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This article first appeared here two years ago, but is republished to commemorate the deaths of those brave young people and to bring their sacrifice to the attention of British anti-fascists. It hardly does the members of the White Rose justice, but we hope it will serve to ignite an interest in their activities and their lives, and cause their memory to be kept by all who value freedom and democracy.
The six leaflets which cost the White Rose so dear are reproduced in full in this article. The translations are not ours, nor is the source text for the leaflets, and any errors have been preserved.
The resistance movement - if such it can be called - in Nazi Germany remains something of a mystery to all but the most informed. We are all familiar with the so nearly successful attempt by Claus von Stauffenberg to assassinate Adolf Hitler in July 1944, and of its bloody aftermath. That plot ultimately had a pre-war genesis, among the very General Staff officers upon which Hitler relied to plan and effect his conquests. But that nucleus of German General Staff officers and their mostly conservative allies were motivated not so much by anti-Nazism (though many despised the creed) as a desire not to allow Hitler to plunge Germany into military adventures that might ultimately lead to the destruction of the Reich.
Time and again before the war concerned German officers passed information to Britain and France, urging the governments of those countries to stand up to Hitler's territorial demands, and time and again their concerns and their plans (to stage a coup against Hitler) were never addressed, if they were ever taken seriously at all.
So it was that this strand of German opposition turned in on itself, seemingly to disappear until the spectacular disaster of July 20th, 1944. But there were many plots on the part of the military opposition, which, as the war progressed, came to realise that staging a coup against Hitler was out of the question, and that only his death would create the conditions in which the Nazi Party could be deprived of power and the war brought to an end. Each of these plots fell victim to chance.
Opposition to the regime was always fragmented in Nazi Germany. Outside of the military and the aristocracy, most of the existing groups had their antecedants in pre-1933 political parties and religious groups, and operated largely in isolation.
Apart from later attempts by the military opposition to kill their own chief, the only other known determined attempt to bring about the death of Hitler was that of Georg Elser. Elser, a carpenter, was a devout Lutheran with tenuous connections to the German Communist Party, who appears to have acted entirely of his own volition when he set a bomb to explode during a Hitler speech in Munich's Bürgerbräukeller. In the event, Hitler gave a shorter than expected speech and left the Bürgerbräukeller several minutes before Elser's bomb detonated. Eight Nazis were killed, and Elser was soon under arrest. Curiously he remained alive until just before the end of the war, when the regime, in the madness of its death throes, took care of much unfinished business. Elser was executed at Dachau on April 9th, 1945.
The more famous opponents of the regime we are largely familiar with - pastors Dietrich Bonhoeffer (hanged on April 9th, 1945) and Martin Niemöller (author of "First They Came…"), the Catholic Bishop Clemens August Graf von Galen, and other brave men and women who stood against the all-powerful state.
Less well known are the young members of a group centred around the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich.
What this group attempted seems to us born of a breathtaking naivety, given the time and the place of its occurence - and also astonishingly brave. Incomprehensibly brave.
Among their number were students Hans Scholl (25), Christoph Probst (23), Willi Graf (25), and Alexander Schmorell (25). All four had seen military service in the Soviet Union, where they had witnessed atrocities and the casual ill-treatment of captured enemy soldiers and civilians. Their experiences left them resolutely anti-Nazi and determined to bring the regime down. Also part of the group were Professor Kurt Huber (49), Hans Leipelt (24) and Hans Scholl's sister, Sophie (22).
The ages given are those at which each individual was executed.
The White Rose was actually founded in June 1942, and distributed a series of six leaflets, mostly in Munich but also in other German and Austrian cities. Intended for clandestine and hand-to-hand distribution, The White Rose hoped that recipients would copy and further re-distribute its message.
Copies of each White Rose leaflet still exist. These unique historical documents make for fascinating reading, and before continuing we reproduce the text of each of them below.
Nothing is so unworthy of a civilized nation as allowing itself to be "governed" without opposition by an irresponsible clique that has yielded to base instinct. It is certain that today every honest German is ashamed of his government. Who among us has any conception of the dimensions of shame that will befall us and our children when one day the veil has fallen from our eyes and the most horrible of crimes - crimes that infinitely outdistance every human measure - reach the light of day? If the German people are already so corrupted and spiritually crushed that they do not raise a hand, frivolously trusting in a questionable faith in lawful order of history; if they surrender man's highest principle, that which raises him above all other God's creatures, his free will; if they abandon the will to take decisive action and turn the wheel of history and thus subject it to their own rational decision; if they are so devoid of all individuality, have already gone so far along the road toward turning into a spiritless and cowardly mass - then, yes, they deserve their downfall.Leaflet 2
Goethe speaks of the Germans as a tragic people, like the Jews and the Greeks, but today it would appear rather that they are a spineless, will-less herd of hangers-on, who now - the marrow sucked out of their bones, robbed of their center of stability - are waiting to be hounded to their destruction. So it seems - but it is not so. Rather, by means of gradual, treacherous, systematic abuse, the system has put every man into a spiritual prison. Only now, finding himself lying in fetters, has he become aware of his fate. Only a few recognized the threat of ruin, and the reward for their heroic warning was death. We will have more to say about the fate of these persons.
If everyone waits until the other man makes a start, the messengers of avenging Nemesis will come steadily closer; then even the last victim will have been cast senselessly into the maw of the insatiable demon. Therefore every individual, conscious of his responsibility as a member of Christian and Western civilization, must defend himself as best he can at this late hour, he must work against the scourges of mankind, against fascism and any similar system of totalitarianism. Offer passive resistance - resistance - wherever you may be, forestall the spread of this atheistic war machine before it is too late, before the last cities, like Cologne, have been reduced to rubble, and before the nation's last young man has given his blood on some battlefield for the hubris of a sub-human. Do not forget that every people deserves the regime it is willing to endure!
From Freidrich Schiller's The Lawgiving of Lycurgus and Solon:
"…..Viewed in relation to its purposes, the law code of Lycurgus is a masterpiece of political science and knowledge of human nature. He desired a powerful, unassailable start, firmly established on its own principles. Political effectiveness and permanence were the goal toward which he strove, and he attained this goal to the full extent possible under possible under the circumstances. But if one compares the purpose Lycurgus had in view with the purposes of mankind, then a deep abhorrence takes the place of the approbation which we felt at first glance. Anything may be sacrificed to the good of the state except that end for which the State serves as a means. The state is never an end in itself; it is important only as a condition under which the purpose of mankind can be attained, and this purpose is none other than the development of all man's power, his progress and improvement. If a state prevents the development of the capacities which reside in man, if it interferes with the progress of the human spirit, then it is reprehensible and injurious, no matter how excellently devised, how perfect in its own way. Its very permanence in that case amounts more to a reproach than to a basis for fame; it be comes a prolonged evil, and the longer it endures, the more harmful it is.
…..At the price of all moral feeling a political system was set up, and the resources of the state were mobilized to that end. In Sparta there was no conjugal love, no mother love, no filial devotion, no friendship; all men were citizens only, and all virtue was civic virtue.
…..A law of the state made it the duty of Spartans to be inhumane to their slaves; in these unhappy victims of war humanity itself was insulted and mistreated. In the Spartan code of law the dangerous principle was promulgated that men are to be looked upon as means and not as ends - and the foundation of natural law and of morality were destroyed by that law.
…..What an admirable sight is afforded, by contrast, by the rough soldier Gaius Marcius in his camp before Rome, when he renounced vengeance and victory because he could not endure to see a mother's tears!
The state (of Lycurgus) could endure only under the one condition: that the spirit of the people remained quiescent. Hence it could be maintained only if it failed to achieve the highest, the sole purpose of a state."
From Goethe's The Awakening of Epimenides, Act II, Scene 4.
Though he who has boldly risen from the abyss
Through an iron will and cunning
May conquer half the world,
Yet to the abyss he mustreturn.
Already a terrible fear has seized him;
In vain he will resist!
And all who still stand with him
Must perish in his fall.
Now I find my good men
Are gathered in the night,
To wait in silence, not to sleep.
And the glorious word of liberty
They whisper and murmur,
Till in unaccustomed strangeness,
On the steps of our temple
Once again in delight they cry:
(convincingly loud)
(more fully)
(from all sides and ends Echo!)
Please make as many copies of this leaflet as you can and distribute them.
It is impossible to engage in intellectual discourse with National Socialist Philosophy, for if there were such an entity, one would have to try by means of analysis and discussion either to prove its validity or to combat it. In actuality, however, we face a totally different situation. At its very inception this movement depended on the deception and betrayal of one's fellow man; even at that time it was inwardly corrupt and could support itself only by constant lies. After all, Hitler states in an early edition of "his" book (a book written in the worst German I have ever read, in spite of the fact that it has been elevated to the position of the Bible in this nation of poets and thinkers): "It is unbelievable, to what extent one must betray a people in order to rule it." If at the start this cancerous growth in the nation was not particularly noticeable, it was only because there were still enough forces at work that operated for the good, so that it was kept under control. As it grew larger, however, and finally in an ultimate spurt of growth attained ruling power, the tumor broke open, as it were, and infected the whole body. The greater part of its former opponents went into hiding. The German intellectuals fled to their cellars, there, like plants struggling in the dark, away from light and sun, gradually to choke to death. Now the end is at hand. Now it is our task to find one another again, to spread information from person to person, to keep a steady purpose, and to allow ourselves no rest until the last man is persuaded of the urgent need of his struggle against this system. When thus a wave of unrest goes through the land, when "it is in the air," when many join the cause, then in a great final effort this system can be shaken off. After all, an end in terror is preferable to terror without end.Leaflet 3
We are not in a position to draw up a final judgment about the meaning of our history. But if this catastrophe can be used to further the public welfare, it will be only by virtue of the fact that we are cleansed by suffering; that we yearn for the light in the midst of deepest night, summon our strength, and finally help in shaking off the yoke which weighs on our world.
