Five Brothers and a War

Modern Contextual Parallel

The political sea-change in Germany involved massive multitudes of people attending rallies, the most noteworthy being the Nürnburg rallies. Beyond any doubt, this phenomenon demonstrates that over-the-top marketing can overcome rationality, and people can be convinced to do the unthinkable as peer pressure builds.

The modern context can be expanded to reinforce the conclusion that what occurred in Germany in the 1930s is not terribly unbelievable, and can be understood—without condoning the ramifications. Modern Russia is a picture of a strongman having effectively seized the power of a dictator through supposedly democratic means and methods. Vladimir Putin was marketed as the young man with fresh ideas, having succeeded Boris Yeltsin and Mikael Gorbachev. Yeltsin was meant to be a strong reformer, who turned out to be an embarrassing drunk. Gorbachev was a visionary, but his vision was that the Soviet Union would be decimated in favor of a weak Russia. Against that background came a ruthless KGB leader, who would make Russia strong again and return Russia to head a new Soviet Union. Putin was Prime Minister from 1999-2000. Then he was elected President and served the maximum two terms, from 2000-2008. He then “stepped down” and became Prime Minister again for one term, from 2008-2012 before being elected as President again in 2012. That should allow him to serve as President until 2020.

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Five Brothers and a War

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