Mein Kampf
undone.
Now Fate itself seemed to point my way. I would never have joined one of the existing large parties, and shall give my reasons in more detail later. This ridiculous little creation with its handful of members had, I felt, one advantage in that it had not yet hardened into an “organization,” but still gave the individual a chance for really personal activity. Here a man could still work, and the smaller the movement was, the greater the likelihood of getting it into the right shape. Here substance, goal and path could still be determined, which was out of the question from the start with the existing big parties.
The longer I tried to reflect, the more I became convinced that a small movement just such as this might be used to pave the way for the revival of the nation—but never one of the parliamentary political parties, which clung far too tightly to old ideas, or even profited in the new regime. For what must be proclaimed here was a new world-concept, and not a new election slogan.
Still it was a fearfully difficult decision to try to turn this purpose into reality.
What equipment could I myself bring to the task?
That I was poor and without resources I thought the least of my troubles; but it was a greater difficulty that I was among the nameless, one of the millions whom Chance let live or recalled from existence without even his nearest neighbors’ deigning to take notice. In addition there was the difficulty bound to result from my lack of schooling.
The so-called “intelligentsia” in any case looks down with truly infinite condescension on anyone who has not been dragged through the obligatory schools and so had the necessary knowledge pumped into him. After all, nobody ever asks, What can the man do, but, What has he learned? “Educated” people of this stamp think more of the greatest blockhead, if only he be wrapped in enough diplomas, than of the brightest boy who has to go without these precious wrappings. So I could easily imagine what attitude this “educated” world would take toward me, and my only mistake was in thinking men a little better than for
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