Althouse: When Instapundit said this video is reminiscent of this other video, I was sure he was pointing at something else.

August 9, 2014

When Instapundit said this video is reminiscent of this other video, I was sure he was pointing at something else.

He wrote: "A SALUTE TO THE EUROPEAN YOUTH. Something about this seems kind of familiar, somehow."

I watched the "Salute to the European youth"...

... with growing certainty that the link on "familiar" went to the well-known "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" (the Hitler Youth scene in "Cabaret")...

But it went to this somewhat dopey but decent and innocuous video by Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher from 2009 with a bunch of young people pledging to do volunteer work and to be a good parent and friend and so forth...

That was weird.

32 comments:

Ann Althouse said...: Notice that the freeze frame on the top video has the subtitle "Europe belongs to us."; 8/9/14, 7:09 AM
John said...: I believe your comparison is the more accurate. Perhaps Instapundit's writers are not old enough to remember....the Cabaret era; 8/9/14, 7:26 AM
tim maguire said...: I figured too it would be some Hitler youth video. Then when I heard it was Hollywood idiots, i figured it was one of those "I pledge allegiance to Obama" videos, which would have worked too. I'm not watching this one, I'll take your word for it that Reynolds is stretching.

I'm a regular Instapundit reader and think he's in a class by himself in the blogging world, but nevertheless, as with Richard Posner, when you write so much on so many topics, brilliance isn't enough. Some of the claims will be facile, some of the reasoning superficial.; 8/9/14, 7:26 AM
Rusty said...: The mob. Yearning to be led.; 8/9/14, 8:13 AM
Ann Althouse said...: The word "salute" is also suggestive of something much more military and coercive... and specifically to Hitler (and there is a Hitler salute in the "Cabaret" sequence).; 8/9/14, 8:16 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Conceivably, Instapundit meant us to think of "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" and then to see Demi and Ashton and find that very funny.; 8/9/14, 8:29 AM
Anonymous said...: You thought of Cabaret too? It's my favorite musical, and that scene left me with that particular song as an earworm. It was such an obvious association.

I wonder if the people who MADE that video have ever seen Cabaret?; 8/9/14, 8:39 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Ann,

"That was weird."

That was Glenn,...; 8/9/14, 9:05 AM
Strategist said...: Godwins Law in effect.

1. Belonging to the EU may not be a good thing.

2. Defending the culture and heritage of your nation can be a good thing.

3. The effects of immigration on Britain and France have not been good.

Be nice to address these topics rather than the automatic knee-jerk Nazis comparison.; 8/9/14, 9:10 AM
The Drill SGT said...: I had one of those experiences in Germany around 1977. My wife, the Colonel's wife and I were out at a rural Bier Fest in Northern Bavaria. Near Bad Kissingen (a German training base for tank troops). The Om Pa band broke into the Panzer Lied and all the middle aged men stood up and started belting out the words.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPzTGx96P6U

very interesting and a bit scary; 8/9/14, 9:12 AM
virgil xenophon said...: @The Drill Sgt/

LOL. In the 70s we used to say that if Hitler were reincarnated 50 million Germans would reflexively raise their arms and shout Sieg Hiel! Kubrick nailed it in Dr Strangelove when at the end the good Dr rises out of his wheel-chair, raises his arm in the Nazi Salute and shouts "Sieg Hiel. mein Fuhrer!" Old habits die hard, lol.; 8/9/14, 9:34 AM
Tarrou said...: By ceding nationalism, ingroup primacy and the transmission of native culture to the political right, the left ensures its attachment to more objectionable causes. The denigration and screams of racism, the nazi comparisons have worked well for eighty years. Those days draw to a close, and if moderates cannot find an answer, the result will be a resurgence of ultra-nationalism.; 8/9/14, 9:39 AM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: Europe belongs to the old, and the dead. Check out the birth rates.; 8/9/14, 11:05 AM
phantommut said...: Europe belongs to the old, and the dead. Check out the birth rates.

Check out Hillary Clinton. (Or Demi Moore, for that matter.) The Europeans and the Democrats have a lot in common; the funny thing is I bet most Democrats would take that as a compliment.; 8/9/14, 11:26 AM
jr565 said...: I wonder how many of those celebrities kept their pledges.; 8/9/14, 11:38 AM
jr565 said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/9/14, 11:38 AM
Anonymous said...: Strategist: Be nice to address these topics rather than the automatic knee-jerk Nazis comparison.

It's human nature to stumble into the unseen abyss while backing away eyes wide open from the past. When future historians get around to studying us and asking "how the hell did they not see it coming?", I think they'll put much of the blame on just that complacent "knee-jerk Nazis comparison". Beats thinking. Or paying attention.; 8/9/14, 12:10 PM
Anonymous said...: Tarrou: The denigration and screams of racism, the nazi comparisons have worked well for eighty years. Those days draw to a close, and if moderates cannot find an answer, the result will be a resurgence of ultra-nationalism.

