Erik Pflueger
New member
The thing about the Nazis is that there's very little that can be said about them that isn't believable. The sheer enormity of their crimes and their ambitions make such charges completely credible, even to experts. Once you've pulled off something as crazy as industrialized mass murder on a continental scale, it's easy for people to believe you can, or have, done practically anything.
If you were to say that they launched a mission to Tibet to find a lost Aryan offshoot (and they did), people can see that happening. If you were to say they had people looking into the Holy Grail (they did), it would be believable. If you were to say that the SS were going to build their own Vatican City as a headquarters (they were), that too is believable. If you were to say they were developing UFOs and that they colonized the Moon before the United States (they didn't), it's still belieavable by some people (in fact, a good portion of Neo-Nazi ideology is built upon such stories).
What has happened really is that the Nazis have become an icon of evil in the common mind, upon which anything strange or esoteric can ultimately be projected with credibility. And you have to thank the Indiana Jones films, to a certain extent, for that happening, although the origins of that lie back in the 1960s, not with Lucas or Spielberg. The revival of the Indiana Jones franchise, in addition to making people ask what Crystal Skulls are, may encourage even greater and more rigorous study into this strage and fascinating aspect of Nazism.
It does give me pause, though: now that the Soviets are the current bad guys, do they have the same aspect of strangeness to them as the Nazis did? Would people believe anything said about Stalin and the Bolsheviks like they do about Hitler and the Nazis? The research is much more scarce, though it can be hoped that the new film - like the old ones did about Nazi occultism - may encourage the study of Russian wackiness and bring forth new books on the subject.
If you were to say that they launched a mission to Tibet to find a lost Aryan offshoot (and they did), people can see that happening. If you were to say they had people looking into the Holy Grail (they did), it would be believable. If you were to say that the SS were going to build their own Vatican City as a headquarters (they were), that too is believable. If you were to say they were developing UFOs and that they colonized the Moon before the United States (they didn't), it's still belieavable by some people (in fact, a good portion of Neo-Nazi ideology is built upon such stories).
What has happened really is that the Nazis have become an icon of evil in the common mind, upon which anything strange or esoteric can ultimately be projected with credibility. And you have to thank the Indiana Jones films, to a certain extent, for that happening, although the origins of that lie back in the 1960s, not with Lucas or Spielberg. The revival of the Indiana Jones franchise, in addition to making people ask what Crystal Skulls are, may encourage even greater and more rigorous study into this strage and fascinating aspect of Nazism.
It does give me pause, though: now that the Soviets are the current bad guys, do they have the same aspect of strangeness to them as the Nazis did? Would people believe anything said about Stalin and the Bolsheviks like they do about Hitler and the Nazis? The research is much more scarce, though it can be hoped that the new film - like the old ones did about Nazi occultism - may encourage the study of Russian wackiness and bring forth new books on the subject.