My Struggle with My Struggle: Germany, History, Hatred, Cultural Appropriation

    In German it is called "Mein Kampf". I checked it out earlier this summer; I have been reading it. It is not easy. I had heard stories for years, how it was somewhat thick, or rambling, or crazy, or hateful. I see the logic in it, and where the author is coming from. He wrote this at a relatively young age, in a politically and militarily awful time. The Reichstag was new, Germany was a newly unified nation, and found itself after the terrible world war where the former Austrian-Hungarian Empire had been dissolved, pulled apart to no longer show its might as a unified power. It leaves questions and poses post-analysis.

    Looking back and investigating. Understanding, trying to understand how things progressed or digressed into what would be. And, what is now, a long generation later. Into the 21st century.

    He r- [wrote this last night, forgot my train of thought. Maybe I was going to refer to Adolph, the culminating victimizer in the whole Holocaust, as we have called it. Thinking about that title now, it is rather insulting in a way, because the holocaust of the Bible was a holy ordinance.]

    I am 70 pages in a tome of some 600. I am determined to finish it. So far, it is off and on a struggle. It can be thick, or vapid, or esoteric, based on understanding the times and perspectives of him and his group as Germans upset with their plight at the time, he being persecuted or imprisoned by his own German authorities and governing officials.

    This is "his struggle", which he thrusts upon the millions of his fellow Deuchen of the times of the 1920s into the 1930s, which then becomes the burden of the millions upon millions who had to take on the German and his axis war machine. Or, genocide, or both.

    The Jewish people were so devasted that multiple generations later, the Jewish people of Israel are as of this year are fighting tooth and nail against the Gazans and other Palestinians, and now certain Lebanese, or Syrians, or Iranians. Israel is taking the initiative to combat and strike aggressively against its existential enemies. 

    I have issues with the settling of Palestinian territories over the decades by Jewish and other non-Palestinian peoples, which is inherently wrong. I am not sure of the justification that Israelis give for this, other than the extreme stance of the Zionist Eretz Israel, which involves removing or marginalizing millions of Arabs that have been based in the Holy Land for centuries, based on their birthlands.

    Yet, again, going back to this book criticizing the Jewish people, now from one hundred years ago, speaking ill of them in Europe, and ultimately being used as a precipitor of a tool of genocide, which was certainly horrific, devastating, psychologically traumatizing on individual and collective levels. I believe these traumas and past occurrences have pushed into our times today.

    I know Palestinians who do not wish to take the blame or bear the brunt for what the Germans did to the millions of victims of Europe of the 1930s and 1940s. Yet, the traumas continue on.

    Germany is a very successful country in the 21st century; it has been making its way very well as an engine of productivity and freedom in the modern world, post-World War II. They are still, however, dealing with the nightmare legacy of what happened during the so-called Third Reich, and the erstwhile legacy of Mein Kampf. Where the author, again, explicates his issues with what Germany and Europe were then, what their problems were, and where he thought the Germans would unite and excel, and perhaps eventually conquer. (I have many pages to go, but I am filling in gaps in supposition.)

    Hatred is a part of the dialog, unfortunately and sadly, and it has had its effects. As the prologue or foreword explains, by critics who are either Jewish or historical scholars, or both, we need to keep this book in our midst for reasons. Never to ignore or forget what such arguments can mean, and have meant to our planet.

    Hatred, appropriation, even removal or elimination are not part of the equations that we in the world find as acceptable.

    It is unfathomable, but has happened, and happens in 2024, and will happen again if we do not truly understand the roots, valid statements, hateful dialogs, logical and illogical premises and propositions of such words and ideas.

    Ideas save and kill; we must examine and re-examine the ways that history has dealt us, and how we choose to engage realities and truths, lies and attacks, how we decide to form our policies and laws to better (or worse) govern our communities and polities.

    How can we not be the thieves and robbers of others? How do we protect one another? How do we not go down the paths of hatred and death once again? We have to struggle with these struggles, whether we find them palatable or not.

 Who Controls the Most Money?

    Do we trust our governments that tax us? For much of my life I have trusted my Church with my money more than my federal, state, or local governments. But, we have to trust in who holds our money at the end of the day. If not, then maybe we should go someplace where we trust that our earnings and taxes do us more good, do us better in the short or long run. Good luck. Canada? Aruba? Some desert island where one cannot be taxed? Doubtful that anyone can find those in these days.

    We need infrastructure, government, big and small businesses. The United States has the biggest economy in the world, now followed by China. We need courts and judges, lawyers and laws enforced to help us keep our money secure. Law enforcement, and the militaries that protect us beyond the local or other criminal actors.

    Many politicians speak about how to use our monies: Help the poor, help the lower and middle classes, defund some departments and causes, raise fees and taxes for others.

    Some people believe that the Reagan "trickle-down economics" is a fallacy and has been proven wrong. Was it wrong? Did the 1980s work for enough of the United States? Did enough people win in the long run, in the bottom line of money and finances?

    Was Milton Friedman the best economist for the modern age? Before there were all these modern technologies, crypto-currencies, now Artificial Intelligence making decisions for us on how to win and lose in stocks and mutual funds?

