Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!shadooby!ginosko!usc!snorkelwacker!bloom-beacon!GAFFA.MIT.EDU!Love-Hounds-request
From: Love-Hounds-request@GAFFA.MIT.EDU
Newsgroups: rec.music.gaffa
Subject: Re: Hitler Clarification
Message-ID: <10221@encore.Encore.COM>
Date: 25 Oct 89 23:11:54 GMT
References: <8910252146.AA27234@m.cs.uiuc.edu>
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Really-From: jdarcy<@multimax.UUCP@EDDIE.MIT.EDU> (Jeff d'Arcy)


Michael Mendelson <mendel@cs.uiuc.edu>
> ...a song that
> romanticizes, even a slight bit (as you must admit KT's song does),
> Hitler or is cohorts, is dangerous, because it serves to partially
> eclipse the totally heinous nature of Hitler's actions, and these must
> in no way be diminished.

This topic was touched on in the Q interview (thank you whoever it was that
posted it), and I think that KB's motives in writing the song are quite clear.
I won't say she was making a point so much as exploring an idea, but the focus
of the song seems to be an extreme form of the "just a man" theme.  The scary
thing about Hitler, which the song brings home, is that he might very well
have appeared quite pleasant, charming and innocuous to *anyone* unaware of
his identity.  For all you know the next person you talk to, no matter how
fair their appearance, might be capable of acts that would make Hitler puke.
Now, *that* is a lesson we should remember.


Jeff d'Arcy		jdarcy@encore.com		"Quack!"
 Encore has provided the medium, but the message remains my own