Recently in Germany, the right-wing party Alternative für Deutschland (AFD) won more votes than any other party in the province of Saxony-Anhalt. In many parts of the world headlines rang that Germany was returning to the days of the 1930s. That’s not really the case, but at the same time, it is the case that right-wing and other extreme ideologies are on the rise in western democracies from USA, to France, to Sweden, to Finland.
I sat down for a conversation with my friend, former professor, and collaborator, Dr. Erwin Warkentin, who is living in Berlin as Berlin goes for an election that might swing to the complete opposite of the AFD if polling is to be believed. His point was that we weren’t quite back to the 1930s, but much more perhaps to the 1920s.
How did we get here and where are we going if we use history as a teacher?
Other relevant episodes:
Ep65: How porn and fake news helped defeat the Nazis - Part 1
When you consider the effect of the stories we tell and the power of the human imagination, we rarely, if ever, talk about the power stories can have at times of war. We don’t often talk about how stories can be an important asset in bringing about victory and then holding on to the peace. These days when we talk about “fake news”, it is just one form o…
Ep66: How propaganda helped create modern Germany - Part 2
I like to say that stories are how we as humans try to program our minds. I know that in every age of humanity, we have defined the brain and its workings according to the technologies of that age. From steam tubes during the Industrial Revolution to clocks and gears. Today we imagine our brain as an organic computer.
