For my topic in the Ed Cafe we did was Benito Mussolini. Against popular belief he wasn't completely bad, before becoming the dictator of Italy. He was born in a little town in Italy and grew up in that little town. His father was a blacksmith and his mom was a catholic teacher. He didn't get baptized at birth, so when the time came to send Benito Mussolini to school his parents decided to send him to boarding school that was run by monks. He got expelled for his behavior, he threw rocks at children leaving services. He also stabbed a kid in the hand. He left that elementary school and went to a different one where he received top grades.
He worked in his father smithy on occasion. His father talked about politics and his political views, which was a mixture of anarchism, militarism and nationalism. Around the time he would have to enter the military, Mussolini fled to Switzerland to avoid having to serve. There he was incredibly active with an Italian Socialist group. He also learned about George Sorel who had the belief that Capitalism and Liberal Democracy were both bad. He also thought that the best way to deal with issues was through violence, general strikes and direct action.
After returning to Italy much later in his life, he started a newspaper called "The Class Struggle" and wrote a book. He was incredibly good at editing newspaper and he increased his popularity greatly with it. He joined the PSI or the Italian Socialists Party and he edited their newspaper Avanti!. He grew the popularity of the newspaper from twenty thousand to one hundred thousand and continue to make himself well known throughout Italy. He was part of a socialist riot that got him put in jail for 5 months and got him severely demoted in the Socialists Party. He started using the pen name "Vero Eretico" which translates to Sincere Misbeliever.
Around WWI Benito struggled with the inner turmoil of the war. The PSI wanted to stay out of it, so he did at first too. Writing a newspaper article with the title "Down with War. We stay Neutral". Although he soon saw that the war was an opening for his ambitions and it was also an opportunity for the country. It was also a chance for the Italians living in Germany-Hungary to be freed from the Hapsburg. He tried to convince the PSI to overthrow the German-Hungarian monarchs and join the war. He said that the Germany-Hungarian monarchs had repressed socialism consistently. He gave many reasons for why joining the war would be beneficial to them, but in the end the PSI expelled Benito Mussolini from the party.
Around this time he denounced Socialism and started the National Fascist Party. He started gaining power by telling the flaws of traditional Socialism. He started giving speeches, and he started addressing Italy as one class instead of distinct social and economic classes. This was one of the smartest things he could have done. Italy was going through social oppression. The working class didn't have many rights and the rich were living well. When Benito Mussolini addressed Italy as one social class it united the people and created nationalistic views in peoples eyes.
From this point he quickly rose to power by wiping out his competition. He got to power and he formed the government into a one party dictatorship, in which he was in charge. He started raising money to go into war. He got money from the French (the idea being that Italy would join the French's Side) in WWII. When Hitler/Germany invaded Poland the first time in September of 1939, it took a short 8 months but Italy joined the side of Germany and WWII was in full bloom.
The rest of Benito Mussolini's story is better known. He wasn't completely bad the whole time during his life. He was a socialist for more than half of his life. When he was expelled from the PSI and socialism was taken out of his life he turned and created Fascism. I am not saying that I am proud of what he did during the time he was dictator. I hope that you realize that people change and in this particular example it wasn't for the best.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Believe Me
Propaganda was a tool that has been used throughout history to gain control and to mislead a large group of people. In a video that I recently watched in history class that showed propaganda in its true form. In this video it showed Adolf Hitler as the chancellor of Germany. When the movie started it showed him landing in Germany and the airport was surrounded by people. Almost like the famous video of The Beatles arriving in America. As he was driving through the towns people were cheering and saluting. It was almost like a parade. I witness the German people praise and love Hitler for the entire video.
This raises a serious question to me. What exactly did the German people think was going on at the time? I know in this period in particular the German people were incredibly nationalistic but there is a point where you have to wonder if Hitler wasn't telling the truth. He was telling the German people what they wanted to hear. Hitler was a master at propaganda. He told the people of Germany in another video we watched, that he didn't care what happened to himself, but the children of Germany would be the future, his legacy. This makes me wonder even more, if Hitler was using propaganda or if the German people were just looking for someone to tell them they were the best nation. It is true that some of the ads made people believe in Hitler even more. The way I see it though, no matter what people tell you, you have the choice to believe in it.
