Henri Lefebvre: A Critical Introduction - autonomous learning

8
Mystified Consciousness
To have slaves is nothing; but what is intolerable is to have
slaves and to call them citizens.
—Denis Diderot, L’encyclopédie
At the beginning of 2005, a headline in the New York Times grabbed
my attention: “Lessons, from Hitler’s Germany, on the Perils of
Religion” (January 15, 2005). The article recounted a speech given
to a startled audience at the Leo Baeck Institute by historian Fritz
Stern, professor emeritus at Columbia University. Stern warned
of the dangers posed to the United States (and the world) by the
rise of the Christian Right and reminded listeners that “Hitler saw
himself as the instrument of providence.” In the 1930s, said Stern,
“some people recognized the moral perils of mixing religion and
politics, but many more were seduced by it. It was the pseudo-religious
transfiguration of politics that largely ensured his success.”
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