"Brave New World"
Aldous Huxley
This primary source was the speech that Adolf Hitler delivered to the German people in 1933 at the Berlin Sportpalast. This speech is quite amazing in the fact that to anyone who doesn’t know the history of his true intentions, Hitler sounds awesome. After WWI Germany was practically destroyed by sanctions and fines, leaving the country in pretty bad shape, at one point the unemployment rate was nearly ⅓, a country with that sort of numbers is looking for anyway to improve upon itself, and with Hitler in office they were able to get 2.25 million of the 6 million unemployed back into the workforce, this is pretty impressive, but the most impressive part is that they accomplished this in 8 MONTHS! Now it’s no secret that governments lie and I’m sure that Hitler was saying what he needed to get a following, but if that is true it’s easy to see why he was so popular. After WWI and because of the Treaty of Versailles Germany was forbidden from having an army, which is understandable seeing as how devastating this was, however Hitler points out that the German people do have a right to protect themselves. Hitler even mentions a pretty solid idea, he says that if the whole world wants to sit down and outlaw all guns, he would gladly settle for such a deal, even if they decided they would only outlaw one type of weapon we would agree. He just doesn't see why Germans must be left hanging without protection if others in the world are granted such protection. Now obviously the reason that the Treaty of Versailles doesn’t allow them to have an Army is because Great Britain and the USA don’t want another devastating war. However the way Hitler describes the unfairness of such rules does make sense. Hitler really appeals to the average citizen of Germany, his views are very centered to the unemployed working class and the people that are currently suffering from their loss in WWI. The people feel like they have been mistreated by the other powers of the world and all they want is to be treated fairly, Hitler really makes this seem like a reality for the people. The way that the actual speech is written makes it seem like the Germans are superior to others, and that they weren’t even in the wrong for WWI, I think this is another way the people will rally to a leader such as Hitler, after losing so many family members and friends for nothing, it seems like you would at least like to say that said friends and family died for a good cause, you certainly wouldn’t want them going down in history as the bad guys. I think that the main reason for Hitler's uprising in Germany was that after WWI the Allied powers took too much away from the German people. Leaving them with a want to prove themselves better than the treatment they were shown after WWI. Although Hitler wasn’t in complete power when the book was written I believe that Aldous Huxley was smart enough to predict where things were headed, and wrote his book “Brave New World” based on what sort of world we would live in if leaders such as Hitler and Mussolini were in charge of the entire world. The book made us think about what sort of things we are willing to give up for security. The people that these devastating leaders appeal to are only looking for a better life for themselves,but if they sit back and look at the whole equation and how things are going they should realize that they are giving away their freedom to be different and their ability to voice an opinion, and I believe that is what Aldous Huxley wanted us to think about when reading his book.
Citation:
"Adolf Hitler: Speech at Berlin Sportpala." Historical Speeches TV. Nov. 1933. Web. 16 May 2016.
"Adolf Hitler: Speech at Berlin Sportpala." Historical Speeches TV. Nov. 1933. Web. 16 May 2016.