We do not want to discuss here the question of the Jews, nor do we want in this leaflet to compose a defense or apology. No, only by way of example do we want to cite the fact that since the conquest of Poland three hundred thousand Jews have been murdered in this country in the most bestial way. Here we see the most frightful crime against human dignity, a crime that is unparalleled in the whole of history. For Jews, too, are human beings - no matter what position we take with respect to the Jewish question - and a crime of this dimension has been perpetrated against human beings. Someone may say that the Jews deserve their fate. This assertion would be a monstrous impertinence; but let us assume that someone said this - what position has he then taken toward the fact that the entire Polish aristocratic youth is being annihilated? (May God grant that this program has not yet fully achieved its aim as yet!) All male offspring of the houses of the nobility between the ages of fifteen and twenty were transported to concentration camps in Germany and sentenced to forced labor, and all the girls of this age group were sent to Norway, into the bordellos of the SS! Why tell you these things, since you are fully aware of them - or if not of these, then of other equally grave crimes committed by this frightful sub- humanity? Because here we touch on a problem which involves us deeply and forces us all to take thought. Why do German people behave so apathetically in the face of all these abominable crimes, crimes so unworthy of the human race? Hardly anyone thinks about that. It is accepted as fact and put out of mind. The German people slumber on in their dull, stupid sleep and encourage these fascist criminals; they give them the opportunity to carry on their depredations; and of course they do so. Is this a sign that the Germans are brutalized in their simplest human feelings, that no chord within them cries out at the sight of such deeds, that they have sunk into a fatal consciencelessness from which they will never, never awake? It seems to be so, and will certainly be so, if the German does not at last start up out of his stupor, if he does not protest wherever and whenever he can against this clique of criminal, if he shows no sympathy for these hundreds of thousands of victims. He must evidence not only sympathy; no, much more: a sense of complicity in guilt. For through his apathetic behavior he gives these evil men the opportunity to act as they do; he tolerates this "government" which has taken upon itself such an infinitely great burden of guilt; indeed, he himself is to blame for the fact that it came about at all! Each man wants to be exonerated of a guilt of this kind, each one continues on his way with the most placid, the calmest conscience. But he cannot be exonerated; he is guilty, guilty, guilty! It is not too late, however, to do away with this most reprehensible of all miscarriages of government, so as to avoid being burdened with even greater guilt. Now, when in recent years our eyes have been opened, when we know exactly who our adversary is, it is high time to root out this brown horde. Up until the outbreak of the war the larger part of the German people was blinded; the Nazis did not show themselves in their true aspect. But now, now that we have recognized them for what they are, it must be the sole and first duty, the holiest duty of every German to destroy these beasts.
If the people are barely aware that the government exists, they are happy. When the government is felt to be oppressive they are broken. Good fortune, alas! builds itself upon misery. Good fortune, alas! is the mask of misery. What will come of this? We cannot foresee the end. Order is upset and turns to disorder, good becomes evil. The people are confused. Is it not so, day in, day out, from the beginning? The wise man is therefore angular, though he does not injure others; he has sharp corners, though he does not harm; he is upright but not gruff. He is clearminded, but he does not try to be brilliant. Lao-Tzu
. . . . . Whoever undertakes to rule the kingdom and to shape it according to his whim - I foresee that he will fail to reach his goal. That is all.
The kingdom is a living being. It cannot be constructed, in truth! He who tries to manipulate it will spoil it, he who tries to put it under his power will lose it.
Therefore: Some creatures go out in front, others follow, some have warm breath, others cold, some are strong, some weak, some attain abundance, others succumb.
The wise man will accordingly forswear excess, he will avoid arrogance and not overreach. Lao-Tzu
. . . . .
Please make as many copies as possible of this leaflet and distribute them.
"Salus publica suprema lex"Leaflet 4
All ideal forms of government are utopias. A state cannot be constructed on a purely theoretical basis; rather, it must grow and ripen in the way an individual human being matures. But we must not forget that at the starting point of every civilization the state was already there in rudimentary form. The family is as old as man himself, and out of this initial bond man, endowed with reason, created for himself a state founded on justice, whose highest law was the common good. The state should exist as a parallel to the divine order, and the highest of all utopias, the civitas dei, is the model which in the end it should approximate. Here we will not pass judgment on the many possible forms of the state - democracy, constitutional monarchy, and so on. But one matter needs to be brought out clearly and unambiguously. Every individual human being has a claim to a useful and just state, a state which secures freedom of the individual as well as the good of the whole. For, according to God's will, man is intended to pursue his natural goal, his earthly happiness, in self-reliance and self-chosen activity, freely and independently within the community of life and work of the nation.
But our present "state" is the dictatorship of evil. "Oh, we've known that for a long time," I hear you object, "and it isn't necessary to bring that to our attention again." But, I ask you, if you know that, why do you not bestir yourselves, why do you allow these men who are in power to rob you step by step, openly and in secret, of one domain of your rights after another, until one day nothing, nothing at all will be left but a mechanized state system presided over by criminals and drunks? Is your spirit already so crushed by abuse that you forget it is your right - or rather, your moral duty - to eliminate this system? But is a man no longer can summon the strength to demand his right, then it is absolutely certain that he will perish. We would deserve to be dispersed through the earth like dust before the wind if we do not muster our powers at this late hour and finally find the courage which up to now we have lacked. Do not hide your cowardice behind a cloak of expediency, for with every new day that you hesitate, failing to oppose this offspring of Hell, your guilt, as in a parabolic curve, grows higher and higher.
Many, perhaps most, of the readers of these leaflets do not see clearly how they can practice an effective opposition. They do not see any avenues open to them. We want to try to show them that everyone is in a position to contribute to the overthrow of this system. It is not possible through solitary withdrawal, in the manner of embittered hermits, to prepare the ground for the overturn of this "government" or bring about the revolution at the earliest possible moment. No, it can be done only by the cooperation of many convinced, energetic people - people who are agreed as to the means they must use to attain their goal. We have no great number of choices as to these means. The only one available is passive resistance.
The meaning and the goal of passive resistance is to topple National Socialism, and in this struggle we must not recoil from any course, any action, whatever its nature. At all points we must oppose National Socialism, wherever it is open to attack. We must soon bring this monster of a state to an end. A victory of fascist Germany in this war would have immeasurable, frightful consequences. The military victory over Bolshevism dare not become the primary concern of the Germans. The defeat of the Nazis must unconditionally be the first order of business, the greater necessity of this latter requirement will be discussed in one of our forthcoming leaflets.
And now every convinced opponent of National Socialism must ask himself how he can fight against the present "state" in the most effective way, how he can strike it the most telling blows. Through passive resistance, without a doubt. We cannot provide each man with the blueprint for his acts, we can only suggest them in general terms, and he alone will find the way of achieving this end.
Sabotage in armament plants and war industries, sabotage at all gatherings, rallies, public ceremonies, and organizations of the National Socialist Party. Obstruction of the smooth functioning of the war machine (a machine for war that goes on solely to shore up and perpetuate the National Socialist Party and its dictatorship). Sabotage in all the areas of science and scholarship which further the continuation of the war - whether in universities, technical schools, laboratories, research institutes, or technical bureaus. Sabotage in all cultural institutions which could potentially enhance the "prestige" of the fascists among the people. Sabotage in all branches of the arts which have even the slightest dependence on National Socialism or render it service. Sabotage in all publications, all newspapers, that are in the pay of the "government" and that defend its ideology and aid in disseminating the brown lie. Do not give a penny to public drives (even when they are conducted under the pretense of charity). For this is only a disguise. In reality the proceeds aid neither the Red Cross nor the needy. The government does not need this money; it is not financially interested in these money drives. After all, the presses run continuously to manufacture any desired amount of paper currency. But the populace must be kept constantly under tension, the pressure of the bit must not be allowed to slacken! Do not contribute to the collections of metal, textiles, and the like. Try to convince all your acquaintances, including those in the lower social classes, of the senselessness of continuing, of the hopelessness of this war; of our spiritual and economic enslavement at the hands of the National Socialists; of the destruction of all moral and religious values; and urge them to passive resistance!
Aristotle, Politics: "… and further, it is part [of the nature of tyranny] to strive to see to it that nothing is kept hidden of that which any subject says or does, but that everywhere he will be spied upon, … and further, to set man against the privileged and the wealthy. Also it is part of these tyrannical measures, to keep the subjects poor, in order to pay the guards and soldiers, and so that they will be occupied with earning their livelihood and will have neither leisure nor opportunity to engage in conspiratorial acts…. Further, [to levy] such taxes on income as were imposed in Syracuse, for under Dionysius the citizens gladly paid out their whole fortunes in taxes within five years. Also, the tyrant is inclined constantly to forment wars."
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There is an ancient maxim that we repeat to our children: "He who won't listen will have to feel." But a wise child will not burn his fingers the second time on a hot stove. In the past weeks Hitler has choked up successes in Africa and in Russia. In consequence, optimism on the one hand and distress and pessimism on the other have grown within the German people with a rapidity quite inconsistent with traditional German apathy. On all sides one hears among Hitler's opponents - the better segments of the population - exclamations of despair, words of disappointment and discouragement, often ending with the question: "Will Hitler now, after all…?"Leaflet 5
Meanwhile, the German offensive against Egypt has ground to a halt. Rommel has to bide his time in a dangerously exposed position. But the push into the East proceeds. This apparent success has been purchased at the most horrible expense of human life, and so it can no longer be counted an advantage. Therefore we must warn against all optimism.
