Simone Weil predicted Nazism’s aesthetic appeal would beat socialism

Evidence

The revolutionary potential of the situation was clear, but it was anyone’s guess which way it would go: to the Communists or to Hitler’s Nazis. Weil hoped it would be to the left, but she feared that, in desperate times, the severe uniforms and regimentation of the Nazi rallies would have more appeal than vague socialist dreams of equality. She was right. On 30 January 1933, a weak coalition government headed by President Paul von Hindenburg gave in to pressure and appointed Adolf Hitler as chancellor. Once a fringe figure of ridicule, Hitler now controlled the country and all its resources. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 254

Categorization

• SEED: Weil’s insight that decisive uniforms and regimentation out-compete ‘vague socialist dreams of equality’ is a powerful lens for analyzing modern aesthetic politics and propaganda.
• FICTION: Setting for a story: a philosopher visiting a collapsing country in 1932, reading the tea leaves of its slide into barbarism.
• XREF: connects to: Simone Weil reported German penury was destroying society’s fabric — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 253; Nazi rule affirmed capitalism rather than superseding it — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 510; An authoritarian personality could be publicly socialist yet convert readily to Nazism

Broader Connections

• Simone Weil reported German penury was destroying society’s fabric #responds-to (0.80) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 253
• An authoritarian personality could be publicly socialist yet convert readily to Nazism #corroborates (0.80)
• Nazi rule affirmed capitalism rather than superseding it #qualifies (0.75) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 510