The Downfall of the Common Man

Abstract

H ITLER likes to talk in big figures. His speeches are studded with hyperbole. But one statement he has made repeatedly which has more truth and more significance than many of us suspect and perhaps which he himself suspects. The present course of battle, he is fond of saying, will determine the destiny of the world for the next five-hundred or the next thousand years. Although Hitler is guilty of megalomania and sees things through a diseased and neurotic mind, in this statement there lies not idle words but true prophecy. This, of course, runs counter to traditional thinking. It was an axiom-and history was there to prove it-that no one man could conquer the entire world, not Napoleon and certainly not Hitler. The intricacy of modern armaments plus the phenomenal progress of communication and transportation have annihilated distances and have shrunk this globe to a small, manageable community. The changes resulting from this, in the writer's opinion are epoch-making. The human being as a power has become meaningless and negligible, unless backed up by organized military might. The corollary that follows is this: A small group can keep in thrall and in subjugation vast masses of people. This is a global war, and Hitler, in the writer's opinion, is quite correct in thinking that he can dominate the world. In this respect he sees the issue and the stakes more clearly than our allied leaders. For the power of the common man-you and me has been destroyed. That is the lesson which has definitely been established in this war, and the significance of this is profound. Hitherto, it was believed that the common man could not be indefinitely subjugated. This viewpoint was expressed by a writer as follows, referring apparently to World War I: (The quotation is taken from a book entitled, European Civilization and Politics Since 1815, -by Erik Achorn, of Harvard University. Unfortunately, the quotation is incomplete and I could not find the name of the author mentioned in the text.)