The Man in the High Castle

I just finished reading Philip K. Dick's The Man in The High Castle. Really tremendous. The ending was a bit disappointing, but I might just need to read it again, or get smarter. Anyway, the book is set in a world where the Germans and Japanese won World War II. It made me realize all sorts of things, primarily that things could be way worse. I've been doing some peripheral research and here's what I've found:

Nazi and East German Propaganda
Calvin College has an impressive collection of content, including Goebbels speeches. P.K. Dick said he wanted to write a sequel, but didn't want to do the necessary research, because it was too intense. I'm inclined to agree, maybe someday I'll have the strength to read through some more of those speeches, but not anytime soon.

The Big Lie

[Hitler's] primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it. - OSS report page 51

I Ching
I hope I will have the strength to learn as much as I can about the Book of Changes. It sounds fascinating.


And to contextualize the date, here is a quote from today's newspaper:

“The American people have lost faith in the president’s conduct of this war,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said in bringing an end to a charged debate on the House floor. “The American people see the reality of the war; the president does not.”