Comparison between Hitler and Stalin Essay Example for Free

Comparison between Hitler and Stalin Essay The complexity of Stalins character and his role becomes most apparent when a comparison is attempted between him and Hitler. Their similarities are numerous and striking. Each of them suppressed opposition without mercy or scruple. Each built up the machine of a totalitarian state and subjected his people to its constant, relentless pressure. Each tried to remould the mind of his nation to a single pattern from which any undesirable impulse or influence was excluded. Each established himself as an unchallengeable master ruling his country in accordance with a rigid Fuhrerprinzip. Here the similarities cease and the differences begin. Not in a single field has Hitler made the German nation advance beyond the point it had reached before he took power. In most fields he has thrown it back far behind; terribly far behind. The Germany he took over in 1933 was, despite economic depression and social strains and stresses, a wealthy and flourishing country. Its industry was the most efficient on the continent. Its social services were the most modern that any European nation had had. Its universities were great centres of learning, priding themselves on famous men of science. The better part of the German youth was serious, alert and idealistic. The German theatre was the object of the highest admiration and of imitation. The best German newspapers were the most intelligent and the best informed of the continental press. The Germany that Hitler left behind was impoverished and reduced to savagery. We are not speaking about the effects of Germanys defeat, but about the state of the nation, regardless of defeat. The material apparatus of production which the country possessed under Hitler was, apart from special armament plants, not essentially greater than that which it had possessed before. Its social services were half destroyed. Its universities became drilling grounds-for a generation of horrible brutes. Its famous men of science were compelled either to emigrate or to accept the guidance of SS men and to learn racialist gibberish. Its medical men were turned into specialists on the racial purity of blood and into the assassins of those whose blood was deemed impure. In the sanctuary of national philosophy Alfred Rosenberg sequestrated for himself the niche that used to be occupied by Immanuel Kant. Twelve years of education by a nazified press, radio, cinema, and theatre left the collective mind of Germany stultified and ruined. These terrible losses were not redeemed by a single positive acquisition or by a single new idea, unless one chooses to regard as new the idea that one nation or race is entitled to dominate or exterminate the others. Nor was the social structure of the nation essentially changed by national socialism. When the Nazi facade was blown away, the structure that revealed itself to the eyes of the world was the same as it had been before Hitler, with its big industrialists, its Krupps and Thyssens, its Junkers, its.middle classes, its Grossbauers, its farm labourers, and its industrial workers. Sociologically, although not politically, the Germany of 1945 was still the Germany of the Hohenzollerns, only thrown into terrible disorder and confusion by a tragically purposeless riot. What a contrast, after all, Stalinist Russia presents. The nation over which Stalin took power might, apart from small groups of educated people and advanced workers, rightly be called a nation of savages. This is not meant to cast any reflection on the Russian national character Russias backward, Asiatic condition has been her tragedy, not her fault. Stalin undertook, to quote a famous saying, to drive barbarism out of Russia by barbarous means. Because of the nature of the means he employed, much of the barbarism thrown out of Russian life has crept back into it. The nation has, nevertheless, advanced far in most fields of its existence. Its material apparatus of production, which about 1930 was still inferior to that of any medium-sized European nation, has so greatly and so rapidly expanded that Russia is now the first industrial power in Europe and the second in the world. Within little more than one decade the