no limits on the power of a leader,
you get what you deserve.
This is what Bonhoeffer, a
German theologian who was killed by Hitler in 1945, knew and tried to pass on
in the early 1930’s.
Both Roosevelt and Hitler
fed off the other, even though America
was ‘neutral,’ we were turning out bombs and weapons in factories for our
allies, Hitler always had his eye on the west, building up his army until he
felt able to fight the Americans.
Hitler quickly dismantled
any other governing body, while having what would come to be known as the Brown
Shirts quietly and effectively take out those who opposed him. Roosevelt too
took his chance and pushed through sweeping changes to the country and when
opposition did occur, he tried to change the dynamics of the judicial system to
finish his agenda.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer died
for his beliefs, along with millions of others. But it did not end with the
concentration camp: there are those today who have been almost begged to take
unlimited power over people. Look at
North Korea, Iran, Syria, or almost any country that is not governed by
democratic rule.
Although that is no
guarantee, America has had it rulers in the past, FDR included , who could be seen as a
dictator-but whenever you give something away, it requires force to take back.
Whenever you throw it away, you prove to be ignorant of its value. FDR was to be America’s savior, providing
everything we lacked. Hitler also was thought to be a savior. Too often our
worldview is nothing more than self interest, and this is what happened in
Germany, America and continues to happen today.
It
has long been rumored that FDR knew about the attack on Pearl Harbor before it
happened. It has been rumored he orchestrated them to get America into the war.
He had been unable to pull the country out of the Depression and knew that a
war time economy would be the key to pulling the nation back into the black.
The great savior of America ended up, like Hitler, being responsible for the death
of thousands because he was given more power than he was able to handle.
Those who don’t learn from
history are doomed to repeat it.
