murdoch

Some suggestions: Timur Khan (Tamerlane, 1336-1405), the Mongol-descended conqueror of Inda and much of Central Asia, who was based in northern India: Darius and Xerxes, the Persian conquerors who nearly destroyed the Greek city-states before being defeated by the combined forces of Athens and Sparta (400s BC): Shaka Zulu (1785-1828), the conqueror of much of south Africa before the British/Dutch Cape Colony grew to power. Just a few sparks for ideas...

True enough. A Socialist society is like the Loch Ness Monster; it may exist, but I've never seen it. Marxism-Leninism of the USSR, and Maoism-Marxism-Leninism of the People's Republic of China, were/are about as pure doctrinare Marxist as the Nazis. Socialism as a general concept predated Marx, and most of the Social Democratic parties/movements of western Europe (and the trade union movements of the USA) were non-Marxist Socialists by origin. But, as this is one big digression anyway...most of the pursuit of "ideal types" of political societies (like the "pure Socialist state") is by Political Scientists. All I can say is it hasn't worked yet, most Socialist-based societies either stagnating under the burden of trying to provide universal health care and universal employment (thus stifiling innovation and the pursuit of individual betterment) or being stuck in the classical "dictatorship of the proletariat" phase, which has translated into an oligarchical (or at times dictatorial) party state which, again, stifles individual effort and initiative. I guess my point is that there's all sorts of flavors of Socialist thought, not just Marxist, but none of them has seemed to work well yet. In 1931 - 1932, Hitler made a conscious effort to approach the big German industrialists (Fritz Thyssen, for example, or Hugenberg) in order to secure funding and political support for the Party. The Industrialists, on the other hand, saw Hitler as being the only viable competition to the Communist Party - from 1931-1933 the largest political parties in Germany were the Communists and the Nazis, all other parties draining into minorities under the conditions of the Depression. Both sides approached the relationship with a cynical eye to "using" the other; to say German Industrialists were fervent Nazis is false (with a couple of rare exceptions.) Also, Hitler distrusted and disliked Big Business, but needed the money and political support they could offer. It was a devil's alliance, and both parties thought they could control the other once the issue of the Communist threat was settled. As it turned out, Hitler was right and the German Industrialists were wrong. That's not to say that German industrialists "suffered" under Nazism - rearmament and the confiscation of Jewish businesses before the war were tremendously profitable for them, and after the war started a constant stream of seized businesses and factories expanded large German concerns such as IG Farben and Krupp. However, any hope of real political influence was soon proven to be a mirage. It's a truism of Soviet historiography that makes the Industry/Nazi alliance an alliance of equals; in fact, it was just another example of Hitler using existing power groups (the Army is another classical example) in order to secure control and then gradually stripping those power groups of any real influence.

According to some definitions of "cold iron" as it relates to mythology, it's a much rarer substance; it's iron in its base form found in the earth (not produced from ore) which is pounded into shape without heating or forging into a weapon with mystical abilities. In this case it's a much rarer substance than forged or wrought iron.

Paganism was a strong undercurrent in Nazi ideology; Himmler, Rosenberg, Darre, and others were the most ardent supporters of a neopaganistic interpretation of Nazi ideology. For the most part it fell flat; more pragmatic Nazis, such as Hitler and Goering didn't pay too much attention (and ridiculed) the paganistic aspects of Nazi thought. A good work on the subject is Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, The Occult Roots of Nazism . "Pagan" revivals such as "Thing" plays and such didn't really catch on. For the most part ordinary Germans remained members of their Churches. Catholicism was persecuted to a much greater extent than Protestants; most Protestant faiths were more or less ignored, unless the members or preachers in question spoke out against Nazism (such as Niemoller.) Nazism is, indeed, "middle-class" socialism. The lower-middle-class of shopkeepers, butchers, teachers, lower-level bureaucrats, and others of that strata made up the core of the party. These people were the most threatened from below by Marxian socialism, which threatened to remove their status as "propertied" individuals, and also by Big Business (department stores, large groceries, and the like) because the large concerns took away customers (much like the decline of "mom and pop" stores here in the US with the expansion of Wal-Mart.) These people also lost the most in the Depression; poor people did not have property to lose, and those who were rich enough could secure their possessions through out-of-country banks, or owned in title enough land to avoid the ruinous inflation and depression. To these people, Nazism offered protection of small businesses, prestige for their social strata of "skilled workers and farmers", and protection from "Jewish Socialism" and "Jewish Capitalism."

