The American Crisis: Origins-
The Failure of Modern Science and Our Historical Dilemma
Miscellaneous Notes and Summary
Journal Entry #31

We have seen that Darwinian evolutionary theory is a necessary condition- an indispensable circumstance- for the establishment of Nazism, but not a sufficient condition- a circumstance the presence of which Nazism must occur. What then is the sufficient condition for the establishment of totalitarianism? The sufficient condition which makes totalitarianism inevitable is wonderfully illustrated in the extraordinary event which played out one night in Berlin in 1933. The German Student Union (Studentschaft) conducted a “cleaning action”, intended to eliminate “un-German or foreign writings, especially Jewish, from libraries and bookstores”. Klaus Fischer writes that such activities “were held at all German universities during which students, professors, and party officials out-did each other in paying homage to Nazi political correctness.” William Shirer, in his Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, registers the report.

“On the evening of May 10, 1933, some four and a half months after Hitler became Chancellor, there occurred in Berlin a scene which had not been witnessed in the Western world since the late Middle Ages. At about midnight a torchlight parade of thousands of students ended at a square on Unter den Linden opposite the University of Berlin. Torches were put to a huge pile of books that had been gathered there, and as the flames enveloped them more books were thrown on the fire until some twenty thousand had been consumed. Similar scenes took place in several other cities. The book burning had begun.” We are told by Klaus Fischer in his book Nazi Germany; A New History, that the nineteenth century German poet Heinrich Heine “once observed prophetically that it was but a small step from burning books to burning people.”

It was not accidental that among the books consumed in the flames that night were the writings of Albert Einstein. Indeed, Professor Einstein's thoughts and work drew sharp criticism from the new Nazi cultural elite, inspired as they were by the ideas of racial purity which they had derived from the logic of Darwinian evolutionary theory. That such criticism of so brilliant and dedicated a scientist as Einstein should have occurred in the bizarre political atmosphere of cultural Nazification should not be at all surprising. What should fascinate the observer, however, is the peculiar direction from which much of this criticism emanated.

William Shirer elaborates in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich; A History of Nazi Germany (1962) that “there was...Professor Wilhelm Mueller, of the Technical College of Aachen, who in a book entitled Jewry and Science saw a world-wide Jewish plot to pollute science and thereby destroy civilization. To him Einstein, with his theory of relativity, was the archvillain...The world-wide acclaim given to Einstein on the publication of his theory of relativity, Professor Mueller proclaimed, was really only a rejoicing over 'the approach of Jewish world rule which was to force down German manhood irrevocably and eternally to the level of the lifeless slave’.”

“...Even to Professor Lenard [of Heidelberg University] 'the Jew [Einstein] conspicuously lacks understanding for the truth...being in this respect in contrast to the Aryan research scientist with his careful and serious will to truth…Jewish physics is thus a phantom and a phenomenon of degeneration of fundamental German Physics.'...Professor Rudolphe Tomaschek, director of the Institute of Physics at Dresden, went further. 'Modern Physics,' he wrote, 'is an instrument of [world] Jewry for the destruction of Nordic science...True physics is the creation of the German spirit...In fact, all European science is the fruit of Aryan, or, better, German thought.'...And yet from 1905 to 1931 ten German Jews had been awarded Nobel Prizes for their contributions to science.”

How remarkable is the similarity in tone of those “academic” denunciations of Einstein then and the current denunciations of say, Professor Richard Dawkins of Oxford University when he stated; “It is absolutely safe to say that if you meet somebody who claims not to believe in evolution that person is ignorant, stupid or insane.” It would seem then, the sufficient condition for the establishment of Nazism, or any totalitarian regime is the elimination of the freedom of thought using indoctrination, intimidation, propaganda, government decree or judicial fiat. And in the comprehensive elimination of intellectual freedom through the artful use of such tactics, Adolf Hitler was a most competent practitioner.

In the view of Laurence Rees, writer and producer of the superb BBC History of World War II DVD series, Adolf Hitler’s Weltanschauung- or world view- is strikingly revealed in the book he dictated to Rudolf Hess while in jail during the Nazi movement’s early years. Just as it was with animals, so it was with great men and even whole countries. Hitler believed the entire world was locked in a permanent struggle in which the stronger must prevail. It was a theory he developed at length in his 1924 book, Mein Kampf (My Struggle). In it Hitler recognized the inevitable struggle against Bolsheviks, Jews, Slavs (Russians) and the “mongrelized” portions of the human race who sought to dominate the biologically and culturally superior Aryan race. To the world it was nothing less than total war. To Adolf Hitler it was called Lebensraum- “living space”- for the German people.

