For a Good Read

Allow me to do a book review.

The Dirks Escape
C. Brandon Rimmer
Jeremy Books
1978

This is the true story of the journey of a man and his family as they escape from the Holocaust. Yes, the Holocaust has always interested me. It's a horrifying part of history which as horrible as it was, could happen again with the decisions and attitudes of modern culture. With the individualistic, "I look out for number one, I can't be responsible for anyone else' attitude. This book shows the past but also warns about the future. As you read you will evaluate culture and your role in it. Here is a quote from Gerhard Dirks to further motivate you to read this. And to motivate you further, I'll put a link so you can order it.

"Sometimes we do learn from history. I believe that history is repeating itself. But let me tell you something about looking back. You look back and remember things that you did and regret doing. That is bad, but not as bad as something else. The worst is what you didn't do and regret not doing--that is what hurts. You don't realize at the time how important it is...
"Such things are most important, for by doing nothing, the day comes when you share in the guilt of those who did actively wrong. You share not just in the blame, you share in the guilt, too, but that you did not see at the time.
"...the organized and dedicated minority, in the end, dominates the inept majority. You find yourself going along. Then you, too, are guilty. You always wonder, 'had I spoken, had it acted, would hints have been different?' It will always haunt you...
"The problem is like a programmed computer. A man programs himself by his deep desires--maybe he's not even aware of some of he,--by his environment, and by the sum total of all previous decisions. It is true, there can be more--but in those days I didn't know that. So, we see most people like machines putting together an answer to a questionable me the answer is the product of what has gone before and has been stored, consciously and subconsciously.
This is why it is so important in our culture here in America today, to see what goes into our young people, from their entertainment, from their education. Is there much that makes for what you might call 'standing power'? The input that makes possible a real choice? I don't think so. The things hat happened in pre-nazi Germany are beginning to happen here in this country.
"First, there is a question about how can something be right and something else be wrong? We are or old that moral absolutes are all nonsense. White becomes gray and black becomes gray. You cannot expect a computer to come up with the correct answer if you have excluded from the input necessary information. You cannot expect a young person to stand openly for what is right when everything that gives him input, all his culture, it's entertainment, it's news and it's educational system, are based on a theory of relative values. The information needed to make one stand up against social pressures, the reason for standing, is being programmed out of the young human machine in America.
It is not good." (Quote from Gerhard Dirks, The Dirks Escape pp37-39)

 If you want to order it, go here