Germany 1968 and Dixie 2020

The year 1968 was one of the most pivotal years in human history, thanks to the number of revolutions (or attempted revolutions) that broke out that year.  It was in that year that riots broke out in France leading to the downfall of Charles De Gaulle. The U.S. riots, especially at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, ended up being the final straw that broke the New Deal coalition. Additionally, behind the Iron Curtain saw massive riots and protests, namely in Czechoslovakia and Poland. But, one of the most successful protest movements of that year occurred in Germany. In many ways, the birth of modern Germany, and all the problems that entails, can be traced back to that year.

There is a bit of a myth that modern “German guilt” goes back to the days immediately following World War II, and there were in those in the Allied governments that wanted to destroy Germany forever – see the Morgenthau Plan. However, reality made if difficult for the Allies to enact such a plan. Tensions with the USSR heated up almost instantly after the war and being anti-communist soon became the biggest concern for the United States, France, and the United Kingdom. And, this would prove to be a problem because the vast majority of politically able anti-communist politicians in what would become West Germany had at least passively supported the Nazis, seeing them as preferable to the communist revolutionaries that were threating Germany, even if they didn’t particularly care for Hitler (much of the Prussian Junkers saw him as an Austrian peasant).

Remember, by 1933 German society had broken down to the point where it looked to either be Hitler or becoming a Soviet satellite. In the early days of West Germany, much of the political elite had been members of the Nazi Party – see the Brown Book. On a more personal scale, there was a general acceptance of World War II veterans meeting in pubs and beer halls to reminisce. It tended to be quiet, and few would openly talk about it, let alone take pride in it, but it still existed.

But in 1968 there was a major shift in German society, the first generation of young people who were born after the war came of age, and they had been far more receptive to Holocaust indoctrination coming from the Allies. They then decided that they would be the generation that would impose national guilt upon Germany. There were those that wished to do this violently- see the Red Army Faction, but others took a legal approach. It is from the 1968 protests that mandatory Holocaust education was required for all Germans and a general cultural transition to national shame, with its wishing to cast out German national pride. And if you are wondering, this movement is still pushing. 

The parallels between Germany in 1968 and Dixie in 2020 are stunning. In both cases, a proud nation, many years after a major defeat in which it still honored its veterans, is hit by a radical leftist movement that wishes to undo the very concept of that nation and impose guilt upon it. The only difference is timescale. The 1619 Project can already serve as the basis for a new program by which all Dixian children will be taught to hate their country and ancestors. It is already being taught in at a least one school in all 50 states. Unless there is a drastic change (and quickly), I see it soon becoming mandatory in all schools, including private schools.

There is a reason why Germany has been so aggressive in accepting new refugees, even by the standards of Western Europe. They had national guilt driven into them by the 1968 generation. There is a reason why, by the end of the Cold War, even the USSR had stopped claiming that West Germany was the successor state to the Nazi regime. And should our current predicament take hold, there is no limit to the amount of political and social change that can be achieved in Dixie. A big reason why the revolutionaries were far less successful in the U.S. than they were in Germany is because it is far harder to convince young people that their fathers and grandfathers were evil Nazis when they literally fought the actual Nazis. Do this with evil Confederates though, and those possibilities open up. And, if your ancestors are the epitome of evil, then not only is destroying everything they built permissible, it becomes a moral duty. 

There is good news, though. It is normal to think of certain years as “the year” everything changed, this is an oversimplification of history, of course. It is the years that come after that really matter. To understand this, we need to look at another pivotal year of human history – 1848. It was in that year that revolutions broke out in country after country against the old established monarchies of Europe and the system that had been in place to keep the lid on European radicalism since the end of the Napoleonic Wars. In that year, it looked as if the system of the French Revolution and all of its hatred of Christianity and authority would be revived and spread across the continent. Karl Marx thought he was seeing the first event that would bring his ideas into practice. Old Europe looked to be crumbling. But, that didn’t happen.

By early 1849, each and every revolutionary movement was beaten back, one by one, and the old order would be restored for almost 60 more years until World War I finally broke it forever. Certain years might be pivotal – 1789, 1914, and 1968 – but it takes what happens in the years following that single “pivotal” year for those changes to really take hold. After all, had the Great War ended in 1915, the old order of Europe would have survived for at least a little longer. 2020 can be what 1968 was for Germany, or it can be what 1848 was for Europe. It all comes down to what 2021 and 2022.

– By Harmonica