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writing for godot

Biased Education: Assuring We Dont Learn from the World Wars

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Written by Jaron Pearlman   
Saturday, 19 April 2014 10:06
One of my favorite quotes is from Professor Noam Chomsky:

“The world is a puzzling place. If you are not willing to be puzzled, you just become a replica of someone else’s mind.”

The inherent problem with basic worldwide education couldn’t be described in any better way. The curriculums made (especially in history classes) are designed to teach what to think, not how to think. This creates a populace that references one-sided information rather than their own critical thought or analysis.

Education systems worldwide (particularly the western ones) are usually advertised as being comprehensive, but are actually very biased and omit lots of important historical information. This is detrimental to not only to individual countries, but to the world as a whole as it assures that future generations will not understand the reasons for global paradigm shifts.
The more infamous and controversial shifts have more severe biases, and basic ’education’ regarding those events is little more than a nationally narrowed perspective.

The role of Germany in the World Wars is so notorious that the causes and aftermath of them both are glossed over, and hardly considered as lessons from the past or reasons for the present. The general focus is pulled from the citizens’ perspective, the state of the nations and the actual conflict; instead (and understandably) dwelling on the holocaustic breaches of human rights, the ‘nobility’ of the Allies, and both defeats of the Germans.

In order to actually PREVENT World-Warlike conflicts, public education must pertain to an honest recount of events instead of glorified perspectives.

The origin of the World Wars began with the Second Industrial Revolution (1860s until 1914), also called the Technological Revolution. The inventions and revelations experienced during this time laid the groundwork for the our current world, introducing steam engines, mass production, product lines, radio and telephone communications, electricity, internal combustion engines, petroleum, new alloys, military industrial advancements, mechanized tools, automobiles, and much more.
These technologies strengthened global interactions dramatically. Alliances between nations became stronger as did assurances of assistance during wartime. As international imports and exports thrived with the influx of industrialized goods, national assets also became diversified. This expanded the world of international credit, early industrial trade agreements, and international private companies. As world economies strengthened, so did global alliances and divides.

One such divide was that between Austria-Hungary and neighboring Serbia. Austria-Hungary had obtained territory previously controlled by former Yugoslavia, and many Yugoslavic nationalists had a large problem with the annexation (they wished for a unified Yugoslavia). Six men in particular were pinned as the ‘source’ of World War One, including a Serbian (but ethnic Yugoslav) man named Gavrilo Princip.
These six were involved in the assassination of Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife during their trip to Bosnia, and were associated with a group called Young Bosnia- a revolutionary Yugoslavic nationalist group comprised of mostly young men and students. Princip shot the Archduke and his wife during a welcome procession in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo.
This immediately reflected on Serbia, and prompted retaliation from Austria-Hungary. However this assassination had greater implications.

Austria-Hungary had assurances and various ties to Germany, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire; while Serbia had economic allies in the UK, France, and Russia. The shots fired by Austria-Hungary in preparation for an invasion of Serbia were heard around the world as rallying calls on newly strengthened (and modernized) alliances.
This immediately created a pretense for a war unlike any seen in history.
The United States also became involved well into the war, due to supposed German submarines indiscriminately antagonizing American ships nearby. There were also likely economic reasons for US involvement, pertaining to privately owned western companies shared with Serbian allies like the UK.
Many of these influential ties were (and are) international investment banks such as JP Morgan/Goldman Sachs, industrial/banking moguls like the Rockefellers/Rothschilds/Warburgs/Carnegies, and their business interests (Standard Oil/Pfizer/etc.).

During this time two very notable banks began their 20th century legacies (for better or worse). One was the United States Federal Reserve Bank (est. 1913) and the other was the German Reichsbank (est 1876). Both of these entities shared a common thread in that they were privately owned central banks, lending private funds at interest to their respective governments and artificially controlling loan interest rates/currency values.

Both of these institutions also shared many of the same investors and creators.

This increased the motivation for aggressive war spending on both sides, as borrowing and inflation of currency was encouraged. For Germany, the toll of the First World War hit more quickly than it did for the Allies. War debts had forced German currency into incredibly unhealthy inflation and the ability to sustain a war effort was increasingly hurting the people (as well as the internal German economy). As the Reichsbank printed more money, the value of said money decreased, making goods more expensive and forcing many citizens into unemployment/poverty.