Neither Hitler nor Goebbels can have counted the dead. In Russia thousands are lost daily. It is the time of the harvest, and the reaper cuts into the ripe grain with wide strokes. Mourning takes up her abode in the country cottages, and there is no one to dry the tears of the mothers. Yet Hitler feeds with lies those people whose most precious belongings he has stolen and whom he has driven to a meaningless death.
Every word that comes from Hitler's mouth is a lie. When he says peace, he means war, and when he blasphemously uses the name of the Almighty, he means the power of evil, the fallen angel, Satan. His mouth is the foul-smelling maw of Hell, and his might is at bottom accursed. True, we must conduct a struggle against the National Socialist terrorist state with rational means; but whoever today still doublts the reality, the existence of demonic powers, has failed by a wide margin to understand the metaphysical background of this war. Behind the concrete, the visible events, behind all objective, logical considerations, we find the irrational element: The struggle against the demon, against the servants of the Antichrist. Everywhere and at all times demons have been lurking in the dark, waiting for the moment when man is weak; when of his own volition he leaves his place in the order of Creation as founded for him by God in freedom; when he yields to the force of evil, separates himself from the powers of a higher order; and after voluntarily taking the first step, he is driven on to the next and the next at a furiously accelerating rate. Everywhere and at all times of greatest trial men have appeared, prophets and saints who cherished their freedom, who preached the One God and who His help brought the people to a reversal of their downward course. Man is free, to be sure, but without the true God he is defenseless against the principle of evil. He is a like rudderless ship, at the mercy of the storm, an infant without his mother, a cloud dissolving into thin air.
I ask you, you as a Christian wrestling for the preservation of your greatest treasure, whether you hesitate, whether you incline toward intrigue, calculation, or procrastination in the hope that someone else will raise his arm in your defense? Has God not given you the strength, the will to fight? We must attack evil where it is strongest, and it is strongest in the power of Hitler.
So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter. Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead than the living which are yet alive. Ecclesiastes 4
Novalis: True anarchy is the generative element of religion. Out of the annihilation of every positive element she lifts her gloriously radiant countenance as the founder of a new world… If Europe were about to awaken again, if a state of states, a teaching of political science were at hand! Should hierarchy then… be the principle of the union of states? Blood will stream over Europe until the nations become aware of the frightful madness which drives them in circles. And then, struck by celestial music and made gentle, the approach their former altars all together, hear about the works of peace, and hold a great celebration of peace with fervent tears before the smoking altars. Only religion can reawaken Europe, establish the rights of the peoples, and install Christianity in new splendor visibly on earth in its office as guarantor of peace. We wish expressly to point out that the White Rose is not in the pay of any foreign power. Though we know that National Socialist power must be broken by military means, we are trying to achieve a renewal from within of the severely wounded German spirit. This rebirth must be preceded, however, by the clear recognition of all the guilt with which the German people have burdened themselves, and by an uncompromising battle against Hitler and his all too many minions, party members, Quislings, and the like. With total brutality the chasm that separates the better portion of the nation from everything that is opened wide. For Hitler and his followers there is no punishment on this Earth commensurate with their crimes. But out of love for coming generations we must make an example after the conclusion of the war, so that no one will ever again have the slightest urge to try a similar action. And do not forget the petty scoundrels in this regime; note their names, so that none will go free! They should not find it possible, having had their part in these abominable crimes, at the last minute to rally to another flag and then act as if nothing had happened!
To set you at rest, we add that the addresses of the readers of the White Rose are not recorded in writing. They were picked at random from directories.
We will not be silent. We are your bad conscience. The White Rose will not leave you in peace!
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A Call to All Germans!Leaflet 6
The war is approaching its destined end. As in the year 1918, the German government is trying to focus attention exclusively on the growing threat of submarine warfare, while in the East the armies are constantly in retreat and invasion in imminent in the West. Mobiliation in the United States has not yet reached its climax, but already it exceeds anything that the world has ever seen. It has become a mathematical certainty that Hitler is leading the German people into the abyss. Hitler cannot win the war; he can only prolong it. The guilt of Hitler and his minions goes beyond all measure. Retribution comes closer and closer.
But what are the German people doing? They will not see and will not listen. Blindly they follow their seducers into ruin. Victory at any price! is inscribed on their banner. "I will fight to the last man," says Hitler-but in the meantime the war has already been lost.
Germans! Do you and your children want to suffer the same fate that befell the Jews? Do you want to be judged by the same standards are your seducers? Are we to be forever a nation which is hated and rejected by all mankind? No. Dissociate yourselves from National Socialist gangsterism. Prove by your deeds that you think otherwise. A new war of liberation is about to begin. The better part of the nation will fight on our side. Cast off the cloak of indifference you have wrapped around you. Make the decision before it is too late.
Do not believe the National Socialist propoganda which has driven the fear of Bolshevism into your bones. Do not believe that Germany's welfare is linked to the victory of National Socialism for good or ill. A criminal regime cannot achieve a German victory. Separate yourselves in time from everything connected with National Socialism. In the aftermath a terrible but just judgment will be meted out to those who stayed in hiding, who were cowardly and hesitant.
What can we learn from the outcome of this war-this war that never was a national war?
The imperialist ideology of force, from whatever side it comes, must be shattered for all time. A one sided Prussian militarism must never again be allowed to assume power. Only in large-scale cooperation among the nations of Europe can the ground be prepared for reconstruction. Centralized hegemony, such as the Prussian state has tried to excercise in Germany and in Europe, must be cut down at its inception. The Germany of the future must be a federal state. At this juncture only a sound federal system can inbue a weakened Europe with a new life. The workers must be liberated from their condition of down trodden slavery under National Socialism. The illusory structure of autonomous national industry must disappear. Every nation and each man have a right to the goods of the whole world!
Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the protection of individual citizens from the abritrary will of criminal regimes of violence-these will be the bases of the New Europe.
Support the resistance, distribute the leaflets!
Fellow Fighters in the Resistance!
Shaken and broken, our people behold the loss of the men of Stalingrad. Three hundred and thirty thousand German men have been senselessly and irresponsibly driven to death and destruction by the inspired strategy of our World War I Private First Class. Fuhrer, we thank you!
The German people are in ferment. Will we continue to entrust the fate of our armies to a dilettante? Do we want to sacrifice the rest of German youth to the base ambitions of a Party clique? No, never!
The day of reckoning has come - the reckoning of German youth with the most abominable tyrant our people have ever been forced to endure. In the name of German youth we demand restitution by Adolf Hitler's state of our personal freedom, the most precious treasure we have, out of which he has swindled us in the most miserable way.
We grew up in a state in which all free expression of opinion is unscrupulously suppressed. The Hitler Youth, the SA, the SS have tried to drug us, to revolutionize us, to regiment us in the most promising young years of our lives. "Philosophical training" is the name given to the despicable method by which our budding intellectual development is muffled in a fog of empty phrases. A system of selection of leaders at once unimaginably devilish and narrow-minded trains up its future party bigwigs in the "Castles of the Knightly Order" to become Godless, impudent, and conscienceless exploiters and executioners - blind, stupid hangers-on of the Fuhrer. We "Intellectual Workers" are the ones who should put obstacles in the path of this caste of overlords. Soldiers at the front are regimented like schoolboys by student leaders and trainees for the post of Gauleiter, and the lewd jokes of the Gauleiters insult the honor of the women students. German women students at the university in Munich have given a dignified reply to the besmirching of their honor, and German students have defended the women in the universities and have stood firm…. That is a beginning of the struggle for our free self- determination - without which intellectual and spiritual values cannot be created. We thank the brave comrades, both men and women, who have set us brilliant examples.
For us there is but one slogan: fight against the party! Get out of the party organization, which are used to keep our mouths sealed and hold us in political bondage! Get out of the lecture rooms of the SS corporals and sergeants and the party bootlickers! We want genuine learning and real freedom of opinion. No threat can terrorize us, not even the shutting down of the institutions of higher learning. This is the struggle of each and every one of us for our future, our freedom, and our honor under a regime conscious of its moral responsibility.
Freedom and honor! For ten long years Hitler and his coadjutor have manhandled, squeezed, twisted, and debased these two splendid German words to the point of nausea, as only dilettantes can, casting the highest values of a nation before swine. They have sufficiently demonstrated in the ten years of destruction of all material and intellectual freedom, of all moral substance among the German people, what they understand by freedom and honor. The frightful bloodbath has opened the eyes of even the stupidest German - it is a slaughter which they arranged in the name of "freedom and honor of the German nation" throughout Europe, and which they daily start anew. The name of Germany is dishonored for all time if German youth does not finally rise, take revenge, and atone, smash its tormentors, and set up a new Europe of the spirit.
Students! The German people look to us. As in 1813 the people expected us to shake off the Napoleonic yoke, so in 1943 they look to us to break the National Socialist terror through the power of the spirit. Beresina and Stalingrad are burning in the East. The dead of Stalingrad implore us to take action. "Up, up, my people, let smoke and flame be our sign!"
Our people stand ready to rebel against the National Socialist enslavement of Europe in a fervent new breakthrough of freedom and honor.
Christoph Probst joined The White Rose late on, and was responsible for the design (but not the text) of the sixth and final leaflet. Christoph was half-Jewish (as was Hans Leipelt), and understandably critical of the Nazis. Due to his (in Nazi eyes) suspect status, and the fact that he was a married man with very young children, Christoph attempted to stay in the background.
Willi Graf came of a Catholic family and had already been in trouble with the Nazi authorities for his activities with the banned Catholic group, the Grauer Orden (the Grey Order), while Alexander Schmorell was half-Russian and held to his mother's Russian Orthodox faith.
