I'm a stickler for many things. I believe in the law. I believe that rules exist for a reason. In fact, I have written about rules and gamesmanship before. I am a man of faith, a man of reason, and a man of deeply-seated beliefs who lives as nearly as anyone he has ever known to the creed he professes. So, imagine my surprise to be referred to today as a 'nazi', a word that is far overused and absolutely misapplied.
Back during my undergraduate days, I first noticed this trend. Everyone complained about the 'parking nazis' who ticket cars. Nobody seemed to acknowledge the fact that jobs were hard to obtain at the university, and these people were making sure that people didn't park places without permits. Over the past week, I have seen a veritable smorgasbord of posts on the internet about 'grammar nazis'. Excuse me, but has anyone been gassed for a grammar mistake? I don't think so. You see, the Nazis make convenient scapegoats for things with which we happen to vehemently disagree.
Reason leads me to question how these people justify the use of that term. I have actually met some Nazis. Not all Germans, and not all members of the Wehrmacht are Nazis. Nazis are an ideological movement that persisted at least a decade ago in Austria. Twice, I was invited in by overeager older men; twice, I was offered books on white-supremism. I turned both books down and vacated the premises as soon as I could manage it. The men I met were former SS Sturmfuhrer or "stormtroopers", once tasked with and responsible for the systemic eradication of a race. Nothing these men did comes close to the things to which the term Nazi has become associated.
Use of the word Nazi seems to be nothing more than a bit of wordcrafting. People select words in order to evoke an emotional response. We are supposed to pull back in reversion whenever the word is used and associate the guilt with anyone who pracitices the associated words. A "_____ Nazi" is supposed to be morally repugnant to us, to create a political situation, and to get us to abandon reason for the feelings it evokes. Similarly other words are selected to make a man a villain for a word whilst those who coin the term and levy the accusation "clothe themselves in odd old ends stolen forth from holy writ and seem saints while most they play the devil".
People use the word Nazi because it makes people afraid. Two of the things most feared in our world are the totalitarianism of Hitler and the economic collapse of the Weimar Republic. The Nazi regime evokes for anyone who knows anything at all about that time period an irrational fear of red herrings. Such contumelies call us to question any disparity between a man's behavior and his personal creed, which once used to simply make man 'human'.
Rules matter. Laws matter. When we ignore them, sometimes we cause others to err. So, I will stick to the rules and tilt at that kind of windmills, because I think Cervantes was right and that the world will be better for it that rather than excuse human weakness someone strove for excellence instead.
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