Die Süddeutsche Zeitung berichtet von Bücherverbrennungen in Russland und dem Verbot der Soros – Stiftungen in Russland.

Beides geschieht aus der engstirnigen Ideologie, die Putin seit vielen Jahren versucht,  mit Gewalt in Russland durchzusetzen.

Damit reiht er sich ein in die lange Reihe von engstirnigen Ideologen, die nichts  mehr fürchten, als den freien  Informationsaustausch.

Im Zeitalter des Internets ist das allerdings ein eher lächerlicher Versuch, Informationen zu unterdrücken.

Ideologisch befohlene Bücherverbrennungen  sind  immer ein deutliches Signal, dass eine Regierung sich zu einer Diktatur entwickelt.

Hier ein Zitat aus der Süddeutschen Zeitung:

Literatur, die mit Unterstützung der Soros-Stiftung herausgegeben wurde, forme „bei jungen Menschen ein verzerrtes Bild der vaterländischen Geschichte“ und verbreite „Einstellungen, die der russischen Ideologie fremd sind“, warnte Putins Bevollmächtigter für Russlands Nordwesten im Dezember. Doch die Bücherverbrennung hat nun offenbar selbst die Regierung erschreckt. Kulturminister Wladimir Medinskij, sonst Vorkämpfer gegen „Geschichtsfälschung“, mahnte, das wecke „merkwürdige historische Assoziationen“.

Bei diesem Zitat stellen sich folgende Fragen:

• was ist die russische Ideologie ?
• die „merkwürdigen historischen Assoziationen“  sind natürlich insbesondere die Bücherverbrennungen der Nazis, die Hitler befahl.
  • Will  sich Putin wirklich mit Hitler vergleichen lassen  oder ist er intelligent genug zu erkennen, dass mit den Bücherverbrennungen eine gefährliche Grenze in der politischen Entwicklung in Russland überschritten wurde, da danach das Gebiet der Diktatur beginnt. Und wird er sich besinnen und eine Politik verfolgen, die Russland zu einer stabilen Demokratie macht ?
  • oder wird er sich in die lange Reihe von Gewaltherrschern in Russland einreihen, die für unsägliches Leid von Millionen Russen verantwortlich waren  ?
• was können  wir dagegen tun ? Weltweit im Internet diese Infomationen verbreiten und alle Russen unterstützen, freien Zugang zu allen Informationen zu erhalten.

Should we read books of right and left extremes and of religious fanatics ?

Yes, but we should be cautious, to read only those from one group, because they will influence our thinking, without that we get aware of it.

But if we want to understand, how fanatics think, we must read their books.

Best is to leap from one extreme to the other:

• for instance read Marx, then read something from Mussolini, Franco etc.
• read Lenin, Stalin, Mao and read parallel Hitler, Himmler etc.

And in between one should read a lot of the writings of the humanists like Albert Schweitzer, Gandhi etc.

It is almost not bearable, to read all the nonsense and the many lies, which were written by dictators and other  fanatics.

• Ideas never die and they can develop their good or bad influences onto societies and therefore we should know them and carefully observe, how they influence our present societies.

This year  the book of Hitler „Mein Kampf“, with scientifically based comments has been published.

• At the time of the Nazi-Terrorists in Germany, it was distributed in million of copies in Germany. After World War II, it was forbidden in Germany, but one could easily get and nowadays one can download it from   the Internet.

• To forbid,  to read a book, is nonsense, because that does not make people immune against its ideas. It is better, if the people read the book and understand,  if it tells truths or lies.

Of course, it is hard to read the book of Hitler, because he is a poor writer, not fascinating to read it at all.

But this book shows the narrowness of the mental attitude of Hitler and dictators and fanatics always have a narrow mental attitude.

• the main drawback is, that it is too long and too expensive. Hopefully somebody will write a much shorter version, focusing on the most important topics only.

And that explains, why they have a strong influence  onto many other people, who have also a narrow mental attitude.

• to defeat those demagogic populists, the best method is, to teach children,  already at school,  global topics, so that they develop a broad mental attitude.

The commentary to the book from Hitler helps, to realize, how many pure lies Hitler has written in his book.

• From his personal actions, we see, that he  personally acts against his  own teachings, which by the way, is common to all dictators.

Hitler titled himself, to be the greatest general of all times; history has proved, that the was the smallest one.

Fanatics always fear, that some information might threaten their own belief, may it be a religious or an ideological one.

We see that many times in history.

Destruction of libraries

• christian fanatics burnt the huge library in Alexandria ( in ancient Egypt)
• almost all documents of the Mayas and the Incas were destroyed by the Spanish occupants.
• the dictator Hitler commanded to burn books, which he disliked and he murdered  all, who distributed papers against him. ( the brothers and sisters Scholz )
• Mao commanded to destroy  the monasteries in Tibet with their libraries and  commanded to murder their religious leaders.

Fanatics and dictators fear, that people can develop an independent thinking and will  not just believe, what is told them.

Suppression of information nowadays:

• Governments try to get control of the internet ( many governments )
• journalists are murdered, but their killers are never found ( Russia )
• policemen and judges are moved from jobs or locations to other ones ( Turkey )
• even democratic parliaments vote, that the law courts and public media get directly controlled by the government,  which are the first steps, with which they destroy their democracy ( Poland  and Hungary )

How can we protect information ?

• all information, which people in power consider to be potentially dangerous to them, will be suppressed, destroyed and the distributors will get hindered or murdered.

From our experience with sciences, we know, that only the free exchange of information helps to find out the truth and to avoid or correct mistakes.

That means vice verse:

All people in power, who hinder the free exchange of information, will make big mistakes, which in the end will cause the loss of their power. But until that happens, many, many  people will have to  suffer.

What can we do, to protect the global free exchange of information?

• store important information safely at different places in the world
• collect all information about people, who try, to hinder the free exchange of information and publish the results
• never accept  the lies of governments
• important information libraries should also be stored on the moon and the Mars, so that alien civilizations, which might be wiser than mankind, can understand, why this stupid mankind  made suicide.