Following the German surrender in 1918, Germany was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles, recognizing formal defeat and accepting international demand for massive reparations. These reparations were not only costly, but forced Germany to continue borrowing money from private investors, including American Wall Street firms (using German assets/products as collateral).

Though the war was over, the plight of the average German did not improve. Continuous inflation of German currency made any sort of economic balance impossible, and unemployment/poverty were becoming increasingly widespread problems.
German Nationalists regarded those who signed the Treaty of Versailles as traitors (many even denied that Germany was unable to continue fighting WW1), and began to refer to them as ‘November Criminals’- involved in a coalition of communists and Jews who wished to intentionally undermine Germany into international debt peonage.

As the German debts worsened, both right and left political parties were becoming very disenchanted with the German (Weimar) Republic. The 1920s introduced western culture to Germany as well, including American jazz, cabaret, and other cultural icons from the era. This also created a backlash among nationalists, who were now not only upset about monetary subjugation but also (what they perceived as) cultural homogenization.

As if things couldn’t get worse, the American stock market crashed in 1929,cutting off financial aid to Germany. Suddenly, debts were dangerously close to default and there was little room left to borrow. Global and multinational ties to Wall Street ensured that the crash didn’t just affect the USA, but ANY/ALL international investors.

Now Germans were in an outrage, and rejection of the Republic was becoming a very common stance. Advocates of a nationalized Germany wished for independence from foreign debts, private bank financiers, and western economic ties.
The belief that the November Criminals had betrayed German victory in WW1 had become very popular, and was reinforced by the narrative of the newly forming Nazi party.
Adolf Hitler was an outspoken proponent of dissolving the Reichstag, the German Parliament. He made several attempts to disband this institution, including pressuring President Hindenburg to give executive powers over the legislative branch to the various chancellors of the Republic (eventually including himself). The reasoning for this was that Hitler (and a growing number of German nationalists) saw the Republic as being foreign-sympathetic; selling out the German economy to international interests and having no commitment to actually rebuilding Germany. Though these pushes for centralized power were prevented for a while, the German (Weimar) Republic was far too divided and unstable to sustain itself. Eventually Hitler became Chancellor of the Weimar Republic in January of 1933, due to a foolish assumption by President Hindenburg that Hitler could be controlled by due process.

Enter the first great mystery of WW2:
About a month after Hitler was elected as Chancellor, the Reichstag burned to the ground (only six days before new Parliamentary elections). Hitler and his administration/followers were still very much in favor of the abolishment of German Parliament, so the timing of this was very curious. The burning lead to a massive consolidation of authority to the Chancellor, sanctioned by an increasingly senile President Hindenburg.
Suddenly, legislations like the Reichstag Fire Decree and Enabling Act stripped away civil rights and established apartheids based on political stances, religious affiliations, and personal choices. These were enacted by Hitler and his administration, who blamed the fire on communists and Jews – essentially the November Criminal stereotype.

A man named Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch Communist, confessed after torture to the arson, though substantial evidence (that Hitler promised) was never actually released to the public. He was executed by guillotine. To this day, rumors circulate about Hitler’s (or his loyal supporters) involvement with Marinus Lubbe, encouraging him, helping him plan the fire, or even framing him. Clearly, the fire benefited Hitler and his agenda, making many wonder if he gave orders to destroy the Reichstag.
It is my personal belief that Hitler himself did not give the order, though he welcomed the arson of the Reichstag. I do believe that a faction of Nazi (right-wing) followers burned down the building, possibly even under direction of Hitler’s administration – though he himself was most likely not involved.

The Reichstag was a false flag on the German people, creating the pretense to dispel German rights, nationalize German assets and currency, and abandon international debts. It also created widespread xenophobia among Germans, especially toward the Russians and Jews. When Hitler passed the acts resulting from the Reichstag Fire, and President Hindenburg died in 1934, Nazi Germany officially began.

