One of the things most do not realize about the Third Reich is its unhinged flakiness. Leni Riefenstahl, and, by way of imitation, the entire motion picture industry, have successfully persuaded us of authoritarianism's elegance, rationality, and inevitable power. It's a pity, because the writings at the intellectual core of the Nazi regime are some of the most humorous in the historical record. People like Lanz von Liebenfels and his Electric Aryan Bugaloo from Aldebaran simply do not fit into our preconceived notion of "Nazi". We make ourselves feel better by ignoring him, and other key architects of the Nazi Völkisch, but it doesn't make authoritarianism pretty, rational, or elegant. Its intellectual basis was bankrupt; Mein Kampf steered more by self-pity than self-discipline. The trains didn't actually run on time, they just killed anyone who noticed that the trains were running late. They didn't play Wagner at Auschwitz. They played polka.
Something to remember in these troubled times, when authoritarianism is undergoing something of a revival.
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