Taking a Stand

​Taking a Stand
I was watching a show on tv before as you do (as I do anyway).  It was on the National Geographic channel, about the Hitler Youth.  It showed 1,000nds and 1,000nds of youth dressed in uniform and doing the Nazi salute.
I must admit I look at that and ask how could that be?  Today I found out how it was done.  It is not like the allegiance was there all the time just waiting to be manifested.  It was done incredibly subtly.
Apparently youth groups were common.  There was Catholic youth and Communist youth.  Hitler youth was just another youth group.  What they did though was, initially they just offered the youth something that was good fun.  Things like country youth camps and going to the movies.  Many kids did not experience this sort of thing, being too poor.  If they were to go to the movies with the group, they needed to earn their ticket, and that helped their self-esteem big time.
Soon they all had their own uniform which took away any sense of the haves and have nots.  They were all the same when they all dressed the same.  They ended up singing hymns to Hitler which contained words which showed hatred of Jews, and emphasised Jews leaving and what they should do to them to avoid them coming back.
They would have never sung such things initially.  But as with all brain washing techniques, what started innocently enough ended vilely with the perpetrators not giving it a second thought.
So often I look at such things and think, “how could they?”  Yet the alternative makes the choice easier.  And often it is unknown where I will end up.  I remember the “Children of God” trying to recruit me.  They seemed to say and do all the right things.  It was only when someone was entrenched in the movement, it became obvious where they stood.  I am so glad I did not go down that road.
It was something that was said towards the end that got my attention.  Hitler had lost and one of the youths declared how that could not be.  The elder person said to him “sometimes truth requires more courage than a lie.”
I do think there is a measure of truth in that.  I just know how much easier it is to go with the flow.  To do something because “everyone else is doing it.”  It is amazing how often what everyone else is doing is not good for them or anyone else.
Not doing what everyone else is doing can be costly.  Apparently, there were Nazi’s watching at the school gate.  If a person failed to do the Nazi salute, they received a firm clip over the ear.  According to someone who was a kid then, a person did not fail to do the Nazi salute again. 
Taking a stand can leave a person friendless.  That is a good outcome if they are lucky.  At worst it could cost a person their life.  All over the world taking a stand costs people their lives.
But it does not even need to be that bad.  So often I want to be “one of the crowd.”  I want to be part of the group.  To be accepted.  I am not alone.  Numbers want that.  A trickle becomes a stream, becomes a river, becomes a torrent.
To take a stand can be a lonely place.  But it is a good place.  It helps with sleep.  If the cost is worth it, it is worth it.