PrintMarch 25, 2009
Why no 'Hitler Restaurants' in major cities?
Both Nazism and the Communism brought great human suffering to the world, killing and imprisoning untold millions of individuals while destroying many societies and cultures, before they were finally defeated. And yet, as Dennis Prager asks,
Why is it that when people want to describe particularly evil individuals or regimes, they use the terms "Nazi" or "Fascist" but almost never "Communist?"
After all, he notes,
There are Mao Restaurants in major cities in the Western world. Can one imagine Hitler Restaurants? Che Guevara T-shirts are ubiquitous, yet there are no Heinrich Himmler T-shirts.
Good question and observation, Mr. Prager; this is something I've asked myself many times because, as you note
This question is of vital significance. First, without moral clarity, humanity has little chance of avoiding a dark future. Second, the reasons for this moral imbalance tell us a great deal about ourselves today.
While he thinks both are evil to the core he offers what he thinks are significant differences affecting the perception of both. Basically, he believes, while most have acknowledged the evils of the Nazi philosophy the left still hasn't come to terms with the evil that is was--and still is--Communism.
According to Prager the differences--briefly--are: Communists murdered their own, the Nazis others; Communism, unlike Nazism, sounds good in theory; Nazism has been exposed as evil but Communism's horrors remain mostly hidden thus it still has its believers. In a certain way, Communism won while the Nazis completely lost; the systematic, pervasive evil that was the Nazi Holocaust is known, its perpetrators somewhat remorseful unlike the mostly unknown horrors of Communism whose leaders have not apologized. And according to the left, World War ll was the last good war but the proxy wars against Communism, for example in Vietnam, were immoral.
Agree or disagree with any of these differences, or think some have been omitted, Prager has performed a service by highlighting the evils of these two ideologies, whose horrors live on.
Until the left and all the institutions influenced by the left acknowledge how evil communism has been, we will continue to live in a morally confused world. Conversely, the day the left does come to grips with communism's legacy of human destruction, it will be a very positive sign that the world's moral compass has begun to correct itself.
May they both be ultimately consigned to the dustbin of history.