The White Rose's first four leaflets were written by Schmorell and Hans Scholl, and the last by Kurt Huber. This final leaflet was taken by Hans Leipelt and Marie-Luise Jahn, who intended to make copies for distribution in Hamburg.
The Scholl siblings had - rather incredibly - taken part in a Munich student demonstration against the Nazi regime (the only known occurence of its kind), and on February 18th, 1943, recklessly flung copies of the final leaflet from an upper storey of the university's main block. Their arrests, along with that of Christoph Probst, quickly followed.
The Nazi authorities could not send the three young people to their deaths quickly enough. Following torture at the hands of the Gestapo, they found themselves on trial on February 21st - just three days after their arrest.
The prosecutor was the notorious Roland Freisler, but neither Freisler nor the certainty of their own deaths broke the dignity or the convictions of the defendants, which won them much respect. "Somebody, after all, had to make a start," said Sophie Scholl to the court. "What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just do not dare express themselves as we did."
The next day, February 23rd, the three were found guilty of treason and sentenced to death. A few hours later, at Munich's Stadelheim prison, they were beheaded. Those present recorded the courage with which they went to their deaths, Sophie's last words as she approached the guillotine being "Die Sonne scheint noch" ("The sun still shines").
Willi Graf, along with sister Anneliese (who survived the war), had also been arrested on the 18th, but he did not stand trial until April 19th, when he was sentenced to death.
February 24th (the day following the execution of Probst and the Scholl siblings) saw the arrest of Alexander Schmorell, who had attempted to escape, and on February 27th Professor Huber was taken by the Gestapo. Both came before the Nazi People's Court and Freisler, and were sentenced to death on April 19th. They were beheaded at Stadelheim on July 13th.
Willi Graf, after enduring months of torture, was finally beheaded at Stadelheim on October 12th. He gave nothing away to the Gestapo.
That was not the end of the White Rose affair. Hans Leipelt and Marie-Luise Jahn were arrested after being denounced for collecting funds for the executed Kurt Huber's widow. On October 13th they came before the People's Court at Donauwörth, Leipelt receiving a death sentence, Jahn twelve years at labour. Hans Leipelt was beheaded at Stadelheim on January 29th, 1945.
At the behest of Alexander Schmorell's father, an uncle and Nazi Party member petitioned Heinrich Himmler for the young man's life. Himmler's lack of human compassion is clear in his reply, reproduced here:
11.April.1943(Note that this letter is dated several days before Schmorrel's trial.)
Esteemed Party Member Hoffmann!
I have received the petition for clemency you sent on 17.3.1943, and which was signed by both your brothers concerning the student Alexander Schmorell.
I find it a very decent thing that you, as long-time members of the Party, wish to intercede on behalf of your sister and your brother-in-law. For that reason, I am terribly sorry to have to tell you that I cannot support any such pardon. I would gladly let you have a look into the investigation files, so that you could also see that the reprehensible deeds of Alexander Schmorell, which assuredly can be traced back, in large part, to the Russian part of his blood, have earned him a fitting punishment.
At a time when thousands of worthy German people are putting their lives on the line for the Fatherland, it would be irresponsible not to carry out the the fullness of the death penalty. It is possible for there to be a singular unworthy person in any family - however, it is then necessary that this person be eliminated from the family and greater community.
Heil Hitler!
H. Himmler
The White Rose is not forgotten in Germany. There are several monuments to the members of the group, and many German towns and cities have streets, plazas and even schools named for them. Memorial services and other commemoration ceremonies will be taking place throughout the country today - and we join them in spirit.
Our article has given only a bare outline of the story of the White Rose, but greater detail can be found using these links:
The White Rose - author unknown
The White Rose on Wikipedia
The White Rose: Munich, 1942-1943 - an account by Hans and Sophie Scholl's younger sister and White Rose member Inge Scholl (more here on Inge)
Sophie Scholl and the White Rose - biography by Jud Newborn and Annette Dumbach
Sophie Scholl - the Final Days, DVD. A trailer for the film can be viewed here.


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This is the card for the 5th round an Unidentified Image swap on SCS. It is a group of ladies who are a part of a bi-monthly swap where we all use the same image, sent to us by the hostess. The unidentified part is that we to not discuss the image at all until the day they are to be posted--today! The images for this round were provided Jeanette. She will swap the cards and include the next image that Linda, our next hostess, provides in our return envie. And then we get to do it all again!!!!
The image the Jeanette sent was so cute—she thought we might be tired of making Christmas cards, so she provided us with a winter image. I think this card turned out pretty nice—and I hope Jeanette as well as the others in the swap like it also.
Image/Sentiment—Darcies Stamps Peekin' Snowman
Cardstock— SU Riding Cherry Cobbler, Pink Pirouette; Theresa Collins Christmas Collage Red Snowflakes/Music Designer Paper
Ink—Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories— SU Button and Pink Bakers Twine; Cherry Cobbler Satin Ribbon
I have entered this card in the following challenges:
ABC Challenges ~ Let It Snow
2 Sisters Challenge ~ Snowflakes
Stampin for the Weekend ~ Let it Snow
Third Coast Challenges ~ Baby It's Cold Outside
4 Crafty Chicks ~ Snowmen
Craft Us Crazy ~ Being to Look a lot Like......
Christmas at Sweet Stampin Challenge ~ Winter Holiday
Crafty Creations ~ Winter Scene
Dream ]Valley Challenges ~ Christmas


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Book Flicks presents "War Horse"
When |
May 14, 2012
from 07:00 PM to 09:25 PM |
Where | Hoffman Community Room |
Contact Name | Dawn Schrandt |
Contact Phone | 563-875-8912 |
Add event to calendar |
vCal iCal |
Young Albert enlists to serve in World War I after his beloved horse is sold to the cavalry. Albert's hopeful journey takes him out of England and across Europe as the war rages on. Rated PG-13. (146 min.)


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Friday, 21 September 2012
Falling Neck Top + Tutorial link
17 comments:
Love this top. I have a link party on Wednesdays, and I would love it if you would link this and any other posts. It is called Wednesdays Adorned From Above Link Party. It runs from Wednesday to Sundays.
I hope to see you there. I am your newest follower, and I would love for your to follow me also. Have a great Day.
Debi Bolocofsky
Adorned From Above
www.adornedfromabove.comHi Diya,
You did a beautiful job with this top. I love the neckline and the colors. Thank you so much for sharing with Wednesdays Adorned From Above Link Party last week. This weeks Link Party is opened at
from Wednesday until Sunday.
Hope to see you there.
Debi Bolocofsky
Adorned From Above


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The engagement is announcedbetween James, son of Dr Janet Cowie, of Wylam, Northumberland, and Alexandra, daughter of Mr and Mrs Simon Parsons,of West Dean, Wiltshire.
Added 4 years, 1 month ago
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"You know, I've spent ten years detoxifying this party. It's been a bit like renovating an old, old house, yeah? You can take out a sexist beam here, a callous window there, replace the odd homophobic roof tile. But after a while you realise that this renovation is doomed. Because the foundations are built on what I can only describe as a solid bed of cunts."
Sometimes, it's not anyone's fault. The world everyone inhabits is just broken in some way, or badly designed so that perfect functioning still causes problems somewhere. Stories like this don't actually require a Big Bad, since the world itself comes with free conflict, but they often have one of those, too. In particulary cynical works, their appearance might in fact be cyclic and inherent to the flawed social system.
Can overlap with the incompetent version of The Government; whether this is Truth in Television depends on how cynical you are. Vast Bureaucracy is notorious for the way that the bureaucrats don't have to be personally evil to bring about horrors.
Compare Crapsack World. See also Society Is to Blame, Wretched Hive. Compare also As Long as There Is Evil, which is when supernatural evil is inherent in the world. Contrast Industrialized Evil.
— Stewart Pearson, The Thick of It
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Anime and Manga
- In the world of Berserk, between the heresy-crushing Holy See, the corrupt nobility, the warmongering kingdoms, and the evil Godhand and their ravenous demonic Apostles, life just keeps getting worse. Between those four elements, effecting change for the better is about as possible as pushing over a mountain. The Godhand and the Idea of Evil that created them only exist because humanity can't accept that their suffering is Inherent In The System. They want a Big Bad to blame for all of their problems.
- Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex mainly deals with problems inherent in human social systems. But there's also a great deal of government corruption and organized crime.
- The world of Stray Little Devil has a basic flaw: the Law of the Conservation of Luck. The Law states that an angel's good luck is a devil's bad luck, and vice versa. In practice, this means that helping out a member of the opposite species will cause bad things to happen to you, which is one of the primary reasons why angels and devils are so hostile to each other.
- In Akumetsu, pretty much all of Akumetsu's targets claim that they are little pieces in a great puzzle, powerless to do anything to improve Japan's lot despite the high positions they almost invariably have. He refuses to accept that as an adequate excuse for sparing them.
- The shinobi villages of Naruto face a constant cycle of hatred and war due to their nature. Attempts by individuals to improve the situation are usually met with even greater violence than the usual cycle, resulting in an even larger backlash. It is prophesized that one of Jiraiya's students will break this cycle either by saving the world from the violence... or by destroying it utterly.
- Pain in particular was so jaded that his plan to achieve peace was to nuke the entire world into a subsistence state, thus destroying the system, and nuke them again any time they started getting uppity so nobody would ever have the will or ability to fight again. He recognized that this system was also inherently flawed, but felt it was still better.
- Tobi and the real Madara are so jaded that they believe the only way to achieve peace is to mind control everyone into a state of illusory bliss. They have completely given up on the real world.
