Valkyrie, Socrates, and You, Part I

If you haven’t yet seen Valkyrie, the Tom Cruise film about the best-known of the fifteen or so plots to kill Adolf Hitler, it’s worth the general discomfort of a trip to your nearby overpriced popcorn and candy store (a.k.a. “theater”). Better yet, you can wait a few weeks, get it on DVD, and make your own popcorn.

Hollywood often comes up short when making films based on novels or true stories. Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities was a classic example of this. If you read the novel, then saw the film, you had to be disappointed.

One of the reasons that filmmakers fail when attempting to recreate novels and true stories on celluloid is that they almost always add a little schmaltz to the mix. The other is that they seem to believe subtlety is a virtue, which can make it difficult to follow the plot.

I had no problem on that score with Valkyrie, but only because I had seen The History Channel’s recent documentary Valkyrie: The Plot to Kill Hitler. In the event you saw this splendid presentation, I can tell you, in advance, that the movie doesn’t live up to it.

What I especially liked about the documentary was the part that began where the film left off. After Col. Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise) and his co-conspirators were captured and executed, The History Channel went on to discuss their posthumous evolution from traitors to heroes in thought-provoking detail.

Hitler, in his best propagandist mode, referred to the Valkyrie plotters as “a tiny clique of criminally stupid officers.” His denunciations were heard loud and clear throughout Germany, and if there’s one thing we know about human beings, most of them, sadly, tend to believe whatever those in power tell them.

Thus, for many years after their executions, the conspirators were viewed by the general public as traitors. However, as Germany settled into becoming a civilized society, it slowly came to grips with the monstrous crimes Hitler and the Nazis had committed. As a result, public sentiments about the plot shifted dramatically and the men involved in it were increasingly viewed as heroes.

Ultimately, the Bendlerblock building in Berlin, where Hitler had the conspirators executed, became a national memorial site. Today, the inscription on the symbolic statue in the courtyard of the building reads: “Here in the former Army High Command, Germans organized the attempt to overthrow the lawless National Socialist regime on July 20, 1944. For this they sacrificed their lives.”

It’s too bad the movie left all this out, because there are several major messages here. First and foremost, whether one is a traitor (or “terrorist”) or a patriot (or hero) is very much determined by time and circumstances. Hitler had nearly a year to ingrain in the minds of his subjects the belief that von Stauffenberg and his cohorts were traitors of the worst kind.

So, to me, the most inspiring part of the Valkyrie story is that, in the end, truth prevailed: Hitler was reviled by the masses, and those who tried to overthrow him were (and are) looked upon as patriots and heroes.

Perhaps the Valkyrie conspirators were well versed in the life of Socrates. To the bitter end, Socrates never retracted his unpopular statements. And to the bitter end, the Valkyrie heroes never wavered in their determination to put an end to Hitler’s madness.

But history has a nasty habit of repeating itself. Today, Germans, like their counterparts in the U.S., have once again become “sheeple.” Instead of Patrick Henry’s rallying cry of “Give me liberty or give me death,” the only thing on their minds is “Give me!”

And when the tax-producing productivity and the borrowing capacity of a nation can no longer meet all of the sheeple’s demands, the gate swings open for the next Il Duce or Fuhrer to enter. Why? Because then there is only one “solution”: Running the fiat-currency printing presses overtime.

As suicidal government practices continue to destroy what’s left of the U.S. economy, intrude on our liberties, and forever change our cultural landscape, look for words like traitor and unpatriotic to become more and more popular. Our benevolent new vice president has already made it clear that paying taxes is patriotic. From which one is forced to conclude that anyone who believes taxes should be lower is unpatriotic.

Which makes just about everything a target in the traitor game:

• Will you be considered a traitor if you’re against handing over a portion of your earnings to autoworkers so they can remain employed for a while longer?
• Will you be considered a traitor if you’re against the government’s launching another unprovoked war?
• Will you be considered a traitor if you speak out against the possibility of Congress implementing another “Fairness Doctrine”?

Answer: Most probably. But the Valkyrie segment of your brain should never forget that one man’s traitor is another man’s patriot. All liberty lovers should keep this in mind as the rhetoric and name calling heat up in the months and years ahead.

In Part II of this article, I’m going to change gears and discuss how the valor of the Valkyrie heroes can be applied on a much more personal level.