number of her cities and towns doubled; and her urban population gr ew by thirty millions. The number of schools of all grades has very impressively multiplied. The whole nation has been sent to school. Its mind has been so awakened that it can hardly be put back to sleep again. Its avidity for knowledge, for the sciences and the arts, has been stimulated by Stalins government to the point where it has become insatiable and embarrassing. It should be remarked that, although Stalin has kept Russia isolated from the contemporary influences of the west, he has encouraged and fostered every interest in what he calls the cultural heritage of the west. Perhaps in no country have the young been imbued with so great a respect and love for the classical literature and art of other nations as in Russia. This is one of the important differences between the educational methods of nazism and Stalinism. Another is that Stalin has not, like Hitler, forbidden the new generation to read and study the classics of their own literature whose ideological outlook does not accord with his. While tyrannizing the living poets, novelists, historians, painters, and even composers, he has displayed, on the whole, a strange pietism for the dead ones. The works of Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Belinsky, and many others, whose satire and criticism of past tyranny have only too often a bearing on the present, have been literally pressed into the hands of youth in millions of copies. No Russian Lessing or Heine has been burned at an auto-da-fà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½. Nor can the fact be ignored that the ideal inherent in Stalinism, one to which Stalin has given a grossly distorted expression, is not domination of man by man, or nation by nation, or race by race, but their fundamental equality. Even the proletarian dictatorship is presented as a mere transition to a classless society; and it is the community of the free and the equal, and not the dictatorship, that has remained the inspiration. Thus, there have been many positive, valuable elements in the educational influence of Stalinism, elements that are in the long run likely to turn against its worse features. Finally, the whole structure of Russian society has undergone a change so profound and so many-sided that it cannot really be reversed. It is possible to imagine a violent reaction of the Russian people itself against the state of siege in which it has been living so long. It is even possible to imagine something like a political restoration. But it is certain that even such a restoration would touch merely the surface of Russian society and that it would demonstrate its impotence vis-à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½-vis the work done by the revolution even more thoroughly than the Stuart and the Bourbon restorations had done. For of Stalinist Russia it is even truer than of any other revolutionary nation that twenty years have done the work of twenty generations. For all these reasons Stalin cannot be classed with Hitler, among the tyrants whose record is one of absolute worthlessness and futility. Hitler was the leader of a sterile counter-revolution, while Stalin has been both the leader and the exploiter of a tragic, self-contradictory but creative revolution. Like Cromwell, Robespierre and Napoleon he started as the servant of an insurgent people and made himself its master. Like Cromwell he embodies the continuity of the revolution through all its phases and metamorphoses, although his role was less prominent in the first phase. Like Robespierre he has bled white his own party; and like Napoleon he has built his half-conservative and half-revolutionary empire and carried revolution beyond the frontiers of his country. The better part of Stalins work is as certain to outlast Stalin himself as the better parts of the work of Cromwell and Napoleon have outlasted them. But in order to save it for the future and to give to it its full value, history may yet have to cleanse and reshape Stalins work as sternly as it once cleansed and reshaped the work of the English revolution after Cromwell and of the French after Napoleon. From Stalin, A Political Biography, I. Deutscher, Oxford University Press, 1949.,

