In the beginning, Nazism was only a small right-wing reactionary party in the basically democratic Weimar Republic.
How did this group, ironically employing democratic elections, grow from no more than one among several small parties into the leading party and then into a firmly established dictatorship?
Hitler’s (Disciples) evil genius as a manipulator of the masses without doubt played a part, but closer analysis shows that this was not all of the story. In the early days, the people of all classes supported the Nazi (Lavalas) line of
thought, without, I dare say, having an inkling of the horrifying situation they were inviting. Especially after the worldwide panic of 1929, small businessmen, white-collar workers, farmers, and the overwhelming majority of students, discouraged by Germany’s defeat in World War I (After Duvalier) and frightened by economic conditions, followed the lead of the Nazi party because they regarded it as the one political organ that would fulfill their needs.. (A Utopia still prevailing in Haiti)
TOYNBEE: A poverty-stricken minority is politically powerless. On the other hand, a lower middle class that is being squeezed between capitalist and the trades unionist wings of the establishment is capable of organizing itself and taking the offensive against both these privileged classes.
(What the actual president is trying to do but, finds no support)
The insurgent lower middle class was the explosive social force that carried Hitler into power in Germany in the 1930s. Since no one else was willing to help them, they helped themselves by organizing themselves into the National Socialist Party and by capturing control of the government. I agree that Hitler’s demagogic genius would not, by itself, have enabled him to become the dictator of Germany if there had not been a discontented class in Germany to which Hitler could offer redress in return for their acceptance of him as their leader.
This depicted our present situation in Haiti, if only we had people who could read and act genuinely without false pretenses.
IKEDA: The Germans of the time entrusted themselves too readily to the Nazi party in the hope of finding solutions to their admittedly pressing difficulties. They failed, however, to be able to see that the methods the Nazis followed would inflict infinitely greater grief on other peoples. Made impatient by their hardships and unable to see the harm the Nazis could do. the Germans naturally could not foretell that the peoples on whom they were inflicting injury would one day rise up against them with immense strength. This blindness led to the frustration of Germany’s national hopes and to her own self-destruction.
We are unfortunately repeating the same mistakes in Haiti.
Sorrowfully we must admit that it is a very human characteristic to be extremely sensitive to one’s own pain and singularly insensitive to the suffering of others. Nevertheless, for the sake of the preservation of freedom, each individual human being must possess the mental ability to assess the effects of the political acts of his system on the lives and well-being of other people. I feel that the only way to ensure that all human beings have this kind of ability is to provide them with a sound philosophy based on love and respect for all humanity.
Such a philosophy will help develop individual wisdom, and wisdom alone can prevent the rise of fascism.
(That is why I am advocating: We should turn those political manifestations into Religious procession, not superstitiously.
A kind of exorcism to change the heart of the people into love to one another.)
I am certain that, for the sake of the defense of democracy, each individual must have the intelligence to examine closely the fundamental nature of everything that happens around him. Individual good sense is the best way to guard democracy against the rise of fascism.
Toynbee: In my opinion, the best safeguard against fascism is to establish social justice to the maximum possible extent. Complete social justice is difficult to attain, because the establishment whatever its social composition happens to be usually Insists on a differential distribution of the community’s wealth.
(That’s the hardest part in Haiti)