If I were a sincere multiculturalist, who believed in the great globalist future, or even just a self-interested Euro-crat, prudence would dictate that - given a growing native restiveness - it was time to slow down and chill for a spell on the immigration and the usurping of the sovereignty and the relentless heedless stick-poking at the natives. Just be patient, take the complaints of the natives seriously, and let things settle down for a bit before putting the project back into gear.

But, hey, who needs real governing ability when you've got botanical metaphors to throw at the impertinent natives!; 8/9/14, 12:13 PM
Lucien said...: Sorry Virgil, but the line was "Mein Fuhrer, I can walk!"

Which kinda sorta suggested that the actual commencement of nuclear war reinvigorated Strangelove.; 8/9/14, 12:14 PM
David said...: That was a great scene from a great film. One of the two or three best I have ever seen.; 8/9/14, 1:01 PM
Quaestor said...: I pledge to be of service to our President...
According to Althouse this is decent and innocuous.

Ich schwöre: Ich werde dem Führer des Deutschen Reiches und Volkes Adolf Hitler treu und gehorsam sein, die Gesetze beachten, und meine Amtspflichten gewissenhaft erfüllen, so wahr mir Gott helfe.
A lot of people thought this was decent and innocuous. In 1934.

The Moore/Kutcher video made sick and angry when I saw it for the first time. It still sickens me, but not without a warm feeling of vindication.; 8/9/14, 4:16 PM
Smilin' Jack said...: Europe belongs to the old, and the dead. Check out the birth rates.

Hee. Europe belongs to the Muslims. Check out the birth rates.; 8/9/14, 4:31 PM
WeRetort said...: "I pledge to be a servant to our president..."

Sounds CREEP-y to me.; 8/9/14, 4:52 PM
The Godfather said...: The "I pledge to Obama" video is just as scary as the "Tomorrow Belongs To Me" clip from Cabaret, and for much the same reason: The confusion of good (or thought-to-be-good) life goals with a political power. "I pledge to Obama"? How does that differ from "I pledge to The Leader" (implied, but not spoken, in the Cabaret clip)? The Europe of the Nations video is just the opposite. We ought to approve these young people's commitment to their cultures and traditions, but their views have been presented in a truculent and angry way that makes us (at least it made Althouse and me) think of Nazis.

I thank God that it hasn't taken defeat in a world war for most Americans to realize that Obama is not our savior. But we will be paying the price for our slow learning curve for a long time.; 8/9/14, 5:58 PM
Drago said...: Leftists pledging loyalty not to country but to Dear Leader.

We've only seen this basically everywhere.; 8/9/14, 8:10 PM
Drago said...: Smilin' Jack: "Hee. Europe belongs to the Muslims. Check out the birth rates."

Wasn't it Mark Steyn who said the future belongs to those that show up?; 8/9/14, 8:11 PM
Beldar said...: Those who forget the lessons of "Cabaret" are doomed to repeat them.; 8/9/14, 9:24 PM
Zach said...: The political trajectory of Germany from about 1880 to 1950 is just heartbreaking. Germany had so much going for it -- they were early industrialists, they have a lot of culture, and the average German is the salt of the Earth. But somehow they couldn't figure out how to be on their own side. Disastrous choice after disastrous choice, for three quarters of a century.

In America, we like to think of the 20th century as a time of progress. But for a lot of Germans alive at the time, 1914 was as good as things would ever get. East of the Oder, things wouldn't get substantially better until the 1990s.

Think if somebody came to you today and told you that things would never get any better in your part of the world until the year 2100.; 8/9/14, 10:34 PM
Tarrou said...: "The word "salute" is also suggestive of something much more military and coercive"

Coercive? A military salute is a sign of respect. It is a respectful greeting. There are other reasons why the SDU video is worrying, but this is pretty tenuous.; 8/10/14, 5:15 AM
Unknown said...: A pledge to worship political leaders is not only weird, it's downright creepy.

Figures it comes from the bubble dwelling commies who make up hollywad.; 8/10/14, 12:01 PM
Don M said...: The military salute, performed with the right, weapon using hand, shows the person saluted that you are unarmed, and that you trust him enough to disarm yourself. Supposedly, a knight would raise his visor, exposing himself to harm.

The person saluted returns that salute, also disarming himself, returning the trust.; 8/11/14, 5:01 AM
Don M said...: One also notes that the market is the best decision making tool we have, allocating scarce resources to the most productive resources, using price information generated through voluntary transactions, or failure to make transactions. The whims of bureaucrats in Brussels, the dictates of a political party that pretends to represent "dem deutche Volk" or feel goody activists who would like a few moments of sycophant publicity are a poor substitute for a market.; 8/11/14, 5:07 AM