    Which people control the most money and power? The Federal Reserve System, supposed to be apolitical, governs and reigns in profligacy or foolishness when it comes to fiscal responsibility and other diligence and care for wealth, for guarding it and letting it grow and proliferate, spreading out to the masses, to include the poor and the needy.

    We, the United States, are the land of opportunity. Other countries, millions of others, are able to spend less on things like battle ships and aircraft carriers, submarines and missiles, the huge amount of funds and resources we in the U.S. dedicate to be ready to fight. To stop rogue actors or entire authoritarian regimes from doing their damage as they wish.

    

    Some, like indigenous and other minority voices claim the United States is the bully and the oppresor, but I do believe most of us know that we have a beneficent ruler in our government over the last two hundred years and where we have been, and where we would like to go.

    Who holds our money? Church and state, thanks be to the almighty.

 Thanks for the Lessons in Economics

    Like the sources of physical power and energy in the universe, such as gravity, time, and electro-magnetism, money and wealth are also hard to see or understand, but economics very much determine enormously how our world, actions, perceptions, and forces move, how we react and behave, and make decisions. I believe that we understand the physical and hard science laws, principles, and phenomena of known existence more than we do capital, as in money, the wealth that we spend, invest, earn, and grow in modern world.

    Much of the endowments and natural wealth that we enjoy, share, or fight about derives from the past. We need to be aware and understand power and history over time to better comprehend what is going on today, in the current world. Could the Hebrew or Jewish people over the last few millennia  be better off now, in 2024, economically and mentally, because of the immense wealth and power of King Solomon from 1,000 B.C.? The Romans rose eventually to tax those ancient peoples, while other empires before and since moved wealth and riches, resources and control over territories. The Greeks, the Persians, the Ottomans, and across the continents the Songhai, the Chinese, the Guptas or Moguls. Later the Japanese and Holy Roman Empire rose, as did the British, the French, the Russians, the Germans. Spain, Holland, Belgium, and Portugal and other European nations asserted their power overseas, especially in the newly colonizing areas like the "Global south", as we know it today. The languages of the southern hemisphere particularly reflect that. Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, French, English.

    All these countries, in particular the inheritor colonies of the United States, which we find ourselves in today, plus some commodity wealthy nations like the petroleum and gas rich countries of the Middle East and a few others, are creating and developing and maintaining markets and economies and militaries and governments and corporations that move the world as we know it. The billions of the citizens that share the planet, along with our pets, domesticated animals, trees, plants and flora and fauna of all kinds, to include the life within our rivers, lakes, seas and oceans, and under-earth crawlies and growing things. To include our highly valued metals and gems, and rare-earth elements.

    I have not mentioned sugar, and coffee and tea, and drugs and tobacco, and alcohol and other stimulants and sedatives. All these products play their roles in how all of make decisions, earn our livings, avoid or embrace addictions, habits, glean awareness and knowledge, perhaps develop professions and skills that lead to further successes or failures as individuals or families, communities or states.

    My professors of economics and history at UCLA were very smart; they knew how to track so much of the world and how it behaves. There are hundreds and thousands more of them the world wide over.

    What should we know? How do things work?

    Are we Keynesians or monetarists? Yes, no, maybe so?

    Do we follow any of the Austrian school of economics? How do we run our economies? How do we tax ourselves, protect ourselves and others?

    Where do we put our money and life investments? Do we fritter them away? Do we invest in ourselves and others?

    Whom do we serve, as Joshua of the Old Testament challenges us?

    How do we serve God, and not mammon, yet survive and thrive in a secular world?

    We need to learn micro, macro, personal and public economics.

 August, August, August ...

    I've been here been before. We have been here before. This time. This place. Some of you have lived less Augusts in the past. Others more. For me, I have had half a century of these months. Three were winters. Which were those from me? All in Chile, with some cold and rain: 1990, 1991, 2005. Not all was wet and cool. There were sunny days, too. Although, my first Mediterranean climate wintry August I was sick and then recovering during most of it. I was still 19. Still a teenager.

    In 1983, in August, my last summer and hot month before my teenage years, I recall sitting on a picnic table at a hot campsite, exposed greatly to the sun and overbearing temperatures, writing a few words, drawing a few pictures, perhaps thinking and dreaming of other things, far off places... My parents were split up, for sure. Life was unsure and changing. 

    August was hot and heavy, leading up to a hotter and heavier attempt at American football for me, as rising seventh grader. I had been fast, I had been strong. Mentally, I had an overcome it all attitude, I think. But that August I think I had some chinks in the armor. My mind, my body, my confidence, my soul... I was slower, lazier, less motivated. August was there and I was not the same.

    I have talked about those times in posts past. Dropping a toad on the scalding iron oven at Camp Maumee, bringing upon us God's wrath and standing in a warm mud pit in my bare feet while eating rainy watered-down salad, as my fellow Scouts scrambled for survival; I found myself bowing out of the middle school football team a few long weeks later, with my friend, or many friends there, a constant heckler for much of the rest of the year (Eric, likely a child bullied himself, more than me).