Here's some good sources for Nazi ideology: Bureaucracy: Karl Dietrich Bracher, The German Dictatorship Robert Lewis Koehl, The Black Corps Ian Kershaw, The Nazi Dictatorship, Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation Voelkish/Nazi Ideology: Jost Hermand, Old Dreams of a New Reich Woodruff D. Smith, The Ideological Origins of Nazi Imperialism In essence, Goering can be considered to be the center of the "rightist" Nazis, while Goebbels and to a lesser extent Himmler can be considered members of the "left" Nazi circle. As the war progressed, Goering and the "rightist" Nazis lost ground to the "left" Nazis; industry was progressively brought under State control, and "non-capitalist" industrial programs were embarked upon by, in particular, Himmler and the SS. The point is that "National" Socialism is not Marxian Socialism by any means; the Nazis had no faith in the "wisdom of the proletariat" to guide social development. Instead, the Nazis put their faith in the Fuherprinzip, or Leadership Principle, which mandated that whomever is the leader of a particular group is best suited to decide for all members what is best for the community. It is the duty of the subordinate to obey the leader; and each German (male) should be trained to be both a good leader and a good follower. Private property is recognized, as I mentioned before, but only small holdings (shops, houses, small farms.) Ownership of large industrial or technical enterprises should be controlled by the State for the good of the Volk as a whole. In this context you can view the technocratic expertise of Albert Speer in coordinating the military production of Nazi Germany from 1943 on as an example of this approach; the owners retained the title to their companies, but the State dictated production schedules, profits, and even factory sites.