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The eventual demise of the universe as the entropy increases. Madoka's wish only remedies this somewhat, but it can never be completely solved.
- This is, of course, Truth in Television.
- In Attack on Titan, the way the military works essentially guarantees that the people who are the most qualified to fight Titans are also the ones least likely to ever fight them. It also ensures that the people who would be most likely to fight other humans are the least qualified to do so. Annie points out that any system that relies on everyone being a paragon of virtue is flawed.
- In Cross Ange, the World of Mana, a product of Embryo's attempts at creating a perfect humanity after several world wars, where people can use Mana, turns out to be flawed when, Norma, a mutant offshoot who cancel Mana on contact, show up, causing people to freak out. Said Norma are secretly sent off to a Penal Colony to be used as Cannon Fodder against interdimensional dragons. When their beloved princess is revealed to be a Norma and turn on her in an instant, it becomes clear how complacent the people of Mana society have become. But as it turns out, the fault of corruption lies with Embryo himself, not only because he created the system in the first place, and that it also infact uses the aforementioned dragons (as well as their leader) as fuel for the Mana, but because he has been the cause of several other parallel earths that were prior attempts at a perfect humanity, just as he attempts to do again by merging the two present ones.
Comic Books
- In content cut from the original release of Kingdom Come but included in the trade paperback, Superman goes to Apokolips; it is revealed that Orion had killed Darkseid and taken his place. Orion had tried to give the people freedom, however, after countless years under Darkseid's rule, the people of Apokalips simply couldn't bear to live without a despot. Orion eventually (and at first, reluctantly), steps in to fulfill the same role as his father.
- In Judge Dredd, a combination of an oppressive Police State government, mass unemployment, and chronic overcrowding lead millions of people to simply freak out and turn to crime out of boredom and/or despair. It is often said that Dredd's main enemy is not Judge Death, PJ Maybe, Orlok, or Mean Machine, but Mega-City One itself.
- In Paperinik New Adventures, the Evronians are plagued by this: they feed off emotions, and even part of their technology is powered by those, but, aside from the Emperor and the Imperial Council, don't produce much of it (and those who aren't the Emperor or Councillors who develop a full emotional spectrum are hunted down and killed), so they have to take it from other species. It's implied the problem is empowering so much of their tech with emotional energy, and that without it they could simply absorb little energy from other people without harming them and even feed off nonsentient species, but the only alternative they've found is reducing Xadhoom to a power source... And given that Xadhoom is a Physical Goddess hellbent on killing them all for what they did to her homeworld, that's easier said than done.
- The final issue of the reboot indicates that part of the problem is the militaristic culture of the Evronians, as when the timeline is changed with the prevention of the creation of the Guardians of the Galaxy the early Evronians, without an enemy capable of standing against them, did not develop a militaristic culture, and in present time they're peacefully integrated with the galactic society, with those with a full emotional spectrum free to walk around.
- According to The Human Condition humans are (on the whole) flawed and will always place their own sole lives above others.
- The Trope Namer comes from a peasant (or, in his words, a worker in an anarcho-syndicalist commune) in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, who criticises the rule of monarchy as system of violent oppression and launches into a tirade when King Arthur tries to assert his authority. "Come see the violence inherent in the system! Help, help, I'm being repressed!"
- Many Our Vampires Are Different films and series subvert this to take out some of the inherent antagonism implicit in such settings by making a readily available alternate blood source, leading to Friendly Neighborhood Vampires. Happens in Underworld with cloned blood (though they aren't that friendly).
- It even goes back farther than that. Before cloned blood, they fed on donor blood, and before that, on animal blood. The ban on human feeding was imposed by Viktor nearly a millennia ago in order to avoid provoking humans (a ban he himself frequently violated).
- The movie Traffic makes this argument about the War on Drugs in relation to international politics.
- The Matrix: According to Agent Smith, both this trope and Humans Are Flawed form the logic behind the dystopian design of the simulated world of the Matrix. The initial design of the Matrix was to be a utopia, but abandoned when no one would accept it and kept trying to "wake up"-this caused massive human casualties. Evidently, human beings just weren't physiologically and/or psychologically capable of living in an ideal world. Surprisingly though, this trope is actually not a major theme of the series: what irks the rebels most about the Matrix and what most spurs them to fight it isn't the fact that it uses their bodies for energy or that it's a massive lie; the main reason they're trying to free people from the Matrix is because the Matrix isn't real.
- Discussed further in the sequel: The Architect of the matrix explains that there have been six The Ones, each resetting the system and rebuilding Zion after the machines purge most of humanity. Because of the flawed nature of human beings, the second matrix was designed like Agent Smith says, but still failed. Then the Oracle stepped up and made a suggestion; human choice. As a result, 99% of the population chose to stay in the third matrix, but for three whole matrices, The One would appear and make choices that brought about the destruction of humanity despite numerous attempts to negotiate or impede their progress. The Architect concludes that a system under free will, while surprisingly effective, is still flawed because there will always be some rebel with the power to break apart the world - and eventually, one of them will choose love over humanity. Neo is that one.
- Nixon: Argued as the real reason Nixon cannot stop the Vietnam War:
Young Student: You don't want the war, we don't want the war, the Vietnamese don't want the war, so why does it go on?[Nixon hesitates. Haldeman whispers "We should be going" to him]Young Student: You can't stop it, can you? Even if you wanted to. Because it's not you, it's the system. The system won't let you stop it.Richard M. Nixon: There's... there's more at stake here than what you want, or what I want.Richard M. Nixon: [Firmly] No. No, I'm not powerless. Because, because I understand the system, I believe I can, uh, I can control it. Maybe not control it totally, but tame it enough to make it do some good.Young Student: Sounds like you're talking about a wild animal.Richard M. Nixon: Yeah, maybe I am.
- Note that in Real Life Nixon might have had more to do with the war still going on.
- Nino Brown in New Jack City argues this about the war on drugs. The laws of supply and demand will create a business whether or not the government allows it.
"I mean, c'mon, let's kick the ballistics here: ain't no Uzis made in Harlem. Not one of us in here owns a poppy field. This thing is bigger than Nino Brown. This is big business. This is the American way."
- In the movie Cube, Worth suggests this as the reason behind the creation of the titular cube. Nobody really wanted to make it, and nobody really knew what it was supposed to be for, but the bureaucracy made it impossible for anyone to actually stop building it.
- Apart from the bullies, Moonlight has nothing even approaching an antagonist. Drug addiction and drug dealing aren't glamorised, but they're not vilified either; they're treated as tragic results of the cycle of poverty that the characters of the film are trapped in. Few characters are depicted as having much, if anything, in the way of choices, and being able to overcome one's circumstances and establish a life on one's own terms is portrayed as an extremely difficult task. Despite this, the film ends on a surprisingly optimistic note.
- This is the premise of Ursula K. Leguin's very highly-regarded short story The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas. Essentially, it's a thought experiment about a perfect city, with the caveat that it requires a single child to live in absolute suffering to sustain. The title comes from those who cannot abide benefiting from such a system.
- David Wingrove's Chung Kuo series: The world is simply a big, corrupt, spirit-crushing prison for both the Europeans and the Han (most of them). The world-encompassing City was created to fulfill the promise of having as many children as you want, a fundamental wish for the clan-oriented Han society. The drawback: you don't get to see the sky and the sun, all birds are in cages, the very nature of the City makes it impossible to improve without physically tearing it down. Which in a world of 35+ billion people would mean mass death.
- Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files: A Crapsack World where humans are picked off by various preternatural predators daily whom we have no way of protecting ourselves from, are too delusional to band together or even recognize they exist, and the few people who do have said power are too busy bickering among themselves to do anything. Oh, and using an act of black magic once is tempting enough to send you Jumping Off the Slippery Slope and start thinking about using your kids for raw potion ingredients or sacrificing your friends to an elder god, among other things.
- Tom Godwin's short story "The Cold Equations" (along with its various media adaptations) tries for this, but the gross negligence shown by everyone with any authority, and lack of any sort of safety protocol kind of misses the "no one's at fault" mark.
- This is a major theme of Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure. There isn't really a Big Bad, but Jude and Sue's hope of a happy life is doomed from the start because of the strenuous moral standards of Victorian society.
- In Brave New World, it's a more-or-less irreversible choice between a brainwashed, hedonistic social hierarchy or grim, egalitarian destitution and misery. If everyone were truly equal and free to determine their own destiny (as was attempted once before), society would collapse into turmoil. Huxley himself notes that he inadvertently created a third option when he invented the islands that the handful of people who don't fit into the system are routinely banished to, and just didn't notice it as he wrote the rest of the book. He later explored this in Island.
- The ridiculously well-researched works of Frederick Forsyth leave one with the feeling that the Real Life criminal underworld is something that cannot be effectively dismantled and only small "victories" can be won against its denizens.
- This is addressed by Emmanuel Goldstein in his book in Nineteen Eighty-Four: there are three classes, the High, the Middle and the Low. Since the High is oppressive, the Middle asks the Low for help to overthrow the system, so, while the Low continues to be the Low, the Middle is now the High, and will be until the new Middle reacts to the new oppressor, and so on.
- The beauty/horror of IngSoc and Big Brother being that they have essentially locked everyone into their roles by inverting the levels of oppression. The poverty stricken uneducated Proles (the Low) have the most freedom, the capable Middle live in subjectively better conditions but as members of the Outer Party are subject to the thought police and other insidious means of control, while we have O'Brien's word that the Inner Party themselves (the High) are subject to even greater scrutiny and required orthodoxy. The system inherently steers those who crave Power as an end unto itself into the upper ranks while ensuring that the Low will never join with the Middle to overthrow the High again.
