Name: The ominous parallels
ISBN: 9780812828504

The ominous parallels

Ayn Rand chose Leonard Peikoff to be her successor as the spokesman for Objectivism. And in this brilliantly reasoned, thought-provoking work we learn why, as he demonstrates how far America has been detoured from its original path and led down the same road that Germany followed to Nazism. Self-sacrifice, Oriental mysticism, racial?truth,? the public good, doing one?s duty--these are among the seductive catch-phrases that Leonard Peikoff dissects, examining the kind of philosophy they symbolize, the type of thinking that lured Germany to its doom and that he says is now prevalent in the United States. Here is a frightening look at where America may be heading, a clarion call for all who are concerned about preserving our right to individual freedom.

What Hacker News says

mkempeJun 2018

I recommend "The Ominous Parallels" [1] for a detailed examination of the philosophical and historical causes of Nazi Germany, and how these causes have echoes resonating in the US today.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Ominous-Parallels-End-Freedom-America...

(the now-flagged book review was https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/14/books/review/benjamin-car...)

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mkempeFeb 2018

What an awful article. The author starts by ascribing a biological basis to a person's likelihood to be a Nazi. In that respect, she's no better than them.

National-socialism was a collectivist ideology. It was grouping people according to a hierarchy of "races", in other words judging individuals according to their ancestry. It was fundamentally horrible not because of its form of collectivism, but because it was both collectivistic and totalitarian.

Human action is driven by ideas and personal choices, not by collective biological origins or urges, nor by "feeding", nor by "physical training."

If you want a deeper, intellectual, practical understanding of what made Nazi Germany possible read "The Ominous Parallels" (1982) [1] or an extract titled "The Cause of Hitler's Germany" [2].

[1] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00Y30U3XM

[2] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00INIYHQO

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jesJun 2013

You might wish to read "The Ominous Parallels" by Leonard Peikoff.

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maxharrisMar 2021

If you don't have a lot of money to invest, it's far better to put that cash into developing yourself. That can be as simple as reading books such as The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen or The Virtue of Selfishness by Ayn Rand, or following an interest you already have (mine are things like machining, chemistry, structural engineering, neon art).

If you have a business idea, one of the best books I've read is The Right It: Why So Many Ideas Fail and How to Make Sure Yours Succeed by Alberto Savoia. Making stuff is a lot easier than learning whether or not you're on the right track without spending everything you have.

The last thing I'd suggest is to be concerned with history and America's oncoming fascist trainwreck. Peikoff wrote The Ominous Parallels forty years ago, and his words are every bit as chilling as they are prescient.

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duncan_bayneMar 2018

Apathy? A lot of smart people were active supporters of the National Socialists, at least before they started losing the war.

The Ominous Parallels[1] explores this, and the parallels with current American politics:

The Nazis did not gain power against the country’s wishes…The Nazi party was elected to office by the freely cast ballots of millions of German voters, including men on every social, economic, and educational level. In the national election of July 1932, the Nazis obtained 37 percent of the vote and a plurality of seats in the Reichstag. On January 30, 1933, in full accordance with the country’s legal and constitutional principles, Hitler was appointed Chancellor. Five weeks later, in the last (and semi-free) election of the pre-totalitarian period, the Nazis obtained 17 million votes, 44 percent of the total…

In 1933, when Hitler did establish the system he had promised, he did not find it necessary to forbid foreign travel. Until World War II, those Germans who wished to flee the country could do so. The overwhelming majority did not. They were satisfied to remain…

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Ominous-Parallels-End-Freedom-America...

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Tim1776Jan 2011

Glorification of the stupid is nihilistic. Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed. So reason is required to produce the values on which human life depends.

In "The Roots of Nazi Psychology: Hitler's Utopian Barbarism", Jay Gonen described the typical Nazi mentality as being a contradictory mix of brutality and intellect. He analyzed these "brilliant morons" in Freudian terms, but according to Leonard Peikoff, in his book "The Ominous Parallels", the roots of Nazi stupidity glorification are actually to be found in the philosophy of Kant who famously attacked reason.

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