On history and the convenience of memory

Once in awhile you discover something about an old song that you never knew, something that inspires you to think about it a little more, or perhaps a lot more. I really like Dave Matthews' Some Devil album, but I don't listen to it all that often, as it can be rather depressing. Today, though, I got it out. As I put the CD into my computer, I noticed some jacket notes under the spot where the CD goes. One of the notes discusses the source of inspiration for the first track, Dodo:

Some years ago I was visiting a friend of mine on the coast of Maine. In his house, there was a collection of old National Geographic magazines, some as old as the nineteen-thirties. It was interesting to see how popular American culture viewed Adolf Hitler before the full fury of World War II. The view was quite favorable. It's strange how things change.

Germans have had to deal with the shame of Hitler's legacy for more than sixty years, while the rest of the world, partially thanks to the Hollywood obsession with the Nazis, equated Germany with the swastika, even as another brutal form of government oppressed many of the German people. However, like Dave says, we forget, either conveniently or shamefully, that Adolf Hitler was a popular person during his rise to power, not only in Germany, but across the world. He was especially favored by the global business community; indeed, his policies toward business were so favored by some businessmen that many continued to do business with German companies throughout the entire war, businessmen like Prescott Bush, Dubya's granddaddy, and Henry Ford. Now that's treason.

If you mention these truths to a certain type of American, they look at you in horror, like you support the Nazis yourself. Somehow in American popular culture, facts have become subjective, and the quest for knowledge has become something only "elitists" do. Our system of education has fallen into decay, our schools are crumbling, our playgrounds are war zones. University has become a place where you go to drink beer and get a job rather than an education, and if a fact contradicts your belief system, well then, that fact is simply wrong.

Dave sums it up well in Dodo:

Once upon a time
When the world was just a pancake
Fears would arise
That if you went too far you’d fall
But with the passage of time
It all became more of a ball.
We’re as sure of that
As we all once were when the world was flat

So I wonder this
As life billows smoke inside my head
This little game where nothing is sure, oh
Why would you play by the rules?
Who did, you did, you
Who did, you did, you

When was she killed
The very last dodo bird
And was she aware
She was the very last one

If all the things that you are saying love
Were true enough but still
What is all the worrying about
When you can work it out
When you can work it

Cross-posted at Rox Politix.