This brings up the question: Did Germany want to go to war? To me, I would say yes. It isn't hard to be told your country is the best, I understand that. However there is a point where you have to say to yourself, "Why are we better?" or "Why are they inferior?" I am in no way blaming the German people for WWII, however people don't get into power without being loved and accepted by the people of the nation. Except when there is a king, but in this era in Germany there wasn't.
I think that propaganda did play a role in people loving Hitler, but I think it was more that the German people really wanted someone to believe in and to make them a power. Which did happen, so I guess it was a success for Germany.
This raises a serious question to me. What exactly did the German people think was going on at the time? I know in this period in particular the German people were incredibly nationalistic but there is a point where you have to wonder if Hitler wasn't telling the truth. He was telling the German people what they wanted to hear. Hitler was a master at propaganda. He told the people of Germany in another video we watched, that he didn't care what happened to himself, but the children of Germany would be the future, his legacy. This makes me wonder even more, if Hitler was using propaganda or if the German people were just looking for someone to tell them they were the best nation. It is true that some of the ads made people believe in Hitler even more. The way I see it though, no matter what people tell you, you have the choice to believe in it.
This brings up the question: Did Germany want to go to war? To me, I would say yes. It isn't hard to be told your country is the best, I understand that. However there is a point where you have to say to yourself, "Why are we better?" or "Why are they inferior?" I am in no way blaming the German people for WWII, however people don't get into power without being loved and accepted by the people of the nation. Except when there is a king, but in this era in Germany there wasn't.
I think that propaganda did play a role in people loving Hitler, but I think it was more that the German people really wanted someone to believe in and to make them a power. Which did happen, so I guess it was a success for Germany.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Could It Happen Again?
The Great Depression was the worse economic crisis in American History. After coming out of World War I, America prospered from approximately a decade of booming economy. The roaring 20's as it is referred to looked as though nothing could go wrong. People were buying stocks and making money and then the stocks were going up due to the fact people were spending more money on goods. Everything was good until people started loosing faith in the stock due to the fact the stock dropped slightly about 4 days before the major crash in October of 1929. Since people were buying on margin, which simply means paying for things with money loaned from the bank, when the market crashed they were hung out to dry.
After Hoover tried to help banks by giving money and trying to keep them opened and his plan failed, many Americans grew angry and tired of Hoover so at the next election FDR was elected. FDR didn't have the same idea as Hoover. He realized that just trying to spend money to bail out big companies as Hoover tried wasn't going to work. He implemented multiple policies that helped the economic situation. He saw that the major problems were poverty and unemployment. He used his New Deal program to help these problems. His New Deal Program was a series of economic measures to help relieve the worst economic problems of the depression.
Since then, there is the FDIC or the Federal Deposit Insurance Company which insures that if a bank fails and your money is lost, the FDIC will refund your money up to $100,000. There is also Social Security, which gives money to people who do not have adequate income. There was also the Glass Steagall Act which separated investment banks and private banks. The difference is that investment banks do not take deposits.
Unless a nuclear war happens which causes a huge nuclear fallout and in turn causes another probably bigger economic crisis, than it is extremely unlikely to have a economic fallout as the same magnitude as the Great Depression. Due to all of the different acts and policies set in place it would be extremely hard for something like this to happen again. Besides aren't we supposed to learn from the past, so it won't be repeated?
After Hoover tried to help banks by giving money and trying to keep them opened and his plan failed, many Americans grew angry and tired of Hoover so at the next election FDR was elected. FDR didn't have the same idea as Hoover. He realized that just trying to spend money to bail out big companies as Hoover tried wasn't going to work. He implemented multiple policies that helped the economic situation. He saw that the major problems were poverty and unemployment. He used his New Deal program to help these problems. His New Deal Program was a series of economic measures to help relieve the worst economic problems of the depression.
Since then, there is the FDIC or the Federal Deposit Insurance Company which insures that if a bank fails and your money is lost, the FDIC will refund your money up to $100,000. There is also Social Security, which gives money to people who do not have adequate income. There was also the Glass Steagall Act which separated investment banks and private banks. The difference is that investment banks do not take deposits.
Unless a nuclear war happens which causes a huge nuclear fallout and in turn causes another probably bigger economic crisis, than it is extremely unlikely to have a economic fallout as the same magnitude as the Great Depression. Due to all of the different acts and policies set in place it would be extremely hard for something like this to happen again. Besides aren't we supposed to learn from the past, so it won't be repeated?
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