"Dane-geld" was the money you paid the Vikings to leave you alone, a bit like "protection" money in Brooklyn, or the way companies give money to Jesse Jackson. It's called "legal extortion". Horsefeathers remembered these lines of Kipling:
It is always a temptation to a rich and lazy nation,
To puff and look important and to say:—
“Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.
We will therefore pay you cash to go away."
And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we’ve proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.
Indeed. And ultimately, after hundreds of years of raiding and pillage and rape and murder and destruction, the Danish Vikings, from Sven Forkbeard, to various Canutes, etc, ruled England for many years before the Norman Invasion in 1066.
My free-association to these thoughts about appeasing an enemy leads to an excellent and, for me, very influential book: Hannah Arendt's Eichman in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. I will not try to summarize all of the wisdom in this book, but one of her many points is that Eichman did not have horns - he was a bureaucrat who wanted to get ahead and please his superiors. An average schlemiel, you might say.
Part of the book refers to how the trusting and possibly overly-civilized, or innocent, Jews cooperated with German authorities. From an Amazon review by Egolf:
One of the most disturbing sections of the book begins on page 117 in which Miss Arendt gives a horrifying example that mass murders in German occupied Europe were done with the sanction of the victims. She explains that leaders of Jewish councils cooperated with German authorties in a triage effort in herding victims to the concentration camps. This section reveals what happens when "decent" people exert serious efforts to prove that they can obey the law even if the law means their own destruction. These comments are followed by similiar remarks on page 137 whereby Miss Arendt remarks, ...the odd notion, indeed very common in Germany, that to be law-abiding means not merely to obey the laws but to act as thought one were the legislator of the laws that one obeys. Hence the conviction that nothing less than going beyond the call of duty will do." These remarks partailly explain the subtitle of the book, A REPORT ON THE BANALITY OF EVIL.
Yet, as depressing as this book is, Miss Arendt cites examples of rare courage in German occupied Europe during World War II. Miss Arendt cites the Danes who in effect said that they would no longer comply with German law, and a few Danes openly resisted efforts to arrest and convey Jews to concentration camps. This is an important part of the book in that it explains what can occur when petty minded bureaucrats meet with open defiance based on principle. Miss Arendt reveals what many thought was "toughness" was merely,... "a ruthless desire to comform at any price..."
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Thinking about Arendt leads me to the famous 1974
Milgram Experiment, which demonstrated how ordinary people can be quickly led to depravity by following the rules and adhering to authority and civilization conformity pressures. Read the link, if you need a reminder. Nowadays, Political Correctness and Leftist Surrender are the main source of Peer Pressure.
That's enough for now. This isn't a lecture. You connect the dots. Or let us show you modern-day civilized, humanitarian, humble, sensitive submission - let Gateway do it for you, - in Denmark!!! - with pictures... These are not the Danes who rescued the Jews: these are the Danes who submit, by reflex, to aggression. We all have people like that.
Worm of the Week: Our Friend, Mr. EarthwormMr. Cool: Willis Haviland CarrierDane Geld, Appeasement, and the Danger of Being Innocent in a Dangerous WorldWheelbarrows and Wagons: The LeverGood Spanking
Tracked: Jul 15, 14:49