
Tom Perkins (KPCB): Progressive Kristallnacht Coming?  - rdl
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304549504579316913982034286
======
sentenza
Here is some perspective from Germany, the prime exporter of horrible history
in Europe: Tom Perkins is now disqualified from any meaningful discourse.
Comparing some hate-mail you recieve to what happened in 1938 amounts to a
declaration of complete intellectual bancrupcy.

There are some pocket-tricks of discourse which can be forgiven. This is not
one of them.

My house is next to a memorial commemorating the place where there used to be
a Synagogue which was severely vanalized in 1938 and subsequently confiscated
and destroyed. The Jews of my home town were later deported to death camps. I
attended the memorial service at the site on the 75th anniversary, a few
months back, with a reading of eyewittness accounts and all.

Do you know why most of us only know a little bit about what happened that
day? Because consuming too much of the (readily available) information
existing about it will throw you into despair, which is something anybody who
starts reading about it soon finds out. That is how bad that day was.

Comparing himself to Pogromnacht! Fuck this guy. Not his "class", but him
specifically.

~~~
rdl
"The Nazis were special" is totally the wrong lesson to take away from the
horrors of WW2. "Never again" doesn't mean "this could never happen again",
but rather "we will never let this happen again."

I have no problem with pointing out parallels between other events and things
which, in the past, had horrible outcomes. Excessive and crippling war
reparations are (rightly) avoided because of the example of the rise of the
Nazis. (As well as unfairness to those who didn't directly take part). Central
registries of minority or disfavored groups can be wisely opposed on the basis
of what the Nazis and others did with those registries on coming into power;
even today the German postal system has some protections lacking in the US
system for that reason. Rwanda, rather than the just the Nazis, is a great
example of the risks of a political incident either manufactured or exploited
to wage wars (civil or of conquest) and trample on civil liberties (including
right to life); 9/11 and the disproportionate and ineffective US domestic and
international response might be a fresher example still.

It is the violence, combined with scale of the Seattle WTO through Occupy,
which is potentially relevant here; the google bus incident is a sideshow, but
in the same general category. It certainly isn't Germany 1938, but inequality
creates the kind of precondition for violent change, on the right or left,
that has been tragically exploited in the past.

------
davidgerard
Kleiner Perkins has taken pains to distance itself from Mr Perkins' words:

[https://twitter.com/kpcb/statuses/427185213261623297](https://twitter.com/kpcb/statuses/427185213261623297)

"Tom Perkins has not been involved in KPCB in years. We were shocked by his
views expressed today in the WSJ and do not agree."

Mike Godwin posted a while back that he was going to charge $5/violation. How
big a bill should Mr Perkins get?

~~~
bonemachine
"Tom Perkins has not been involved in KPCB in years."

Really now? Apparently he's still listed as a Partner Emeritus:

    
    
       http://www.kpcb.com/partner/tom-perkins
    

To quote from KPCB's own linking page to the above:

 _By continuing their relationship with KPCB long after leaving, they bring
our portfolio companies the benefit of decades of deep experience._

------
vezzy-fnord
Kristallnacht is a bad metaphor for this. Not because it's Nazi Germany, but
because Kristallnacht was an act of violence instigated by a ruling minority
against an ostracized minority.

Inverting it makes it a different situation entirely, which you could simply
describe as a "riot", "unrest", "rebellion" or whatever isn't a blatant
clickbait.

~~~
bonemachine
It's far worse than a "bad metaphor." It's holocaust trivialization,
basically.

------
davidgerard
The "kristallyacht" joke is improved by knowing that Tom Perkins _killed a guy
yachting_.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Perkins_%28businessman%...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Perkins_%28businessman%29#Personal_life)

------
rdl
There is a literal parallel (broken crystal/broken glass from bus windows),
but the true question is: is the power of the government on the side of the
"1%/jews" or on the side of the "progressives/Nazis"? Outside of SF city
government (which is so ineffective as to not really matter), most government
seems solidly on the side of the elites. While many Jews in pre-WW2 Europe had
economic power (and many didn't), they didn't generally have political or
military power.

Consequently, this seems more like (at the extreme) the rise of the communists
in Russia, progressive movements in the US in the early-1900s which caused the
income tax, massive increase in size of government, and alcohol prohibition,
rather than the Nazis.

~~~
tomphoolery
Well, remember that the Nazi government did not have power for quite some
time. It was only when the German government itself could no longer control
the populace (remember, humanity was in the middle of a Great Depression, and
Germany was hit extra-special-hard due to the world blaming them for WWI),
that the Nazis really took hold. Unlike most capitalist nations, the people
with all the power in Nazi Germany were those who were more loyal to the Nazi
party, not the richest members of the German society. That is of course
contrast to the way America works.

Until the US government completely collapses, and power falls into the hands
of some crazy person, I'm pretty sure we won't have to worry about any kind of
"Kristallnacht" taking place.

~~~
anigbrowl
For many WSJ readers, that has already happened - their editorial board is
heavily invested in the idea that Obama is just about the worst thing ever to
happen to the US.

~~~
rdl
USG -> Weimar Republic is seeming like a pretty legitimate parallel in a lot
of ways; ineffective, etc. More so in 2008; that the world economy seems to
have mostly survived makes it much less of a risk, but if China imploded
and/or 2008 repeated itself, I would be extra suspicious of someone promoting
a State-led program of national renewal.

~~~
cafard
I would suggest that it seems the more legitimate the less one knows about the
Weimar Republic. The US has never been through a catastrophe such as WW I and
its immediate aftermath were in Germany; and for all the lively efforts here
and there, the US government is generally perceived in the US as the
legitimate government, as the Weimar government was not perceived by large
portions of the governing classes--the courts and the military, notably.

