juju

Just a point of historical clarification though, degeneration theory is much older than nazism: it originated in Enlightenment philosophical theories about society and nature, with some significant points of crystallization in the late 18th century by Immanuel Kant, mid-19th century by Benedict Morel, and by Max Nordau in 1892.

The Nazis were a PRODUCT of the prestige philosophy that believed in racial degeneration, the ideas that led to genocide were current throughout Europe and the Americas and were used to justify colonial genocides throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

I think it’s important to understand how deeply rooted this is in European philosophy and social theory because it helps counter the idea that Nazism was some kind of unique aberration. If we recognize the patterns that gave rise to it we have a better chance of responding effectively to those patterns

Portaui lacrimis madidus te, nostra catella,

     Quod feci lustris laetior ante tribus.

Ergo mihi, Patrice, iam non dabis oscula mille

     Nec poteris collo grata cubare meo.

Tristis marmorea posui te sede merentem

     Et iunxi semper manib(us) ipse meis

Morib(us) argutis hominem simulare paratam,

     Perdidimus quales hei mihi delicias.

Tu, dulcis Patrice, nostras attingere mensas

    Consueras, gremio poscere blanda cibos,

Lambere tu calicem lingua rapiente solebas,

     Quem tibi saepe meae sustinuere manus,

Accipere et lassum cauda gaudente frequenter

And here’s my translation:

Wet with tears I have carried you, our little (female) dog, just as I did in happier times fifteen years earlier (lit. “three periods of five years).  For myself, Patrice, now you will not give me a thousand kisses nor will you be able to lie lovingly around/against my neck.  I have sorrowfully placed you, merit-worthy, in a marble tomb and I have joined you always to myself in death, as by your cleverness you matched a human.  Alas, we lost such pleasures for myself!  You, sweet Patrice, were accustomed to join us at our table, to beg charmingly for food (while sitting in our) laps.  You were in the habit of greedily licking our cups with your tongue, which my hands often held for you.  Frequently and joyfully (you) receive a weary one with your (wagging) tail...