Philocrites

Schwarzenegger for enlightened despot?

by Philocrites

So that's what Arnold Schwarzenegger admired about Adolf Hitler (NY Times, reg req'd):

In many ways I admired people — It depends for what. I admired Hitler for instance because he came from being a little man with almost no formal education, up to power. And I admire him for being such a good public speaker and for his way of getting to the people and so on. But I didn't admire him for what he did with it. It is very hard to say who I admired and who are my heroes. And I admired basically people who are powerful people, like Kennedy. Who people listen to and just wait until he comes out with telling them what to do. People like that I admire a lot.

But the print edition of the New York Times this morning includes several paragraphs I can't find on-line, including these passages from the transcripts of the "Pumping Iron" interviews released by the Schwarzenegger campaign:

Elsewhere in the transcript, Mr. Schwarzenegger said, "We can't live without authority. Because I feel that a certain amount of people who were meant to do this and control, and a large amount, like 95 percent of the people who we have to tell what to do and how to keep order. That is why I am all for it."

Mr. Schwarzenegger also reflected on the use of power in Germany during the war. "Yes, in Germany they used power and authority but it was used in the wrong way," Mr. Schwarzenegger said. But he added, "I feel if you want to create a strong nation and a strong country you cannot let everybody be an individual, because everybody has his own opinions and you can't just stick together as a strong nation. Then you have to tell people what to do and you can't just let them float away. In Germany there was a lot of unity. The German soldiers were the best, and with the police force and everything."

Still he said, "It was misused on the power. First, it started having, I mean, getting Germany out of the great recession and having everybody jobs and so on and then it was just misused. And they said, let's take this country, and let's wipe out this country, and let's wipe out whole Europe, and let's get America, and so on. That's bad."

Asked what system of government he preferred, Mr. Schwarzenegger said, "America," but he continued: 'Except there's only one thing I don't like here and that people go on their own little trips too much. The unity isn't there anymore. And I don't think it's too much the people's fault. I think it's because we don't have a strong leader here."

Well that clear everything up! We might even have Schwarzenegger's economic plan in its germinal form. Schwarzenegger is running for Strong Man, not governor of a democratic republic.

Copyright © 2003 by Philocrites | Posted 4 October 2003 at 9:34 AM

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