Right! A chance to pontificate at last! The National Socialist German Worker's Party was founded in late 1918 by a small group of Bavarians, mostly of the "petit bourgeoisie" and not strictly the by-definition industrial proletariat of the classical Marxian model. The incoherent nature of their political ideology was based on strains of anti-Semitic "Pan-German" movements such as the Thule Society, which in the late 19th Century rejected the traditional conservative societies of Austria-Hungary and Bismarckian Germany. It is important to note that the core constituency of these movements was what we would consider lower-white-collar and upper-blue collar: shop-keepers, clerks, and others who considered themselves above "proletarian" concerns because they owned property (small shops) or had some education, but also disliked "big business" because - wait for it - they considered it part of a upper-class Jewish conspiracy to take away their rights and property. In any analysis of the Nazis and broader Fascist movements one has to understand that they rejected the old conservative order, which in Germany was embodied in the Prussian Nobility and the General Staff mentality. Hitler considered his Generals as having no real experience of war; he trusted Rommel and Model, for instance, because they came from non-noble backgrounds. The truth is far more complicated, of course, but here are some core ideological tenants that Hitler and the Nazis believed: 1) All history is based on the struggle between races. 2) The most creative race is the Ayran race. 3) The Jews seek to destroy the Aryan race through racial mixing (intermarriage) and outright destruction. 4) Individualism is poisonous to the harmony of the racial community (Volksgenossen) and communitarianism is the ideal, where one lives for the racial community. 5) The conservative upper classes are poisoned by Jewish intermarriage and a cosmopolitan outlook which prevents them from seeing the interests of the Volksgenossen as primary over other concerns. 6) Marxian Socialism is a Jewish conspiracy to internationalise, and therefore geld, the Aryan race and to lead the good German worker astray. Nazi ideology was in many ways self-contradictory. However, the socialist aspects - the communitarianism, the distrust of "big money" and the upper classes - was a primary feature of Nazi ideology. Goebbels and others were of the "socialist" wing of the Nazi Party, and the Sturmabtielung (the SA, or Stormtroopers) was a haven for the Left Nazis up until 1934, when Hitler had the SS remove Roehm and the SA command (as well as purge other Left Nazis) in order to secure himself as the primary holder of power. However, this was a tactical maneuver that Hitler indulged in in order to gain the trust of the German Army. Hitler was in the last aspect a pragmatist. He believed in most of the "left" aspects of the Nazi program, but chose when and where to implement them in order to complete his personal control over the state. When the General Staff was purged in 1944 after some members of the conservative wing of the Staff (along with many other conservative Germans) attempted to assassinate Hitler, many of the "left" Nazi ideas were implemented; a "people's" army, state control of production, and so forth. Private property was respected by the Nazi Party only insofar as small property ownership was respected. The Nazi ideal was a nation of small farmers and shopkeepers, living in small armed villages throughout Europe which would form colonies that would fight off the remnants of inferior races (such as the Slavs.) The "National" in National Socialism was the nation of the Ayran People. Big business and the concentration of capital and production in the hands of private individuals was distrusted. As far as religious aspects of Nazi ideology, all Nazis were expected to express a belief in a creator, a God, but not necessarily the God of the Christian Church. Himmler required all SS members to be Gottglaubig, or "God-believers," but rejected members who professed membership to the Catholic Church. In sum, religious belief was vague, and Christianity itself was considered a Jew-tainted religion. Attempts by Protestant churches to conform to Nazi ideology failed. The Nazi Bureaucracy was anything but efficient. In contrast, each center of power in Nazi Germany was set against the other in a constant struggle for resources; this meant, for instance, that the German Navy fought with the Army for high-grade armor plate, which meant that the Army didn't have enough tanks and the Navy didn't have enough battleships. Hitler intervened only to secure his hold on the ultimate power of decisionmaking. His policy was to set each of his subordinates against each other vying for his favor, and the end result was a system which was unreliable. Realistically, however, each of these points can and is constantly debated among scholars of Nazi Germany and the broader Fascist movements in Italy and Spain. There is no "right" absolute answer to these issues; and unfortunately Hitler isn't around to ask. I'd welcome further commentary on this. It's chewy stuff for a game background. Thomas Spring, PhD "The Nazi resettlement bureaucracy and the Baltic states of Estonia and Latvia" PhD Thesis, U.W. Madison, 1999. (and a Champions GM since 1984.)

The characters: my character, a reformed "conqueror of the world", now "good guy." Goody-Two-Shoes hero, believer in goodness, justice, little puppies, and all that's nice and sweet. Another character, the Ninja Master, a secretive martial artist. The setting: In the control room of a bad guy's ULTIMATE WEAPON orbital platform, the effect of which is to render all weapons inoperable (remember, folks, this genre allows that.) The argument: What we should do with the ULTIMATE WEAPON. Goody-Two-Shoes wanted to use it to stop nuclear war. Ninja Master stated that it was ill-advised; I announced I agree with the use of the weapon, since this would allow us to Take Over the World (so maybe my character wasn't quite as reformed as all that.) Goody-Two-Shoes protested angrily, saying that the purpose was to stop war and make people peaceful. I shrugged and insisted that if it were used to stop war, we would be de facto taking over the world; and besides, people would then use conventional weapons to kill each other. Goody-Two-Shoes said we'd dial it to eliminate conventional weaponry. I agreed again, stating that this would take us further down the road to World Domination, but that also people would start using knives and rocks at any rate. After Goody-Two-Shoes stomped off in a huff, Ninja Master and I agreed to just blow the damn thing up. After all, it was better than having Goody-Two-Shoes in charge of the world.