Thank you for your excellent content. It is a joy listening to. A little addition: It is interesting to note, that Bismarck actually made France declare the war to bring the Southern German states on his side.
Yes indeed. You are absolutely correct in pointing out Bismarck's superb foreign policy of playing one side against the other. Plus, it's an excellent exercise in utilizing ethnic national unity against religious affiliation. Thank you for pointing this out.
Right.. Bismark provokes France with a "false telegram" and makes France initiate the war. By this he will raise the nationalist feeling among all other small German states and the Austrian civilians who were otherwise not willing to join German Confederation under Prussian rule. They all unite under common ethnicity to fight their common enemy i.e. France. It's just to legitimize and reaffirm the unification and the feeling of belonging to one nation among civilians during the war phase.
The phrase "turn the other cheek" doesn't mean ignore when people are mean to you. It was an instruction for civil disobedience, he says that if a man hits you with his left hand on your right cheek (which means he must be backhanding you), turn the other cheek. This forces your abuser to hit you with an open palm, like an equal, rather than the socially accepted form of abusing someone of a lower class (the backhand). It therefore reveals the cruelty of it, like, they have to play a weird game where they're switching hands trying to backhand you. The same for the "if someone asks for your coat, give them your shirt" is actually not the line. It's if you are sued for everything but your undergarments, give them that as well. Roman courts had a rule that you could be sued for everything you owned barring your underpants, but imagine how weird, uncomfortable and embarrassing it is, socially, after taking all of someone's possessions, to then try to give them back their underpants. There's also a line about if a soldier makes you carry their shit for a mile (which they were legally allowed to do), carry it five, make them beg for you to stop doing forced labour for them. It's not just "take abuse forever cause you're better than everyone" it's "twist the abuse that you receive to make it really socially awkward for your abuser and force them to examine their justifications".
loved it !! Thank you !
Thank you for your excellent content. It is a joy listening to.
A little addition: It is interesting to note, that Bismarck actually made France declare the war to bring the Southern German states on his side.
Yes indeed. You are absolutely correct in pointing out Bismarck's superb foreign policy of playing one side against the other. Plus, it's an excellent exercise in utilizing ethnic national unity against religious affiliation. Thank you for pointing this out.
Right.. Bismark provokes France with a "false telegram" and makes France initiate the war. By this he will raise the nationalist feeling among all other small German states and the Austrian civilians who were otherwise not willing to join German Confederation under Prussian rule. They all unite under common ethnicity to fight their common enemy i.e. France. It's just to legitimize and reaffirm the unification and the feeling of belonging to one nation among civilians during the war phase.
Great lecture Michael - would love to see more on here.
Wonderful lecture as usual. This time Bismark almost came alive.. ! :)
Love your classes. Also, you sound exactly like the Nostalgia Critic.
The phrase "turn the other cheek" doesn't mean ignore when people are mean to you. It was an instruction for civil disobedience, he says that if a man hits you with his left hand on your right cheek (which means he must be backhanding you), turn the other cheek. This forces your abuser to hit you with an open palm, like an equal, rather than the socially accepted form of abusing someone of a lower class (the backhand). It therefore reveals the cruelty of it, like, they have to play a weird game where they're switching hands trying to backhand you.
The same for the "if someone asks for your coat, give them your shirt" is actually not the line. It's if you are sued for everything but your undergarments, give them that as well. Roman courts had a rule that you could be sued for everything you owned barring your underpants, but imagine how weird, uncomfortable and embarrassing it is, socially, after taking all of someone's possessions, to then try to give them back their underpants.
There's also a line about if a soldier makes you carry their shit for a mile (which they were legally allowed to do), carry it five, make them beg for you to stop doing forced labour for them.
It's not just "take abuse forever cause you're better than everyone" it's "twist the abuse that you receive to make it really socially awkward for your abuser and force them to examine their justifications".
🙏🙏🙏