Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler

pledged to do so by anything except an ecclesiastical precept. Why should it not be possible
to induce people to make this sacrifice if, instead of such a precept, they were simply told
that they ought to put an end to this truly original sin of racial corruption which is steadily
being passed on from one generation to another. And, further, they ought to be brought to
realize that it is their bounden duty to give to the Almighty Creator beings such as He himself
made to His own image.
Naturally, our wretched army of contemporary philistines will not understand these things.
They will ridicule them or shrug their round shoulders and groan out their everlasting
excuses: "Of course it is a fine thing, but the pity is that it cannot be carried out." And we
reply: "With you indeed it cannot be done, for your world is incapable of such an idea. You
know only one anxiety and that is for your own personal existence. You have one God, and
that is your money. We do not turn to you, however, for help, but to the great army of those
who are too poor to consider their personal existence as the highest good on earth. They do
not place their trust in money but in other gods, into whose hands they confide their lives.
Above all we turn to the vast army of our German youth. They are coming to maturity in a
great epoch, and they will fight against the evils which were due to the laziness and
indifference of their fathers." Either the German youth will one day create a new State
founded on the racial idea or they will be the last witnesses of the complete breakdown and
death of the bourgeois world.
For if a generation suffers from defects which it recognizes and even admits and is
nevertheless quite pleased with itself, as the bourgeois world is today, resorting to the cheap
excuse that nothing can be done to remedy the situation, then such a generation is doomed
to disaster. A marked characteristic of our bourgeois world is that they no longer can deny
the evil conditions that exist. They have to admit that there is much which is foul and wrong;
but they are not able to make up their minds to fight against that evil, which would mean
putting forth the energy to mobilize the forces of 60 or 70 million people and thus oppose this
menace. They do just the opposite. When such an effort is made elsewhere they only indulge
in silly comment and try from a safe distance to show that such an enterprise is theoretically
impossible and doomed to failure. No arguments are too stupid to be employed in the service
of their own pettifogging opinions and their knavish moral attitude. If, for instance, a whole
continent wages war against alcoholic intoxication, so as to free a whole people from this
devastating vice, our bourgeois European does not know better than to look sideways
stupidly, shake the head in doubt and ridicule the movement with a superior sneer – a state
of mind which is effective in a society that is so ridiculous. But when all these stupidities
miss their aim and in that part of the world this sublime and intangible attitude is treated
effectively and success attends the movement, then such success is called into question or
its importance minimized. Even moral principles are used in this slanderous campaign
against a movement which aims at suppressing a great source of immorality.
No. We must not permit ourselves to be deceived by any illusions on this point. Our
contemporary bourgeois world has become useless for any such noble human task because it
has lost all high quality and is evil, not so much - as I think - because evil is wished but
rather because these people are too indolent to rise up against it. That is why those political
societies which call themselves 'bourgeois parties' are nothing but associations to promote
the interests of certain professional groups and classes. Their highest aim is to defend their
own egoistic interests as best they can. It is obvious that such a guild, consisting of
bourgeois politicians, may be considered fit for anything rather than a struggle, especially
when the adversaries are not cautious shopkeepers but the proletarian masses, goaded on to
extremities and determined not to hesitate before deeds of violence.
If we consider it the first duty of the State to serve and promote the general welfare of the
people, by preserving and encouraging the development of the best racial elements, the
logical consequence is that this task cannot be limited to measures concerning the birth of
the infant members of the race and nation but that the State will also have to adopt