Revelations of Mans Dark Self in Heart of Darkness :: Heart Darkness lighthod

Heart of Darkness: Revelations of Man's Dark Self  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚      In Joseph Conrad's book Heart of Darkness the Europeans are cut off from civilization, overtaken by greed, exploitation, and material interests from his own kind.   Conrad develops themes of personal power, individual responsibility, and social justice.   His book has all the trappings of the conventional adventure tale - mystery, exotic setting, escape, suspense, unexpected attack.   The book is a record of things seen and done by Conrad while in the Belgian Congo.   Conrad uses Marlow, the main character in the book, as a narrator so he himself can enter the story and tell it out of his own philosophical mind.   Conrad's voyages to the Atlantic and Pacific, and the coasts of Seas of the East brought contrasts of novelty and exotic discovery.   By the time Conrad took his harrowing journey into the Congo in 1890, reality had become unconditional.   The African venture figured as his descent into hell.   He returned ravaged by the illness and mental disruption wh ich undermined his health for the remaining years of his life.   Marlow's journey into the Congo, like Conrad's journey, was also meaningful.   Marlow experienced the violent threat of nature, the insensibility of reality, and the moral darkness.  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   We have noticed that important motives in Heart of Darkness connect the white men with the Africans.   Conrad knew that the white men who come to Africa professing to bring progress and light to "darkest Africa" have themselves been deprived of the sanctions of their European social orders; they also have been alienated from the old tribal ways.  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   "Thrown upon their own inner spiritual resources they may be utterly damned by their greed, their sloth, and their hypocrisy into moral insignificance, as were the pilgrims, or they may be so corrupt by their absolute power over the Africans that some Marlow will need to lay their memory among the 'dead Cats of Civilization.'" (Conrad 105.) The supposed purpose of the Europeans traveling into Africa was to civilize the natives.   Instead they colonized on the native's land and corrupted the natives.     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   "Africans bound with thongs that contracted in the rain and cut to the bone, had their swollen hands beaten with rifle butts until they fell off.   Chained slaves were forced to drink the white man's defecation, hands and feet were chopped off for their rings, men were lined up behind each other and shot with one cartridge , wounded prisoners were eaten by maggots till they die and were then thrown to starving dogs or devoured by cannibal tribes. Revelations of Man's Dark Self in Heart of Darkness :: Heart Darkness lighthod Heart of Darkness: Revelations of Man's Dark Self  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚      In Joseph Conrad's book Heart of Darkness the Europeans are cut off from civilization, overtaken by greed, exploitation, and material interests from his own kind.   Conrad develops themes of personal power, individual responsibility, and social justice.   His book has all the trappings of the conventional adventure tale - mystery, exotic setting, escape, suspense, unexpected attack.   The book is a record of things seen and done by Conrad while in the Belgian Congo.   Conrad uses Marlow, the main character in the book, as a narrator so he himself can enter the story and tell it out of his own philosophical mind.   Conrad's voyages to the Atlantic and Pacific, and the coasts of Seas of the East brought contrasts of novelty and exotic discovery.   By the time Conrad took his harrowing journey into the Congo in 1890, reality had become unconditional.   The African venture figured as his descent into hell.   He returned ravaged by the illness and mental disruption wh ich undermined his health for the remaining years of his life.   Marlow's journey into the Congo, like Conrad's journey, was also meaningful.   Marlow experienced the violent threat of nature, the insensibility of reality, and the moral darkness.  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   We have noticed that important motives in Heart of Darkness connect the white men with the Africans.   Conrad knew that the white men who come to Africa professing to bring progress and light to "darkest Africa" have themselves been deprived of the sanctions of their European social orders; they also have been alienated from the old tribal ways.  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   "Thrown upon their own inner spiritual resources they may be utterly damned by their greed, their sloth, and their hypocrisy into moral insignificance, as were the pilgrims, or they may be so corrupt by their absolute power over the Africans that some Marlow will need to lay their memory among the 'dead Cats of Civilization.'" (Conrad 105.) The supposed purpose of the Europeans traveling into Africa was to civilize the natives.   Instead they colonized on the native's land and corrupted the natives.     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   "Africans bound with thongs that contracted in the rain and cut to the bone, had their swollen hands beaten with rifle butts until they fell off.   Chained slaves were forced to drink the white man's defecation, hands and feet were chopped off for their rings, men were lined up behind each other and shot with one cartridge , wounded prisoners were eaten by maggots till they die and were then thrown to starving dogs or devoured by cannibal tribes.

