Political Siblings

When I was a boy in the 1950’s I saw a not so old movie on TV about a young German boy taken in by an English or American couple. He was a lot of trouble because he was an unrepentant Nazi. I asked my Mother, “What is a Nazi?” She answered, “They were sort of like Communists.” I already knew about Communists.

Some time later, according to my memory, the fifth grade, but I think it must really have been later, I was astonished to read in some school book that “Nazi” was a verbal abbreviation of the German name of the Nazi Party: National Socialist German Workers’ Party. I had somewhere learned that Communists and Socialists were Left Wing and Fascists and Nazis were Right Wing. How could the Nazi’s have “Socialist” in their name? I asked my teacher. She answered, “That was a trick that Hitler used to make people think he was a good guy.”

These two anecdotes define two different models of the political spectrum.

For 80 years liberals have hammered the notion that the relationship is a spectrum from Left to Right:

Communists => Socialists => Liberals => Moderates => Conservatives => Fascists => Nazis

It was this model that makes “National Socialist” a strange name for Nazis.

The model my Mother was using was more like this:

Communists
Socialists = = = = > Liberals = = > Moderates = = > Conservatives
Fascists
Nazis

This, of course, was absurd, as everyone knew. I knew it.

Over the years I read a number of books about Hitler and the rise of the Nazi’s in Germany in the early part of the Twentieth Century. Here are some things I observed: Not much was known about Hitler’s early life or where he got his ideas. But for some reason, he valued Mussolini, who was a nonentity.

Curious, I began to look for information about Mussolini and Italian Fascism. There did not appear to be much interest in this. However, I did learn that Mussolini became Premier of Italy in 1922, ten years before Hitler came to power in Germany. He did this with a political “March on Rome” a year before Hitler tried the “Beer Hall Putsch” march on the Bavarian Government in Munich. Mussolini had a private party army of uniformed “Blackshirts” and Hitler had a private party army of uniformed “Brownshirts.” Mussolini was called “Ill Duce” (“The Leader”) long before Hitler was called “Der Fueher” (“The Leader”). The Italian Fascist salute involved the stiff up-stretched arm and a shout of “Salud” (“Salute” or “Hail”) which was used long before the Nazi’s adopted the stiff up-stretched arm with flat hand and a shout of “Heil” (“Hail”). Also, a lot of the early Nazi symbology has a faux-Roman style to it. Italian Fascism to some extent looked back on the Italian Roman glories. The “fasces” (bundle) was an ancient Roman symbol of power. The imagery of German Nazism seemed to be a wannabe copy of Italian Fascism.

Actually, it is not “seemed”, but “was.”

Mussolini was Hitler’s role model, his hero, the man he wanted to be like, back when he was nothing. It seemed to me, given this, that Mussolini should be a very interesting person to study, if you wanted to understand Hitler. But this notion seemed to be pretty much ignored. So I read a biography of Mussolini. What a shock. I read another. Confirmed. I read another. Same story. Mussolini was indeed Hitler’s role model and he copied him slavishly at first. As a minor German political figure he asked the Italian Embassy for an autographed picture of Mussolini. It was referred to Mussolini and he rejected it. That must have been a blow, to be rejected by the man you worship and adore.

Well, Mussolini was quite a different person than Hitler. In the first place, he was not an unknown person in his early life like Hitler. He was a well known and well documented person before the First World War. In fact, he was a person of consequence, a public figure. He was, among other things, a writer. His articles had appeared in not only Italy, but also Switzerland, Austria, France, and even the United States. He was a political leader of long standing. During World War I, the King of Italy found it politically wise to visit injured ordinary soldier Mussolini in the hospital.

So what did he write? What kind of political leader was he? He was the editor of the Italian Socialist Party newspaper. He was a Socialist Party Leader. His articles were left wing propaganda. He wrote prolifically for decades, much of it preserved, so what his thoughts were is not hard to determine. Most examples of his writings would meet with approval by Left Wing Liberal Americans of today, except for the parts that are so radically far left that they are even too much for them. Mussolini was far left.

Mussolini and Italian Fascism was the inspiration for Hitler and early Nazism. But Fascism was a variant of Socialism. During the World War I era, there was a split among Socialists. The first was the split off of traditional International Socialists by the National Socialists (patriotic socialists). Then later, after the Russian Revolution, Communists split off from International Socialists. Communism, Socialism, Fascism, and Nazism are siblings.

Statistical Methods in Ancient Greece

I am continuing re-reading a translation of Thucydides book The Peloponnesian War about the 27 year war between Athens and Sparta back in the fifth century B.C.

It is not all about war. Here is a story about Statistical Methods from about 425 B.C. No fancy formulas are involved, just common sense.

It was near the town of Plataea that the Persian Invaders many years before had finally been defeated once and for all by a combined army of Athenians, Spartans, Plataeans, and others, driving them from the Greek mainland (Battle of Plataea). This small but famous town was an ally of the Athenians and hence a potential target by the Spartans. Anticipating this, the Plataeans transferred their families and most of their people to Athens for safety, leaving behind a small guard. The Spartans were goaded on by their allies the Thebans to capture Plataea for them. Since the remaining Plataeans refused to surrender, the town was surrounded by a wall built by the besiegers. As their food ran down, the defenders plotted escape. The plan was to sneak out in the middle of the night, using ladders to get over the surrounding wall.

But how long to make the ladders to reach to the top of the surrounding Spartan wall? Thucydides described how they measured the height of the wall:

The Plataeans calculated the height of the wall from the number of layers of bricks. A great many of the Plataeans gathered on their own wall and each man counted the layers of bricks on the wall across the way. Although some would make mistakes, the count would be oftener right than wrong. They did it again and again. Thus, they were able to determine the length of the ladders by using the thickness of bricks.

I am a professional Statistician. These people 2400 years ago showed a better understanding of Statistical Methods and Concepts than many people today, who have to make important decisions. And this was an important decision. Most of the Plataeans got away safely, except for some who were afraid to try. Later those who stayed behind surrendered. The Spartans executed the prisoners.