Mark Steyn: Aside from the Hitler thing, Diana was the best kind of girl

The Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | 08/16/03 | Mark Steyn

[deroberst]

Dear Aristeides: You have a point, but I think the connections to Hitler, Stalin, and the uppermost reaches of the hereditary nobility in England, all from within the one family is unique. The Soong sisters were extremely well connected but only within the KMT nomenklatura.

[FeliciaCat]

You gotta love Brit Obits.

Too funny.

[katana]

Yet it's difficult to name one leader of any totalitarian movement who didn't come from either a priviledged or at least middle class bourgeois family (Hitler fits in the latter category).

Maybe it's a sense of guilt for everything they're given but don't themselves earn or deserve, or just that they have the time to indulge in fantasies of a utopian future, but from Lenin to Mao to Castro to Hillary it's always the "elites" or the mundane middle class who step up to lead "the people" to a perfect future.

The genuine proletariat are too busy surviving, or see no advantage in a system which brings everyone down to the same level of misery, to take any of these delusional movements seriously. So called "intellectuals", on the other hand, have no such constraints.

[G L Tirebiter]

You gotta love Brit Obits. Too funny.

A quick plug for the Telegraph's obit page. It make the registration worthwhile. They have also published several collections of 'greatest hits' that make marvelous guest room reading. Amazon has them - just search on 'obituatary'.

You can understand how such a small island once stood astride the world by reading these condensed biographies.

[FeliciaCat]

Thanks for the info!

[swarthyguy]

Points taken. But when you have a member of royalty hobnobbing with Hitler, albeit one who abdicated, my take is that there was significant support. My mistake in using 'extensive' or 'widespread'. In Germany, support from certain quarters of the Prussian and other aristocratic elements helped legitimise the Nazis.

Also, it would be in no one's interest during and especially after the war to highlight the support of the English aristocracy for the Nazis.

[stripes1776]

In Germany, support from certain quarters of the Prussian and other aristocratic elements helped legitimise the Nazis.

That support from the Prussians came after the Nazis seized political power. They were afraid of this popular socialist movement of the common people. They were certainly aware of what happened in Russia a few years before this. So they cut a deal.

Also, it would be in no one's interest during and especially after the war to highlight the support of the English aristocracy for the Nazis.

You are taking an isolated case and generalizing to include an entire group of people. That is called is called stereotyping and prejudice, among other things.

[swarthyguy]

That is called is called stereotyping and prejudice, among other things.

Well, what the Hey, this is FR.

[stripes1776]

That is called stereotyping and prejudice, among other things.

Well, what the Hey, this is FR.

Your motives were transparent. No surprise there.

[swarthyguy]

Oh, please, let me boohoo cry for the poor misunderstood aristocracy of the late, lamented Empire.

What's next, a moment of silence for Anthony Blunt?

[stripes1776]

What's next, a moment of silence for Anthony Blunt?

No, just a call for historical accuracy, not the rewriting and deliberate distortion of the past because it suits your political agenda.

[swarthyguy]

Ooh, you used the word agenda! Then you must be right.

Stop whitewashing the English nobility. What's with this bloody infatuation with the dissolute fops and upper class twits anyway?

Read some PG Wodehouse.