How Does Groupthink Affect Decision Making in an Organasation Essay

Colman(2001) in a dictionary of psychology defines groupthink as â€Å" a collective pattern of defensive avoidance , characteristic of a group decision making in organisations in which group members develop rationalisations in supporting illusions of their own infallibility and invulnerability within the organisation . †p. 318. It entails that there is more of concurrence than critical thinking when making decisions in an organisation. This article will discuss how groupthink can affect decision making in an organisation such as school, political party and airtel (Business Company). Groupthink can cause poor performance or even failure to achieve the organisations objectives. Its tendency of seeking concurrence can for example make a wrong decision triumph (Shepherd, 1964). For instance, a cafeteria committee can change the supplier of food stuffs. If the group does not objectively consider the decision may end up selecting poor food stuffs that may be unhealthy to the students. Coon and Mitterer (2007) state that the urge to make such decisions may arise from the need to maintain others approval even at the cost of critical thinking. In apolitical party groupthink results in poor allocation of resources. For example, parties spend a great deal of resources of University Party Wings at the expense of the grassroots electorate. It a phenomenon that protectors of their group do not scrutinise critically but merely sustains the tradition due to failure to see other alternatives that could be available. Groupthink creates failed systems in organisations (Harvard business School, Online). Institutions are likely to repeat or continue of ineffective projects. Members of a group converge their opinions without objective analysis (Brown, 1965). This results in no consultations as outer groups are seen as enemies. They also feel to be infallible. A failed system is thus likely to emerge due to groupthink. For instance, airtel introduced some irrelevant airtime bundles which they had to reverse after some time because they discovered that they made two identical bundles. In a school as an institution, a possible example of how groupthink can affect decision making is that some students in class may yield to groupthink. Teachers have to note the enormous ability of students to influence others in decisions. Through groupthink learners might agree on a wrong decision or force others to agree (Gage, 1995). Learners may thus fail to grasp the intended learning outcomes. Groupthink also affects decision making in organisations in the way that solutions that are initially presented by most members are never re-examined to seek out less obvious shortfalls and strengths. They even fail examine those original points that were supported by the majority. This leads to decisions that result in costly mistakes. For example, there could be an element of groupthink in primary schools who force learners to pay money to access the free primary education. The teachers claim that the money is for the salary for watchmen among other claims, yet it is clear that that is the duty of government. The results in such primary schools has been increased abscondment let alone drop outs. Similarly, some primary school committees have decided to compel learners to be fetching firewood for the as School Feeding Programme. This costs students time and the rationality of the decision is questionable. The other way in which groupthink affects decision making in organisation is that decisions are centre around the control of one person usually a leader who protects the group from adverse information that might undermine the existing complacency. Direct pressure is also mounted on any member who might hold dissenting views on consensus opinion (Colman, 2001; Weiten, 2007). This automatically rules out comfortable participation from members there by compromising the credibility of an rganisation’s decisions. This in turn blocks communication flow which is vital in any organisation. For example, in Political Parties such tendencies lead to divisions manifested in emergency of mutinies such as that of United Democrat Front earlier this year when others went on with the Convention while other shunned it. In conclusion, groups are supposedly thought to have high likelihood of making brilliant decisions yet this is not always the case (Cartwright and Zander, 1968 cited in Levine and Moreland, 1995). It has been found that groupthink can affect the decision making in organisations that lead to poor decisions. Costy mistakes are made, objectives are not effectively achieved and groups fail to change a failing policy. Whyte (1989) points out that the wish for unanimity overrides members motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action. Thus, it can be argued generally that the effect of groupthink in organisation decision making is that it declines the quality of decisions tha t compromise the ambitions, efficiency and productivity of an organisation.

Educational Leader Effective Communication - 1157 Words

Effective Communication Scenario: Addressing Parent Concerns Standard 2 An educational leader promotes the success of every student by advocating, nurturing, and sustaining a school culture and instructional program conductive to student learning and staff professional growth. Standard 4 An educational leader promotes the success of every student by collaborating with faculty and community member, responding to diverse community interest and needs, and mobilizing community resources. Ms. Smith was about to complete a unit about the first European explorers. She decided to give her students a research project to do in the class and at home. For the project the students were to pretend that they were a specific explorer. There were†¦show more content†¦This was broken because Ms. Smith was not able to do this. The project was changed so that it was not rigorous and more time was given for a simple project. The collaboration between the principal and teacher was broken when the principal went against the teacher. This is the individual behavior. The communication was also broken between the parent and Ms. Smith because Ms. Smith may not have explained herself as well as she could have. The behavior of the parent, teacher, and principal as individuals was broken and lacked because there was a misconception made on all parts. Lead Communicators Behavior There were two lead communicators in this scenario, the teacher and the principal. The teacher should have followed up on the first conversation of the emails. Ms. Smith could have also followed up on the face to face conference. There may have been non-verbal cues given by the teacher that the parent did not perceive as positive. For example, Ms. Smith may have folded her arms or placed her hands on her hips. She may have had poor eye movement or contact and her body position may have been negative. 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