Hitler’s Agenda Was Reversed by Germany

         My first thoughts after reading the two mega-books Rise and Fall of the Third Reich and Postwar in the span of a year: 

 

In the 73 years since Hitler's death and the end of World War 2, Germany went from being an ultra-nationalist European threat, to the powerhouse of a socialized European Union that redistributes the wealth of its richer nations to poorer ones.  Germany, while having the strongest European economy for many decades, has been by far the most pivotal country in keeping the EU alive by relinquishing their nationalist urges in favor of allowing a more unified continent.  After the war(s), many Europeans- Germans above all- became so disenchanted by the consequences of rabid nationalism that they sought to dismantle it by incorporating neighboring countries into social schemes that blunted any single country's drive for power and expansion.  The guilt syndrome caused by Germany's bullying through both world wars is so unique that for the first time it resulted in a geographical entity that didn't act as a single nation or empire, yet supplied the social benefits of one. 

Let's not ignore the fact that the EU served to keep the German economy on top of the others by devaluing its former currency.  Given the history of their attempted domination on the continent we can't be surprised if they've traded physical control for a monetary one.  However, it doesn't dismiss the fact that much of the German GNP is redistributed to poorer countries and the social programs that keep the EU going.  How strange then, that Hitler's ambition of conquering Europe ended with his country being the greatest force behind keeping it together.  His quest for domination resulted in a backlash that enforced his beloved Rhineland into supporting weaker neighbors instead of occupying them.  I wonder what he'd think if he were alive today. 

Contagious Yawning: What is the Source?

Contagious yawning is shared by humans and a few other species, such as chimps and dogs.  I don't think the origin of this comes from an involuntary empathy reflex, as some psychologists believe.  Although we are in the block of species that correlates increased empathy with contagious yawning, we are also in the block that partially evolved in caves.  Because oxygen was in shorter supply there, we had to breathe harder to obtain more of it.  I think contagious yawning came about so we could get our fair share of air after an initial yawner made their “threatening” inhalation.  We perceived the yawner as stealing a fraction of the pure air that was left, so we sought to savor more for ourselves by returning their yawn with one of our own. 

I have no way of proving this, but if you ever spend some time in a confined space, you'll know that as the air quality deteriorates, greater breaths of air are needed to compensate for the lack of it.  After we moved into caves and away from the open savannah, the competition for air may have created this fascinating phenomenon.  Alternatively, and this might make even more sense from a biological perspective, seeing as we evolved from chimps and they likely had contagious yawners before us, the trait in humans was probably inherited from them.  That would point the origin of contagious yawning in primates to an isolated group of chimps living in a confined space.