- Ira Levin's This Perfect Day gives us the choice between The Family, a society of helpful, pacifist, cooperative members who never hurt each other, because they are controlled via drugs and genetic engineering by an omniscient supercomputer that euthanizes them at age 62 simply to conserve resources...and islands of untreated "free" people which are either anarchic hellholes where the Law of the Jungle rules, or tyrannical military dictatorships complete with an Apartheid system. You can't solve the problems of the second without causing the problems of the first, and vice versa.
- George Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire is set in a World Half Empty that dramatically illustrates what happens when this trope goes really bad. It's understandable, since during the main series, the Seven Kingdoms are being ripped apart by civil war, and the prequel novels illustrate a kind of a golden age. However, many of the problems within the system led to the civil war, and other wars, in the first place.
- Very much Truth in Television, as any student of European history knows, and George Martin was nothing if not true to that with his own world.
- A Dance With Dragons is this trope taken Up to Eleven. There doesn't seem to be anything Daenerys can do with the best intentions for Meereen that doesn't make the situation worse.
- In Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles, the psychological weight caused by needing to feed off the blood of the living drives many vampires to suicide. Lestat manages to remain sane by determining to drink only from those he judges "evildoers" (it helps that he has a limited ability to read human minds, so he can pick the vile murderer or rapist out of a crowd and even hear how evil the man's thoughts are), while Louis spends much of Interview With the Vampire drinking the blood of rats and other small animals.
- In L. E. Modesitt's Saga of Recluce novels, it's eventually revealed that the amount of Order and Chaos in the world must be balanced; if you kill a great Chaos mage, another will be along shortly, and if the forces of Order build a dozen Order-infused ironclad ships for self-defense, the number (and power) of Chaos mages will increase—-oh, and maintaining your fleet by making replacement Order-infused parts will also increase the amount of Chaos, without really helping your defenses. The eventual solution is to seal away a big pile of Order and Chaos at the same time, making both sides weaker.
- The Hyborian Age of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian suggests you are born into one of two destinies: the nasty, brutish and short life of a barbarian, where only the strong survive, or into oppressive, corrupt, decadent civilization. If you aren't a decadent noble, a monster-worshipping evil sorcerer, a ruthless sellsword, cunning thief or perfumed courtesan, you're a slave or dead. And even that's no guarantee.
- A slightly lesser example, but the Deliberate Values Dissonance of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan reads like this in regards to footbinding. Tiny, crippled feet are the sign of beauty, grace, and good breeding; the line of mothers crippling their daughters in a mutually agonizing tough-love scenario is never shown as having an ending in the course of the story. It won't be done away with for hundreds of years.
- Terry Pratchett's Discworld pays homage to this trope. In Night Watch, a young Reg Shoe is convinced Sam Vines' only interest in him is to deliver a savage beating and then to hand him over to the secret police for daring to stand against the system. Sam becomes ashamed of the unintended cruelty of his reply, "Nobody is in the least bit interested in you." He expounds on this at length, as the ineffectual revolutionary Reg looks crushed and about to burst into tears. And in Snuff, the radical blacksmith Jefferson picks a fight with Vimes, the hated symbol of authority on two levels (police chief and Lord of the Manor) for exactly this reason.
- It's most directly lampshaded in Feet of Clay, with the "Sir Samuel Vimes 'Boots' Theory of Economics." A rich man can afford a good pair of boots that will last him all year, while a poor man can just afford cheap boots that will wear out in a month, so at the end of the year he'll have spent a hundred dollars more on footwear than his rich counterpart, and he'll still have wet feet.
- E.M.Forster's A Passage to India, British racism and the inability of the English and the Indians to get along with each other isn't going to go away while the English stay in control of India. One of the main critiques the book levels against the Raj is that it co-opts even the most well-meaning of the English into viewing the Indians as inferior. Also no matter how badly Aziz and Fielding want to be friends, they can't.
- Invoked and believed in by Nicholas Hunt, the protagonist of Jacek Dukaj's Black oceans.
- Beetle in the Anthill has a retrospective postscript by the authors which hints that the events of the novel were largely unavoidable. The very existence of a Precursor artifacts in the form of human embryos combined with a Secret Intelligence Service that regarded said embryos as a possible threat to humanity as a whole inexorably led to a Downer Ending.
- The Republic of Haven in the first three novels of the Honor Harrington series are forced to be expansionist and steal what they can from conquered systems because they have a dysfunctional economic system. The Solarian League later replaces them as an example: the political system has become so corrupt and useless that it's almost impossible to get anything done legislatively, especially if you're an honest politician (or planetary government), because you have to be corrupt to get anything done at all.
- One of the main messages in The Grapes of Wrath is that injustice and inequality are inherent in a capitalist society. Things like chasing off tenants from the land where their family lived for generations happen not because anyone wants it, but because the financial system doesn't allow an alternative. As a bank executive puts it:
The bank is something else than men. It happens that every man in a bank hates what the bank does, and yet the bank does it. The bank is something more than men, I tell you. It's the monster. Men made it, but they can't control it.
- The Secret Garden: Whether in India or England, Mary's and Colin's initial sickly, Spoiled Brat tendencies can be attributed to their wealthy parents being able to dump them on servants who, thanks to custom and the social hierarchy, have to just give them their way instead of nurturing or disciplining them. Martha even comments early on that wealthy children being coddled and waited on by nurses leads to them being dependent and ungrateful, while poorer children like her siblings learn early on to be more self-sufficient and appreciative of what they have.
- Karsa from Malazan Book of the Fallen believes slavery and exploitation are inherent in civilized society. His solution? Burn it down.
Live Action TV
- The Wire makes this argument in fictional form about the real-life War on Drugs, and for good measure takes on the police system, the dealers, labor unions, local government, the schools, and the media. One gets the impression that David Simon is not optimistic about institutional reform.
- In Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger, when Big Bad Agent Abrella is finally defeated at the end, he basically says that as long as laws and special police exist, there will be criminals and Alienizers, and as long as they exist, there will be someone with the same ambitions and dreams that he had.
- The 100:
- Season 1 has about half of the conflict arise from the fact that life support on the Ark space station is breaking down, and there's simply no way to keep all of the present population alive or to evacuate more than a small number of them to Earth.
- In Season 2, the Mountain Men are kidnapping Grounders and Sky People, and draining them of their blood and bone marrow for use as medicine. However, if the Grounders and Sky People succeed in rescuing their people from the Mountain Men, then everyone in the Mountain will eventually die from radiation poisoning, without the medicine to cure it. No matter what, dozens/hundreds of people are going to be killed.
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: In "Tacking Into the Wind", the Klingon Chancellor Gowron is ordering excessively dangerous missions jeopardizing Starfleet's efforts in the Dominion War. Worf soon realizes that Gowron is doing this to get back at General Martok, who Gowron fears is eclipsing him. Worf asks Ezri Dax for advice, and she explains that this sort of corruption Gowron embodies has actually existed in the Klingon Empire for a long time, and Worf has simply tried to tolerate it.
Ezri: How many times have you had to cover up the crimes of Klingon leaders because you were told that it was for the good of the Empire? I... I know this sounds harsh, but the truth is, you have been willing to accept a government that you know is corrupt. Gowron is just the latest example. Worf, you are the most honorable and decent man that I've ever met. And if you're willing to tolerate men like Gowron, then what hope is there for the Empire?
- "Johnny Was" by Bob Marley from his album Rastaman Vibration.
Woman hold her head and criesBecause her son was shot in the street and diesJust because of the system
Tabletop Games
- There's a reason White Wolf calls both of their flagship series The World of Darkness.
- Vampire: The Masquerade and Vampire: The Requiem don't have a readily available alternate blood source. Even if you want to be good, the whole friggin' game system seems designed to have you kill people, lower your Karma Meter, and generally eat the puppies. It's as though the game designers want you to be as casually cruel as possible. (They do.)note
- And then we have Mage: The Awakening where it seems there will always be immoral or amoral mages willing to use their powers for their own selfish ends simply because the lure to do so is so strong, and the consequences can be so underwhelming. This is even without considering the anti-reality filled with Eldritch Abominations which seeks to destroy the universe, and can offer mages (and other mortals) dangerous, corruptive powers to further its goals. The saddest part is, that it was the early mages' fault that things got to be so bad in the first place.
- Add Werewolf: The Apocalypse to the list. Of the three most powerful spirits in the Old World of Darkness (and mostly in charge of running it), two are insane and malevolent, while the third lacks any ability to plan and is probably also insane. Actually opposing any of the three is largely futile, and if destroying one of them were possible it would wreck the world even further.
- Then, Demon: The Fallen actually explains what's wrong with the Old World of Darkness: if you read through the Neberu backstory carefully, you'll see that the world they built was a self-sustaining, self-perfecting system with enormous potential to shrug off abuse. Then, soon after the Fall, God in His righteous fury just went and kicked the Creation so hard, it just didn't work anymore. "Righteous", my ass! And ever since that time, the world has been gradually falling apart, descending into the proverbial darkness. No wonder the Neberu hate Him with every fiber of their souls.
- Warhammer 40,000 will remain a grim, dark setting of constant conflict for two main reasons. First, the Ultimate Evil of Chaos is created from sentient beings' thoughts and emotions, even the good ones, and the only entity with a plan for defeating Chaos (through a means other than exterminating all sentient life) is a comatose, mummified husk wired into a slowly-failing life support system. Second, as awfully despotic, theocratic, anti-intellectual, paranoid, and merciless as the Imperium of Man is, its galactic war machine is the only thing that has allowed humanity to survive as long as it has against all the alien and daemonic horrors surrounding it.