    What an August, at age 12. A time of change, realization, growing up.

    I survived the August of 1990, largely by myself, hospitalized, feverish, lonely but at times heartened by my mission mates, or a kind nurse.

    August, August, August. There would be many more to come, I am thankful for that.

    I am in this one, and thankful. I am in a good place, my people are in a good place.

    Gaza Strip? No. Ukraine, Russia? No. Sudan? Probably no.

    But we are pretty good in the States, after Hurricane Debby dropped her rains, and a few people were killed further south. Most got through the flooding unscathed. 

    Harris versus Trump, Vance versus Walz.

    And we think of all the Augusts come and gone, and hopefully many more to come.

 Lost in La La Land

    I have a lot of memories of Los Angeles. I have been there a lot. The first few times I went there were memorable. Later, when I attended school there or went visiting, there were ever more memories piled up. Sometimes I can remember things that I have long since forgotten. Then, there are always the ubiquitous movies, TV shows, and books and articles and magazines and their stories.

    The movie La La Land tried to capture some of this zeitgeist, or whimsy, or longing, or romance, or... nostalgia. Movies after movies depict these images and sentiments, narratives and angles and pictures and characters and on and on. And on... The City of Stars. Does it go one forever? Maybe.

    1993 - Rejected, and moving.

    My first visit to the City of Angels happened when I visited there from the south, the San Diego area, with my fellow Brigham Young University students. I favored one of them; I tried to make my move at the end of the day in Disney Land on Magic Mountain at the end of the evening. I made a rookie mistake, but it was probably for the best. I asked if I could hold her hand as we made our way down the rails, sitting next to each other. I had liked her for a few months. She was from Utah. 

    She said "no". Or, "no, thanks." Got it. It was sad, kind of, but for the best. She was honest, she was not interested. That was okay. I was bruised a bit, but it was all right. Other young ladies showed interest in me before and after, so my pride, ego, or self-esteem stayed afloat. Till next time, again in the world of lights or darkness, amusement park or no. I would get involved with another Utah girl not long after. Which went its way, wrapping up a few years later.

    And then again, some do not consider Anaheim part of L.A. Sure, I certainly do. The city of stars was quiet for me that night.

    1994 - Only San Diego. Right?

    1995 - Lost in the Rainy City

    Ah, another quest for searching for the right one. This time I re-met with the young lady from Chile, from our meetings and letters, correspondence from the years before. She can go nameless for now, but we met after a long time apart and then I got very lost. It was rainy, I had a poor map and visibility, and I went in circles.

    To this day I am not sure where I was, much of the time. A bit like life and romance and figuring things out. It was confusing, but it was good. We had to figure things out. I suppose we did. We kept moving on, I kept moving like two years previous.

    1996 - Visiting with Friends and Roomies

    

    This was fun and cheap. No big affairs of the heart. Better laughs and sites. Hollywood, Rodeo Drive, China Town. Beaches. Some thought of more as Orange County, but close enough.

    1997 - The Bay Area and San Joaquin Valley

    1998 - The Bay Area again.

    1999 - Moving to the Inland Empire

    And then it became the lifestyle. For a few years to come.

    Post addendum:

   

     I called this post," 

 Lost in La La Land

But maybe it is about being found.

 Lightning, Sharks, Trees, and Humvees

These are some things that have killed some people that I have heard about lately. For example, a shark killed a surfer near Nauset Beach in Cape Cod a few years ago. Not sure which type. More recently two women in Indiana were struck by lightning, it got them, as one was pregnant.

    Trees kill people here and there. As much as we love them and need them, they can get us. Possibly more dangerous in the suburbs. Some Marines died not too long ago when the vehicle flipped, as I understand it.

    These are things that can be deadly and change our life scripts. Not in huge numbers like illnesses or other car traffic mishaps, but...

    These are things that can get us. Beware.

    

 Staten Island Excursion Explorations

    The forgotten borough; a place apart and ignored.

    I went there! We went there and saw a nice beach area with people fishing.

    It was not too warm. We smelled the salt water and fish. A storm was brewing from the west.

    I saw immigrants, men speaking in a tongue I could not identify. Albanian? Armenian? Greek? I did speak to an Egyptian man, who came to America (okay, Anna, the U.S.), in 1976. People of all types casting for flounder and other sea life.

    I first barely touched Staten Island as a teenager in 1987, when we took the ferry across the bay from Manhattan. I think we hit the side of the dock really hard. That was main memory and impression way back then. Did I see its hills and trees, and a few homes? Likely. But that was only there and back, and really did not go again till 2020.

    The iPhone Google Map found us a random spot in the middle of the night. We saw streets, homes, apartments, houses. More trees. Cars and trash cans. Perhaps historic Richmondtown, like yesterday, I do not. Know.

    It was nice. By day it gave me a Los Angeles sort of vibe, a lot of the streets. Homes. Parking.

    Weather. Rain, but warm.

    Thanks for the inspiration, Mr. McCourt. Was it Frank, the teacher of Staten Island?

    Yeah.