CDR: Re: Why Free Speech Matters

[Ken Brown]

Olav wrote:
 
> > Nothing has made Nazism more interesting to young persons, mostly
> > young men, than the hint of illegality. "If they don't want me to
> > know about this, there must be something to it." Plus, the usual
> > flaunting of disrespect for authority.
> 
> The hint of illegality? Well, of course this is a reason, but the question
> remains that if all people had legal access to nationalsocialist
> propaganda such as "Mein Kampf",

Only 300 Km from Germany, in England, we never had any trouble with 
"legal access to nationalsocialist propaganda such as "Mein Kampf"". It
was available to me as a child, in my local (government-funded) library
& I managed to locate two copies within 10 minutes in the library of
this  University. My Dad (an anti-Nazi left-winger) had a copy. IIRC it
was the version published in English by the  anti-Nazi left-wing
publishing company, Gollancz (and yes, I think the founder was a Jew) on
the principle that people would be less likely to become Nazis if they
could actually read the stuff. It seemed to work. I don't think he ever
paid any royalties though.  I don't think we've all becopme Nazis yet.

> But certainly, this is not the reason that young men join the
> national-socialist cause. It4s about a feeling of superority, 

Superiority? Inferiority rather Why would people who thought themselves
superior need to submit themselves to a leader?

Ken