- Paranoia: Alpha Complex is a perfect utopia by the kindly wisdom and matchless grace of Our Friend the Computer. Any suggestions to the contrary are treason, and should be reported to Friend Computer or to your nearest friendly Internal Security agents at once. Citizens experiencing the urge to suggest that Alpha Complex or Friend Computer is less than perfect are strongly encouraged to report to the nearest Confession Booth. Remember, spreading dissatisfaction among your fellow citizens is treason! Stay alert! Trust no one! Keep your laser handy!
- The game system itself is a meta-example, sometimes by design, but it also acknowledges problems inherent in any tabletop system and encourages the Game Master to exploit or subvert them.
- In Infernum, the reason that there aren't any real NobleDemons in said setting (Just less evil ones) is because, even if they are decent and loyal to their fellows, they still have to torture human souls to produce Illiaster, which is their only food.
- In Exalted, it is occasionally pointed out that humanity's dependence on the titular demigods is not at all healthy and has caused a lot of problems—and yet, is utterly necessary in the face of all the demons, Fair Folk, and Eldritch Abominations out for the entire world's blood, and which un-Exalted humans are incapable of dealing with.
- And yet, there are people who try to change this sad state of the world. A significant number of Lunar Exalts are social engineers who aim to create societies that can function without Exalts (this is no doubt because Lunars themselves were raped by Solars in ancient ages). Another Lunar faction seeks to proliferate Sorcery so that everyone can do reality bending without having to be exalted first.
- Scarlet Empress engineered the Dragon-blooded regime so that it would collapse without her at its center. Which it does, after she disappears. After the Ebon Dragon raped her into marriage (long story), the problem really shows because the embodiment of dickery have become the de jure king of Creation.
- Wicked is about two friends who want to become famous and change the world for the better through magic. When Elphaba realizes how corrupt The Wizard is and how he's encouraging the oppression of the Animal population, she forgets becoming his partner and instead goes on a vigilante crusade against him. Glinda, meanwhile, would rather stay in the Emerald City and try to help from within (albeit, part of that is not being brave enough to give up her dream life, the way Elphaba is). In the end, neither path really changes anything in Oz.
- Probably because under the Wizard's rule, Glinda was a powerless figure-head who's real job was to appease the masses and keep them distracted. The finale seems to indicate with The Wizard and Madam Morrible out of the way, the Grimmerie in her hands, and Elphaba's blessing, Glinda has the ability to make Oz a better place.
- Che and Eva's Waltz in Evita both follows and seems to defy this trope (though it depends on how you define the "system") with its chorus: "There is Evil/Ever around, fundamental/System of government quite incidental!"
- In The Pirates of Penzance, the Pirate King believes this and uses it as a justification for piracy:
Away to the cheating world go youWhere pirates all are well-to-do
- Henrik Ibsen's entire bibliography is about deconstructing the bad sides of Victorian society/fiction and showcasing the inherent hypocrisies of its broken systems and mob mentality. All the characters are flawed, but the system is just as much to blame.
Video Games
- Kingdom Hearts is a prime example, as the potential for Black Magic and people becoming The Heartless are a fundamental part of the local cosmology.
- The problem of The Heartless tends more towards As Long as There Is Evil, since there's no reason why they need to stay around apart from the fact that human nature makes it really hard to eliminate them. Nobodies are a better example of a problem that's Inherent in the System - they're sentient beings whose very existence prevents their Others from existing. 358/2 Days takes this even further with Xion's link to Roxas, which effectively makes it impossible to coexist.
- Shaping in the Geneforge series seems exceptionally prone to With Great Power Comes Great Insanity. The Shapers do their best to control it but never quite can, while making themselves look like complete bastards in the process. Eventually, a sect develops that wants to eliminate shaping entirely... but given that shaping is completely ingrained into the society and the first game reminds us that "you cannot unring a bell," you can guess how feasible that would be.
- Geneforge takes it a step into the broader scope, showing the many ways great power leads to great social insanity, as those who have it, those who want it, and those who rebel against it, all have their own brands of madness. The first games had sympathetic characters from various sects with understandable viewpoints based on their experience, led by crazed and callous demagogues. Geneforge 4 inverted this: charismatic and well-intentioned leaders with well-reasoned motivations leading sects filled with desperately crazed individuals justifying atrocities at all levels.
- Dragon Age, in any number of myriad ways. Most obvious is the situation of children born with magical potential. They are taken from their family and locked in a tower under armed guard for what is usually the rest of their life, barring certain exceptional circumstances. When they come of age, they must take a dangerous test with death the penalty for failure—and even afterwards, they always face the looming threat that the fanatic Knight Templar guards will execute them if they step out of line. The alternative to this brutal treatment of innocents for an accident of birth? The very real possibility, even probability, that they will become possessed by horrors from beyond.
- The worst part of it? Most mages turn to Blood Magic only to escape from the Circle. Many may have never become abominations or blood mages if they were not faced with a possibility of lifetime imprisonment, being made Tranquil or getting killed.
- To add to that, there exists an example of an alternative, with mages policing themselves. That example being The Empire where mages lord over muggles and human-sacrifice-powered Blood Magic is par for the course doesn't inspire anyone's confidence.
- There's also the Grey Wardens themselves, who undergo an initiation that frequently kills recruits — and even those who survive will die or turn into a monster because of it a couple decades down the line. If they didn't, however, the only way to end a Blight would be to kill every darkspawn in existence, everywhere.
- Dragon Age: Inquisition hammers down the "Opression In The System" theme. From the ancient elves to Tevinter to the Chantry, to the Dwarven undercities and the Qun, there is always someone trying to rule the world through the backs of their slaves/pariahs; the ancient elven 'gods' were actually slave masters who posed as gods and put brainwashing fade tattoos on their property - which means that Dragon Age-era elven culture is a tribal continuation of slave protocols. When they fell, Tevinter took over, and when Andraste broke Tevinter's back, her followers set up a martyrdom around her, turned the cult of the Maker into an official religion, and started oppressing mages everywhere because that was the topic Andraste happened to talk about the most. In all cases, it's easier to kill an archdemon and fight a horde of vicious monsters than to stop eons of oppression, so you're forced to help these oppressive governments no matter what.
- In Mass Effect 3, the Catalyst's purpose and hence the purpose of the Reapers it created is to prevent organic civilization from producing synthetic races that turn on and wage war against their creators. The Catalyst's creators believed this to be an inevitability, having witnessed instances of it while they were the dominant race of the galaxy; they didn't realize the same logic applied to them.
- Batman: Arkham Origins: At the end of the game, Joker goes into a rant about how screwed up Gotham society - and the world in general - has to be if it can spawn supervillains and crazy-looking superheroes and barely lift two fingers to try and stop them. The worst part is, he might be right; throughout the series, ten percent of the villains are actually just ordinary humans (Ferris Boyle, Hugo Strange, Simon Stagg) whose actions cause more death and destruction than even Joker, made possible by their flawless integration into society before Batman finally exposes their crimes. Terrorist organizations (Raj Al Ghul), government conspiracies (corrupt police, Amanda Waller), and gangs are Batman's main fight; the supervillains just add a damage multiplier.
The Joker: Why won't you get it into your thick skull?! WE BOTH EXIST, BECAUSE OF THEM!!!
- Touhou takes Clap Your Hands If You Believe in a fairly depressing way. Youkai are creatures born of human fear and defined by their antagonistic relationship towards humans. Nowadays people at best can wish youkai existed, but their common sense and a scientific and rational world don't allow them to do so. The solution was the creation of Gensokyo as a Fantastic Nature Preserve, and the adoption of a non-lethal spellcard system to meet the antagonism quota. Problem is, many humans have found youkai to be people too, oftentimes smarter and nicer than other humans, but they won't be able to fully get along with humans without ceasing to be youkai.
- In the Disciples series, the world sucks because all of the gods are selfish flawed jerks. The most sympathetic gods are the gods of evil because they were Driven to Villainy. A big part of this is that the creation process itself was flawed, tainting the world forever. It also doesn't help that the god who pointed this out was misblamed for it and imprisoned in hell, pissing him off. It gets so bad that, in the third game, the gods just want to hit the Reset Button on the world.
- In the Shin Megami Tensei franchise, the universe itself is broken and God turning into a despotic bastard is merely a symptom of the problem. Unless the flaw is identified and fixed, the universe isn't getting better anytime soon. Realizing this is what pushes the White in Shin Megami Tensei IV over the Despair Event Horizon, and makes them decide that the only solution is to destroy the whole thing. And, if you help them, they succeed!
- It isn't really anyone's fault that the world of Nier is all but doomed with the possible exceptions of the long dead Grotesquerie Queen, Caim, and Angelus, and even then it wasn't intentional on their part. There is no real villain responsible for everything. The desperate measures humanity took to ensure its survival in the wake of a disaster that introduced magic to the world, measures which attempted to exploit said magic through technological means, just had too many flaws.
Web Comics
- Tower of God: The climbing system of the Tower requires people to drop out on every floor, often resulting in betrayal and death. Some characters are so sickened by this they drop out by themselves, content with the progress they madenote . Other more important characters have started voicing their discontent with the system and the Tower itself seems to be subtly working against it as well.
- Girl Genius: "Mad scientists rule the world. Badly." The existing despotism is far from ideal, but before it was around there was lots of violent anarchy, and it's hard to think of a better alternative.
- Othar Trygsvassen (GENTLEMAN ADVENTURER) has a plan on how to fix it, though it's not really practical.
- Similar to the Underworld example above, in Last Blood the vampires can live off of small amounts of blood... but still prefer lots.