~~~
rdl
I don't know as much as I'd like about Weimar; is there a "standard" good book
on it in English? I know WW2 and WW1 a lot better, but the Weimar-and-rise-of-
Nazis part always falls into the cracks.

~~~
dredmorbius
Standard I'm not so sure.

Eric D. Weitz, _Weimar Germany_ covers the period, focusing extensively on the
cultural and artistic aspects.

[http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780691157962-0](http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780691157962-0)

Related, from Powells:

[http://www.powells.com/subjects/history-and-social-
science/e...](http://www.powells.com/subjects/history-and-social-
science/europe/germany/weimar-republic/)

------
nabla9
Tom Perkins is over 80 years old and it could be his age. He might also reveal
the true sentiment in his social circle.

Living in a bubble is interesting thing. Being on the News Corp. board,
consuming News Corp. owned media and then writing an opinion in News Corp
owned magazine.

~~~
huxley
He owns a customized Japanese fishing trawler (called "Dr. No") which he uses
to transport his own submarine. He lives in Jimmy Page's former mansion.

The bubble he lives in has its own zip code.

------
turbojerry
This is actually the opposite of the current circumstances.

"Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a
merger of state and corporate power."

Benito Mussolini

So the merger of the State with investment banks, oil companies and others in
the 1% that fund the rise to power of politicians is a corporatist state. Now
while the politicians praise those that fund them to power, they wage wars on
"the other" in this case Muslims overseas, which while helping oil companies,
investment banks etc also gives them a boogie man to scare the public into
submission and help consolidate their power to do whatever illegal activities
they want, such as spying on everyone or kidnapping now renamed "rendition"
etc. The fact that this article is so easily dismissed shows how bad things
have gotten and how unlikely it is to end well for any of us.

------
jacknews
My deity, what an absolutely sickening comparison.

The simple fact is that the 1% have achieved grossly disproportionate wealth
thanks to the inherent self-reinforcing nonlinear distribution of rewards from
capitalism itself, massively aided and abetted by a corrupt financial system.
Indeed it is mainly the latter which is at fault.

In short, Tom, you and your companions may (or may not) deserve to be rich as
a result of cannily buying and selling other people's labors, but you
certainly don't deserve to be as rich as your are.

------
ergoproxy
RE: "the demonization of the rich"

What exactly attracts an American billionaire to a haunted house in Scotland?
You be the judge. First, some history: "Boleskine House was the estate of
Aleister Crowley from 1899 to 1913."[1] "Crowley purchased the home in order
to perform the [Abramelin] operation"[2]. In the Abramelin operation, the
magician must summon the twelve Kings and Dukes of Hell (Lucifer, Satan,
Leviathan, Belial, etc.), and the "magical goals for which the demons can be
employed are typical of those found in grimoires:"[3], e.g., money. "The
current owner, American venture capitalist Tom Perkins, has owned the building
since the mid-eighties and is looking for a tenfold increase on the £800,000
he reportedly put down on the property."[1] "Crowley's summoning of strange
entities, mixed with the strange legends and folklore surrounding Fortean
occurrences at Loch Ness, have led some, including cryptozoologist Richard
Freeman, to ask whether the famous occultist's ritual 'worked in a way that
Crowley had not foreseen?'"[4]

[1]
[http://www.jimmypageguitar.com/News-165-Jimmy+page+house.htm...](http://www.jimmypageguitar.com/News-165-Jimmy+page+house.html)
[2]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boleskine_House](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boleskine_House)
[3]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Abramelin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Abramelin)
[4] Did Aleister Crowley Unleash Demons at Loch Ness? at
[http://www.dailygrail.com/Magick-Circle/2012/8/Did-
Aleister-...](http://www.dailygrail.com/Magick-Circle/2012/8/Did-Aleister-
Crowley-Unleash-Demons-Loch-Ness)

------
andrewcooke
for fucks sake. this is tasteless exaggeration.

------
robd003
The world would be a better place with more guys like Tom Perkins in it. The
envious should have no place in politics or power.

------
mikeash
"We have, for example, libelous and cruel attacks in the Chronicle on our
number-one celebrity, the author Danielle Steel, alleging that she is a 'snob'
despite the millions she has spent on our city's homeless and mentally ill
over the past decades."

What is this trash? Calling someone a "snob" is libel now? Who upvoted this?
Why is it on the front page? Come on.

Flagged.

~~~
JumpCrisscross
I found the dissonance between the prominence and reputation of the speaker
and the crudeness of the remarks interesting, hence my up vote. Comparing
hoodlums tossing rocks to Kristallnacht is beyond depraved.

~~~
mikeash
Is HN really an appropriate place to point out stupid letters to the editor?

~~~
davidgerard
This stupid letter to the editor has (a) made the news elsewhere (b) been
explicitly disowned by his firm: "Tom Perkins has not been involved in KPCB in
years. We were shocked by his views expressed today in the WSJ and do not
agree."

~~~
mikeash
Regarding (a), the news contains lots of Stupid Celebrity Stories, but that's
the kind of thing I look at HN to get _away_ from.

