Wednesday, November 10, 2010
124-137 Goff Reading
This totalitarian government business is confusing to me. World War I was the downful of a lot of the old monarchies because people began to see how ineffective it was to have one person ruling. So why, right after realizing this, would they allow a dictator to take power? I guess I understand that they wanted security after the uncertainty of the war, but it seems like this is not really the way to go. Totalitarian governments ended up being a huge cause of World War II, and this really shouldn't have come as a huge surprise. When you give one, power-hungry, unbalanced person and in most cases, former military leader, all of the power, you really shouldn't expect that ehy're going to do their best to stay out of a war, or that they even have the diplomatic capabilities to avoid war. Obviously it's easier to say this in hindsight, people at the time were pretty scared, but seriously, crazy dictator doesn't scream "security" to me.
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4 comments:
I agree. I think after the war there was a real focus on international diplamacy, (with the whole league of nations, 14 points business)but a lack of diplomacy within nations. Crazy dictator does not seem like the answer at all. Especially when a bunch of them just landed you in a full scale war.
In my opinon desperate times call for desperate measures. People are so desperate to believe in hope that they cast away all thought and reasoning and allow themselves to be fooled or influenced by a dictator who convinces the people they have the power to make things better.
I see what you mean about it being kind of stupid, but also can see how it happened. It seems to me that when the war ended people didn't know what to do and a lot of them were ignorant about what was going on at the time. They saw these strong military hero type people from the war and they were like "Yes, you know what to do, please do all of my thinking for me and take care of everything." It seems kind of ridiculous, but the world was in such chaos that I think it just wasn't the time for thinking, democratic leaders. That just wasn't what people were thinking of or looking for.
I think you make a lot of good points- and like you said, easier to say in hindsight. Bring up these questions in discussion, I think it will provoke a lot of great debate! Keep up the good work
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