Found on Twitter:
Cory Doctorow posted a
review of Mein Kampf by George Orwell. The date is given as March 1940 - which is to say, about six months after the invasion of Poland, perhaps two before the invasion of France, during a period called the "
Phoney War." While Hitler is recognized as the enemy of Britain, the review is almost matter-of-fact in tone, even when describing how Hitler's plans and philosophy appealed to the millions of (formerly) unemployed Germans.
For the purpose here, though, what's unexpected is how current it sounds. For example:
The Socialist who finds his children playing with soldiers is usually upset, but he is
never able to think of a substitute for the tin soldiers;
tin pacifists somehow won’t do.
Or perhaps this assessment of the gap between progressive goals and human reality:
... [human beings] also, at least
intermittently, want struggle and self-sacrifice, not to
mention drums, flags and loyalty-parades.
Other similarities are left as an exercise for the reader. Even if we aren't quite there yet, echoes are in the wind.