As we have seen, such an ideology was sustained by Charles Lyell’s view that “in the universal struggle for existence, the right of the strongest eventually prevails”; Charles Darwin’s natural selection and his adoption of Thomas Malthus’ theory that “…survival will be a matter of constant competition for limited resources”; Ernst Haeckel’s Monism and the belief that “nations must fight to survive as organisms did, or perish”; with Herbert Spencer’s “survival of the fittest” and his extension of the biological struggle for existence to political and social arrangements- that is, Social Darwinism. These seminal ideas imbued Hitler’s view that the “weak” are sacrificed for the greater good and of the superiority of the State to make such decisions over the will of the individual. It also indicated a tragic crossroads for Western Civilization.

I am inclined to the opinion that a nation- like an individual- encounters throughout its life many and various historical crossroads, and that the wrong road is as easily chosen as the right one. While the consequences of a nation’s choices are certain they’re not always evident, though the road signs marking the route are conspicuously discernible. For America at the end of the 1930’s there loomed ominously that supreme crossroads which involved another European war- and this after a decade of economic depression.

In fact, for the West it was really a dual challenge, for it involved the conduct of war and a properly managed peace- if, that is, loss or stalemate was avoided. And since the previous peace was not very well managed, the Western democracies discovered it was possible to win the war and lose the peace, finding itself right back in the same place as in 1914. In his outstanding book Freedom’s Forge; How American Business Produced Victory in World War II (2012), Arthur Herman cites May 10, 1940 as the precise date when America arrived at this crossroads.

The lightning-fast mechanized German Blitzkrieg invasion poured through Holland and Belgium supported by thousands of paratroopers and swarms of Stuka dive-bombers. With industrial precision the German shock troops seized vital bridges across the Meuse River, opening the gap for waves of Panzer tanks and mechanized infantry to strike deep into French territory and on toward Paris. German heavy bombers pummeled the ancient Dutch city of Rotterdam, killing a thousand civilians and rendering a like number homeless. By May 20th the Germans reached the English Channel, cutting-off the British army in France. Paris fell by June 14th. Adolf Hitler gazed hungrily across the Channel at a lone England.

On that otherwise bright morning of the spring invasion, Winston Churchill- prime minister for less than five days- would fly to Paris to see if the situation could somehow be retrieved. Before departing he sent President Franklin D. Roosevelt a telegram. “As you are no doubt aware, the scene has darkened swiftly. If necessary, we shall continue the war alone and we are not afraid of that. But I trust you realize, Mr. President, that the voice and the force of the United States may count for nothing if they are withheld too long…You may have a completely subjugated, Nazified Europe established with astonishing swiftness, and the weight may be more than we can bear.”

History tells us President Roosevelt took Winston Churchill’s telegram very seriously, finally moving a largely isolationist America to accept rearming for war against totalitarianism. Five years later on VE Day in April, 1945, after at least 50 million dead, hundreds of millions wounded and almost the entire heartland of Western Civilization shattered, the Allies triumphed. Sadly, it appeared we traded one tyranny for another: Nazism for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, whom we would oppose in a protracted conflict known as the Cold War. Shortly, the USSR would be joined by the other Communist colossus- the Peoples Republic of China. There was nevertheless great relief, joy and hope for the future in 1945- especially so after the total surrender of Imperial Japan in August of that year.

Unlike all previous wars in all of human history however, the Second World War was an industrial war and a scientific war, pushing the boundaries of industrial production and of technological development far beyond anything previously imagined. From the nucleus of the atom to the periphery of the earth’s atmosphere and the threshold of space- seemingly made closer by means of jet propulsion and rocketry- the management of the peace following such a decisive though complex victory in World War II would be anything but clear and simple.

With the return to America of millions of G.I.’s and the explosion of enrollment in schools and universities, it seemed that greater literacy and education would certainly play a major role in managing the new post-War era of international peace. Surprisingly, despite the dazzling prospect of extensive literacy and the unprecedented opportunity for higher education amongst America’s growing middle class, it was forgotten that World War II was as much a gigantic struggle of ideas as it was a colossal military conflict.

This gigantic struggle of ideas is basically the historical conflict between science and religion, ongoing in Western Civilization since the time of Sir Isaac Newton. And the focus of this conflict is the scientific method, whether it will continue to serve the interests of intellectual tyranny as we have seen, or the freedom of thought that once was so prevalent in America…


Montag