[CORRECTED] An Admonition from Karl Jaspers, Reflecting on the German Experience, in 1946
From: "The Question of German Guilt" (1946, 1947)
Introductory Note
At a time when we are all distracted by the latest scandal or the latest outrageous thing Donald Trump has done, it is useful to recall the existential struggle for the survival of the United Nations Charter, international law, and our current civilization that is currently playing out in Ukraine.
Just as Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime posed an existential threat to international law and civilization in the 1930’s and 1940’s, Vladimir Putin and Russia in their war of aggression against Ukraine pose a similar threat today.
Donald Trump’s lawless attempt to tear down the institutions and programs of America’s 249-year-old democracy take on a broader significance in the context of the this civilizational struggle between Russia, the West, and the rest of the civilized world.
By destroying the institutions of American democracy, Donald Trump is in the last analysis weakening the greatest bulwark that stands against international anarchy and Russian barbarism.
At such a juncture, it is useful to consider again the reflections of Karl Jaspers, an eminent German philosopher, as he looked looked back on 12 years of Nazi rule and considered the question of who was responsible and in which ways, for the rise of Hitler and the crimes of his regime.
His “Admonition”, reproduced below, is a stark warning to Americans as they seek to navigate through the Trump era.
***
Admonition
And yet, we are oppressed by one nightmarish idea: If a dictatorship in Hitler’s style should ever rise in America, all hope would be lost for ages. [emphasis added] We in Germany could be freed from the outside. Once a dictatorship has been established, no liberation from within is possible. Should the Anglo-Saxon world be dictatorially conquered from within, as we were, there would no longer be an outside, nor a liberation. The freedom fought for and won by Western man over hundreds, thousands of years would be a thing of the past. The primitivity of despotism would reign again, but with all means of technology… –
Karl Jaspers
—The Question of German Guilt (New York: Fordham University Press, 2000 (E.B. Ashton transl.), 1947), 93. Reprinted in James P. Rowles, The Rape of American Democracy: Republican Actions and Democratic Failures, 2016-2021, vii (2024).
***
About the Author
James Rowles is a former Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School and professor of international law at other universities.
He studied the history of Nazi Germany at Stanford, and has studied and worked on human rights, judicial reform, and access to justice projects in many countries in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and in Afghanistan and Russia. At Harvard Law School, he taught a course on “Law, Human Rights, and the Struggle for Democracy in Latin America”.
At the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the OAS, he worked on human rights cases involving forced disappearances, executions, and torture in a number of authoritarian countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Recent Books by the Author
James P. Rowles, The Rape of American Democracy: Republican Actions and Democratic Failures, 2016-2021 (2024). Available on Amazon, and from IngramSpark by clicking on a link here.
James P. Rowles, Don’t Be Stupid. Pay Attention, Damn It! Advice for Undecided Voters and Voters Leaning Toward Trump (2024). Available on Amazon,and from IngramSpark by clicking on a link here.
***
Support the Author
We encourage you to join the community that supports the Trenchant Observations newsletter and the author’s books.
You may sign up for a free subscription to the newsletter. But to receive all of the content as soon as it is published and to support the newsletter, please upgrade to a Paid or Founding Member subscription. To do so, click on the “Subscribe now” button below.
You may also make a contribution to help support the author and his books directly by sending a Zelle transfer to his Zelle account associated with his email, jrowles93@gmail.com. For wire transfer information (e.g., from outside the U.S.) please contact the author at jrowles93@gmail.com.
Alternatively, you may respond to the author’s Go Fund Me appeal by clicking on the last button below. The funds take one-two weeks to get to his bank account, and are also subject to a fee (2.9% plus $0.30), unlike Zelle transfers.
Please see the new description in his GoFundMe appeal. The description of the Rescue Democracy Fund is pending, and will be provided soon.
Finally, in addition to subscriptions and contributions, you can buy the books listed above, read them, and send me your comments and reactions.
Trenchant Observations is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.
Trenchant Observations is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.
Trenchant Observations is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.