Though Germany became nationalized, this didn’t stop western interests from investing in the budding German war machine. Some of the biggest investors in Nazi Germany were American/British companies and moguls, who helped create, fund, and develop everything from better military manufacturing to Zyclon B (the gas used in concentration camps). But despite the money still flowing to the west, there was still a bitterness toward Germany for abandoning its international debt.
While private companies could invest in German assets they didn’t literally OWN them like they used to, which was a very serious thorn in the side of multinational companies/western governments.

Enter the second great mystery of WW2:
On the Eve of the Second World War on August 31, 1939, a small radio station in Gleiwitz, Upper Selesia Germany (under Polish jurisdiction since 1945) was attacked by Polish forces invading Germany. The Nazi party claimed that Polish militia had invaded Germany and used the attack as justification to invade Poland, starting World War 2.
After the War and the assembly of The League of Nations, the story changed drastically.

‘The Nuremberg Trials’ were an Allied effort to internationally try Nazi Party members for war crimes. During these trials prominent members of the Nazi Party ‘admitted’ that Germany had staged the attack on Gleiwitz, using detained German citizens in Polish military fatigues. According to the Nuremberg story, the Nazis euthanized domestic prisoners and shot the bodies, creating a staged attack and reason for war.

Expanding further on this, many questions have been raised regarding United States and Western involvement in the Gleiwitz Invasion. Germany’s powerful stance against private/foreign ownership of government functions/economy didn’t bode well for many powerful Western entities, and it is heavily speculated that Gleiwitz was false provocation from (essentially) privately owned Western countries.
The goal of this warmongering could have been the dissolution/destabilization of a newly nationalized country, and the reclamation of a formerly privatized economy.

Even after the war ended, Nazi Germany left a legacy preserved in its western ‘enemies’. The OSS (predecessor to the CIA) began to hire many notable Nazi scientists and strategists under the program ‘Operation Paperclip’.

The reality is that the lines between the Allies and Axis are incredibly blurred. War profiteering was collected from both sides by multinationals. The private Reichsbank and Federal Reserve had the same founders/policies; the USA hired and sanctioned Nazis post-war, and several integral incidents marking the Second World War display questionable evidence at best…

So what are the common themes in these wars? What can we learn from them?
*The dangers of both liberal and conservative economics:
Liberalized economics provide too much power to international interests – prompting pressure for international intervention in others’ affairs, or provoking conflicts purposefully. World Wars are much more likely when one nation’s economy is dependent on another’s, and when governments are at the beck and call of covetous private financiers.
On the other hand, Conservative economic administrations are also easily corrupted, as regulations are almost always taken advantage of and monopolized by the governments favorite companies. This tears apart any semblance of ‘free market’ or competitive enterprise, assuring that the government sees more reward for public work than its citizens (including withholding of technologies and diversification of products).

*The true nature of the military industry:
Companies that create arms for war sell to both sides of the conflict. Often, governments do this as well.
One modern example is the US Army fighting Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan while aiding them in Syria. Not only does this serve whatever local interests the US has in Syria/Afghanistan, it also pours money into the pockets of multinational arms companies, many of whom are very large political campaign contributors in the USA.
War profiteering is best described by Baron Rothschild of the Western European Rothschild Bankers – “The time to buy is when there’s blood in the streets.” This is a philosophy upheld by the entire international industry of warmongering.

*The dangers of national narratives:
While we hear endless stories of atrocities committed by the Germans in both World Wars, we hear nothing of Yugoslavian annexation to Austria-Hungary, the economic pretenses of Nazism, or the double standard of Nazi condemnation by the Allies. In fact there is no analysis whatsoever of the West’s involvement in WANTING a war with their defaulting debtor (Germany).

Regardless of the unknowns, these are all subjects that need to be breached in education. Critical thought regarding world affairs is integral to stopping worldwide atrocities. Even now, countries like Venezuela (for its oil), Egypt (for the Suez Canal), Afghanistan (for its poppy/minerals), and the Ukraine (for its geography/crops) battle against destabilization and foreign meddling.

The nature of the governance doesn’t matter to those who aim to control these nations – so long as they comply with their economic masters. The USA narrative is usually one painted in black and white (such as the one towards Muslims post 9-11) – just like the one directed toward November Criminals; vague yet specific enough to incite fear in the populace.
Not questioning or thinking openly about these subjects is a time proven disaster – assuring that history will inevitably repeat itself.
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