Ja wohl!

(United Press International)

Well, we can't all be lucky enough to quote foxy Alaskan singers in our senior yearbook quotes, but two grads are facing some pretty ridiculous censorship this year. The students quoted Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf in their yearbook, but once the school officials figured out the provenance they immediately axed the lines.

The quotes: "Strength lies not in defense but attack" and "The great masses of people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one."

Well, I can't speak much to first quote (other than it seems to be the watch-term of the current presidential administration), but the second one seems to have been proven pretty accurate.

The big lie: censorship is an effective weapon against fascism.

Who else practices widespread censorship? China and Iran? (You knew I was going to work these guys in here at some point.) Do we really want to be like them? Isn't censorship inherently un-American?

But the greater point being missed here is that the quote from Hitler essentially described what he himself was doing. Telling a big lie. It's a bit like Hitler was speaking in aside, saying "Hey, you know what really works if you want to be an evil fascist dictator? Tell a lot of big lies!" Hitler has a lot of quotes like this from Mein Kampf, and they are all equally informative about his mindset. More importantly, the quote reveals to us how to avoid future Hitler-esque behavior from our leaders.

Here's an analogy: Say Osama bin Laden writes in his little moleskin journal that "inspiring fear in one's enemies is the most effective way to turn them on one another." Not quite as poetic as the Führer, I'll grant, but true nonetheless. Does this mean that because Osama parks jets in the middle of sky-scrapers that we can't ever learn from his tactics?

Neither the hypothetical quote I made up nor Hitler's comments on statehood were being presented as advice to future autocrats, and if quoted, unaltered, by someone who stands against them, it would certainly not appear to be an endorsement of those acts.

What better way to kick Hitler in the balls than quoting him in a pluralistic society as a warning against lying despots? Are we incapable of realizing the hypocrisy of censoring a statement warning of lies? Do we have to throw out the baby with the bathwater? If so, anybody that drives a fucking Jetta needs to get their car taken away.

Would I quote Hitler? As a matter of fact, when I was a brash, young, high school senior (long, long ago), I did just that. Every day I would print out various quotes (largely quotes by Nietzsche and Wilde, embarassingly) and pin them up on a bulletin board in our school's hallway. One such quote: "What luck for rulers that men do not think." Nobody censored that, as it was quite clear that I was not a ruler exalting in the ignorance of men. Indeed, there have been many writers throughout history that have said something similar to this, whom I could have easily quoted instead of Hitler, but when you hear something wise come from the mouth of someone you really hate, it does something special to you. If you are not one of those lucky people who can employ an ad hominem approach to every situation you ever come across, such a quote makes you think just a little harder. Hitler said that? It sends a little shiver down your spine, and you realize just how lucky we are that he was eventually overthrown.

People often talk about how the US is no longer that special anymore, that much of Europe exceeds us in social progress, etc. And don't get me wrong, if I needed cheap/free medical treatment, I would cerainly be glad to be in Europe. But in terms of freedom of speech, and freedom of expression, we're still pretty much holding the cards. The rightness of censoring a quote from Hitler is not even discussed in Germany, it is simply done. No questions asked. France is not a very tolerant place if you happen to want to wear your religion. The list goes on and on. Censorship of the words of defeated terrorists is simply trading one form of oppression to another. It's un-American, it's irrational, it's bad politics.

And it's exactly the big lie Hitler was referring to.