Rewriting history has always been a popular technique among rulers of the world. Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazi party in Germany used the ancient symbol for the sun as ”his” symbol for greatness. Hitler was fascinated by Wagner’s music and used the symbols from it as symbols for Germany’s and the Arian race’s superiority above everyone else. Richard Wagner was a German composer whose style was something we call national romantic. Pompous music, songs with lyrics describing the beauty of the nature. The characters in his operas wore costumes making them look like a phantasy kind of vikings. The vikings was what we call nordic people who came with their boats to other countries to rob and conquer. They lived at 700 to 1100 a.d. (this becomes a history lesson all of a sudden!)
Richard Wagner praised and glorified Arians (white people with blond hair and blue eyes) and he despised Jews. He even published a booklet called ”Das Judentum in der Musik” in 1850 where he claimed that the Jews were unable to compose music because they didn’t belong to a certain nation. Hmm…interesting thought, but strange! Composing music doesn’t have anything to do with belonging to a certain country, otherwise your ancestors would have been unable to create all this wonderful music from the time of the slavery and until today. During this time when Richard Wagner was popular, the national romantic style dominated the European music industry. The music described the northern European nature and the people’s psyche. It was not a true narrative, as you can hear in the name, it was called the national romantic style.
Life was hard, people starved and suffered from oppression. The state and the church controlled the lives of the people. Many fled to the Americas to find a better life for them and their families. Life was certainly not about listening to the bird song, or the whispering of the trees in the wind. It was not about strong men and beautiful women with wide hips made for giving birth to a lot of blond babies. This romantisized music was for the rich, for those who had time and money enough to spend on concerts and buying record players. Those who believed in the messages performed by Wagner and others of the same kind, used this to stress their own perspective of life.
Adolf Hitler was one of those who believed in the superiority of the Arians and who blamed the strong and successfull Jews for everything he could think of. He grew his anger and greed during a time of depression and great poverty in Germany. His greed led him to want to be the great leader of Germany and his strategy was to blame the Jews for the setbacks in Germany. During this time a lot of successfull Jews lived in Germany, they were bankers, jewellers, businessmen in many trades. This was a source of envy for the Germans who were not successfull and creative enough to make their own fortune. Slowly, slowly the thoughts of the German superiority began to poison the minds of the people. Slowly, slowly the messages of how low class the Jews were, changed the society and the problems the Germans had were blamed on the Jews.
Let us take a leap forward to February the 24th 2022. Russian troups were placed along the border between Russia and Ukraine. It was said that they were there to control the peace. Drones showed photos of a pontone bridge that was built from one day to the other . This kind of bridge is made of big plates floating on the water. They are connected to each other and are strong enough to carry even military tanks.
For those of you who read my article from last week, where I told you about the Russian president Vladimir Putin and how his upbringing formed him, you remember that he learned early in life to hit first and ask questions afterwards. He is very much a product of the KGB, the Russian secret police, where he was trained to never reveal either plans, thoughts or emotions. When you look at photos of him, you can see that even if he has a smile on his lips, the smile never reaches his eyes. A Swedish minister, who met him some years ago, told that Putin’s eyes are cold and without expression, like a reptile.
Silently like a reptile, Putin made plans to invade Ukraine and only his closest ministers and generals knew his plans. Today I saw a video where 10 Russian men had surrendered to a group of Ukrainian soldiers. The Russians were treated well, but they were captured and interrogated in front of the camera. When asked of their occupation, not a single Russian man was a soldier. Most of them were teachers, and the others worked as janitors at different schools in Russia. They were ordered to leave their jobs and pack some belongings to go to a military training. They were not soldiers, but they were forced by the Russian state to take part in the training. They were told that the training should take 4-5 days and that they should go back home again afterwards and go back to work. They had no clue at all that they were going to war, and some of them didn’t even know there was a war in Ukraine. Some of these men were living in the parts of Ukraine that were stolen by the Russian state , and now they were supposed to kill their sisters and brothers! They are just as interconnected as Gambians and Senegalese people. Imagine that you were forced to go out and kill your own kin!
