QUORA: ‘Should I throw my father's Mein Kampf book in the trash can without telling him? I just can't stand that he has this book.’

 QUORA: ‘Should I throw my father's Mein Kampf book in the trash can without telling him? I just can't stand that he has this book.’

I posted this answer:

Ideas are the prime movers of history. They’re not the only movers. But they are the prime movers, for good or evil, better or worse. 

Evil doesn’t just come out of nowhere. It has deep philosophical roots. Serious ideas underpin and give life to political evils. I want to learn about the ideas that lead to, support, and sustain Nazism and other evils. I own and/or have read Mein Kampf, the Communist Manifesto and other Marx writings, Benito Mussilini’s The Doctrine of Fascism, and Sociology for the South: Or the Failure of Free Society, Confederate intellectual George Fitzhugh’s famous, widely read defense of slavery as a positive good.

Ideas never die. They go underground. They hibernate. They metastasize. They are camouflaged. They are always a risk to freedom and civilization. Books like Mein Kampf and other like writings are not just interesting historically. They are important because they serve to alert you to the re-emergence of these ideas in the current culture early on, so you can call them out before they metastasize and become so embedded that they once again become a real political threat. For example, Historian C. Bradley Thompson, was able to detect a resurgence of the pro-slavery ideas of Fitzhugh and other Confederate intellectuals in the 20th Century Progressive movement, a hotbed of socialist statism.

The urge to toss Mein Kampf in the trash exposes your anti-intellectuality. Simply evading these ideas is the greatest gift you can give to those who would resurrect the likes of National Socialism. Kudos to your father and others who have the interest and the guts to read such monstrous publications.Take it from me: Mein Kampf is torture to get through it. But it’s those who want to educate themselves, not those who want to close off their minds, who are the guardians of civilized society. 

Of course, there’s also the issue of ownership. It’s your father’s property, not yours. Of course, if he’s living in your home, you have the right to demand he remove it from your home. But you have no right to throw it in the trash without his permission. 

Related Reading:

Nazism, Communism, Atheism, and the Enlightenment

Brad Thompson on “the unidentified, unacknowledged union of proslavery and progressive thought.”

A New Textbook of Americanism — edited by Jonathan Hoenig

QUORA: ‘Is fascism a form of capitalism?’

Why Marxism—Evil Laid Bare--C. Bradley Thompson for The Objective Standard

Billionaires' Likening of Today's Campaign Against the Rich to Nazi Germany is Frighteningly Close to the Mark

The Left’s Double Standard on the Hitler Germany Analogy

Why Can’t Tom Moran Acknowledge the Common Collectivist Base of Affirmative Action and 20th Century Atrocities?

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