- In some Talking Animal worlds, Carnivore Confusion may invoke this trope. For example, Talking Foxes might have to eat Talking Rabbits to live, but Talking Rabbits have names and families too! A certain amount of tragedy is inherent in the system, but that's just how life is. Example: Kevin & Kell.
- Erfworld: The rules of Erfworld are effectively designed to force the various sides into near perpetual war. People are created for no other reason than to be soldiers.
- Gunnerkrigg Court subverts this here.
Paz: The Court isn't a big monster that does as it pleases. Es a collection of people, working to do what they think is right. And, over time, other people see what is wrong, what mistakes were made, and work hard to fix them.
- Roommates runs on two main powers the Theory of Narrative Causality and Clap Your Hands If You Believe (mostly of the fans)... which means drama can exist for no other reason than "this is a story, there'll be conflict", and often ridiculous levels of fanservice need no other explanation than "the readers want it". On the other hand, it is also a Massive Multiplayer Crossover and a different story so if the fans want it the characters can get happier lives/endings here.
Web Original
- In Worm, gaining powers usually requires a Traumatic Superpower Awakening, which as you might expect happens more often to the disenfranchised and ne'er-do-wells of the world, with the end result that villains constantly outnumber the heroes.
- The Birdcage is a prison designed to hold dangerous parahumans. It's also the only prison that can hold dangerous parahumans, and nobody who goes in will ever come out. But because it's the only prison, a number of people sent there really didn't deserve it, such as people who fell on the wrong side of the Three Strikes Law, and people like Canary, whose powers caused fatal accidents, but who never intended to harm anyone and did not intend to do so again.
Real Life
- Truth in Television: Diffusion of responsibility is related to this trope.
- Money and statism. The realities of a modern democracy make campaign contributions the best way of showing your support for a candidate, but it can be hard to distinguish whether a politician's votes win the support of elites, corporations and lobbyists, or if the elites, corporations and lobbyists' money dictates the politician's votes. And of course the only people who can regulate this system are the ones getting those contributions, and the ones with the most influence over it are the ones giving those contributions.
- I'll take Political Science and International Relations for five hundred, Alex.
- Classical Realists think that Hobbes Was Right and people are essentially bastards, so to survive a leader has to be a bigger bastard than your neighbors and Do Unto Others Before They Do Unto Us. Neorealists don't blame human nature so much as an anarchic international system where you can't count on any "laws" to save you, but the end result is a similar focus on accumulating power to defend yourself. And thus we get the Security Dilemma, where your efforts to build up power (for defensive purposes, of course) are seen as a threat by your neighbors, who build up power to defend themselves, so you have to build up more power to compensate, then they build up even more power to stay competitive. Or, maybe you'll find yourself in conflict with a neighbor not because you actually want to risk a fight right now, but because you can't afford to give your potential rival an advantage they could use in a hypothetical future conflict.
- Liberals and Neoliberals don't necessarily disagree with these core assumptions, but argue that you can try to compensate for the world sucking by fostering democratic norms, economic interdependence and international laws. Yet even if you manage to get a continent to agree to a peaceful, cosmopolitan confederation, all it takes is for one rogue state to start acting aggressive for things to fall apart.
- Karl Marx and his followers felt that human history was defined by the struggle between the working and ruling classes, and that violent conflict between the two was inevitable. It wasn't all doom and gloom, though, each stage of history was incrementally better, and after the final proletariat revolution was over, communism was prophesied to create a classless utopia. The irony of course is that the Cold War between capitalist democracy and communism ended without the two going into direct conflict, while the communist states went to hell for the same reasons the Realists are so gloomy.
- Constructivism stands out not so much for being a coherent, competing theory, but a Fourth Option. Rather than viewing the challenges of politics and international relations as something inherent to human nature or the way the world works, it posits that it's possible to change things - after all, if people made states and created the international system in which they operate, then surely we can alter the rules if we really want to?
- A lot of the defenders of the system of slavery during the 19th Century used the argument that slave labor was too inherent to the function of the economy, and that getting rid of it would cause a catastrophic collapse of the system. Which, arguably, it did. Although that collapse could have been averted or at least mediated more than it was by a gradual phasing into another economic model. Even the abolitionists couldn't come up with a coherent, practical way to get rid of slavery and deal with its aftereffects. For example:
- Do you compensate the former slave owners? If so, where does the money come from? If not, you're impoverishing people who had never broken the law.
- Do you compensate the former slaves? Again, who pays and how much?
- Where do the newly-freed slaves go? Back to working on the farms? Would cities in the North accept them? What jobs would they be qualified to hold? What about elderly or disabled slaves? Or orphaned children?
- How about sending them back to Africa? Well, the slaves were probably born in America and had no means or desire to go to a foreign country, and what would they do when they got there?
- Civil war made the answer to the first two questions rather tidy: the secessionists were obviously in the wrong, so they deserve no compensation. Instead, they owe reparations which can go to the former slaves. And the rest of it? Well, time marched on and the social adaptation wasn't easy, but even with the benefit of hindsight I don't think anyone could suggest any way it could've been done better, nor suggest that abolition shouldn't have been done in the first place.
- However, there was no such lucky civil war in the UK, and so the former slave owners were compensated quite handsomely, partially by their former slaves being forced to work as their apprentices after having been freed.
- UK abolished slavery almost 100 years before US did. Former US slave owners did not pay reparations, and freed slaves faced many difficulties; lynchings, burning, beatings, humiliation, forced to work for former slave owners due to absence of options, the list goes on. The disenfranchisement of black people continued unabated until the Civil Rights Movement corrected some of it in 1960s.
- Buckminster Fuller had a quote relating to breaking free from this, saying that nothing is gained by fighting the system, and that the solution is to create a new system which renders the old one obsolete. Essentially it's Take a Third Option, or perhaps create new options instead of choosing the existing ones.
- Studying neuroscience and psychology will hit you in the head with this (pun intended). The more you know about the processes inside a person's brain, the more you realize that you actually have very few course of actions in any given situation, unless you consciously go against what is wired in your brain. All kinds of bigotry-against nationality, creed, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, any label you can come up with-have their roots in the way a person or a society try to preserve themselves, and it's no justification for atrocities committed to fellow beings. On the other hand, being aware of how those processes work does make it easier to be conscious of when they're at work in your own brain and step back to make an informed decision rather than acting on unconscious impulses.
- Executive Meddling. It's only natural. Want your book or screenplay published? Most people don't have the capital with which to accomplish such. Things like paper to print each page with, actors, props, designers, and what have you cost money. A lot of money. Those with the budget and resources to fund anything still only have so much, so they have to pick and choose what they'll support, based on what they predict will sell the best, and those predictions are often wrong. This gives them the power to insist on modifying something or another, at the threat of pulling out and funding something else instead, and they are well-known to do that anyway. Their drive to make money often prevents them from taking risks and funding something creative instead of more of the same stuff that smashed in the first place. And none of that says anything about any decisions they make for the sake of their egos, a trait inherent in all human beings.
- The military, of whatever country you choose. As good as some of the individual soldiers who serve in it might be, its still horribly prone to war crimes, sexual abuse, hazing gone wrong, et cetera.
- Gender roles. Whatever professions, activities, or whatever are dominated by women are shunned by men, who make a point of keeping women out of their own fields. Whenever women filter into a "men's" field, over time, it ceases to bee socially acceptable for men to enter that field anymore. Many fields that were once dominated by men are now "feminine", and vice versa.


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"Murphy was an optimist!"
Making a girl's 8th birthday wish come true June 9, 2010 11:15 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Amy, Birthday, Daily Life, Family, Holiday, House, Of Being DadAmy has her mind set on a club house for her 8th birthday (tomorrow!).
The Fantasy
On Saturday morning, Ty Pennington and his crew from Extreme Makeover Home Edition show up with a bobcat and the materials to build The Queen Anne or the Spoiler. By Saturday evening, a portion of the yard has been contoured, landscaped and become home to Amy's new playhouse in which we celebrate her birthday inside.
The Reality
Saturday I build the Little Miss by myself leaving landscaping for a different weekendlifetime. Sunday afternoon, we celebrate Amy's birthday inside and around her clubhouse.
Cathy's fear
The construction will be delayed and problematic and Amy will go without any semblance of a birthday present until the end of the summer or worse.
The Wishful Desire
Any volunteers want to grab hammers and shovels and help me put this together in one day on this coming Saturday? Does beer and pizza still work in exchange for labor?
And you can bet there will be a timelapse of the build.
- 1. MOM - June 9, 2010
My dad sold realestate so go figure, as a child I thought he could build me a house outside our home. It never happened, I even drew plans. Happy Birthday to Amy. Hope her gift arrives on time.


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Note to self: Don't travel with Becky!It's 9:52pm at Dulles Airport, near DC. The plan was to fly out of here at 10:20pm on UA225, but they've got maintenance people on it now and hopefully, maybe, will have a handle on what's wrong with the plane right about the time it was originally scheduled to leave. Something about the navigation system, and since it's dark, guess they can't read the road signs below to figure out where they are. It was just a couple years ago, on a United flight leaving about this same time, that I had one of those this-can't-be-happening nights, starting with a 15 minute DC Metro trip that turned into an hour (Metro problem) and then plane issues that caused us to arrive at SFO at 3am, and finishing with Becky's car completely burning out its clutch so we couldn't make it up the grade from the 280 exit up over Farm Hill. Had to call for a tow and then, at 4am, call my wife to pick us up. Seriously thought about walking home instead. Becky reminds me that that story has already been written up in a past blog entry; I'm explaining to her that apparently the story wasn't finished, and we're working on how it ends. You can track tonight's flight home here. Until the next time I fly with Becky anyway! |
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