the philosophical problems with 'Blitzed' by Norman Ohler
by Ballard Quass, the Drug War Philosopher
December 7, 2022
t's becoming fashionable lately to ascribe Nazi madness to drug abuse, thanks in large part to the 2017 publication of "Blitzed," by novelist Norman Ohler. But this implicit scapegoating of drugs for homicidal madness is problematic. First because, taken to extremes, this line of argument could be seen as excusing Nazi atrocity. "They were 'on drugs,' after all, and did not know what they were doing." But there is another troubling (though very telling) problem with this attribution as well.
Hitler was like Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson when it came to drugs. He did not consider himself a drug abuser or an addict. Why not? Because he was receiving substances from a physician, not a "dealer." He was, he believed, therefore receiving medicine, not drugs. In other words, Hitler was a hypocritical drug prude just like modern Americans. He shared our modern drug-war belief in what Julian Buchanan calls a "drug apartheid," a world in which there are God-blessed "medicines" that we are obliged to take every day of our life and devil-sent "drugs" that we are obliged to never take, ever. Hitler believed that he only took the former kinds of medicines and therefore was simply looking out for his own health. He would be the first to agree with us that there were lousy drug addicts out there, but he would never have counted himself as one of them. In this way, Hitler is like the 1 in 4 American women who are dependent upon Big Pharma meds for life: they, too, would never consider themselves to be addicts. Why not? Because in the age of a Drug War, the term 'addicts' is an aesthetic term. This is clear when we consider the relevant Drug War Newspeak. Addicts go to dealers to get their "fixes." American women go to doctors to receive "their maintenance meds."
The Drug Warrior might argue, "Well, still, at least we can all agree that morphine really screws people up, Hermann Goering included." But that conclusion is wrong as well. Yes, Goering was a boor and no doubt used morphine in excess, that is to say, to the detriment of his duties; but the mere regular use of morphine does not destroy lives (unless the Drug War is on hand to ensure that outcome by withdrawing supply and demonizing and incarcerating the user). Dr. William Halstead, a founder of Johns Hopkins University, used morphine for a lifetime, and that use was so far from interfering with his work that his colleagues were not even aware of it until after his death -- at which point they asked naive questions amounting to: "How could he have accomplished so much while using a dirty evil drug called morphine?" Of course, as Thomas Szasz would point out over a half century later, it never occurred to those baffled colleagues that Halstead might have accomplished so much THANKS to the morphine use.
Why not? Because it is a firm tenet of the Drug War religion that criminalized substances can have no positive uses whatsoever. It is therefore anathema for the Drug Warrior to think that cocaine could have helped Robin Williams be funny or that coca wine could have helped HG Wells write great short stories. In fact, the Drug Warrior is so oblivious to common sense psychology that they will tell us that these self-actualized individuals would have been so much more successful had they only said "no" to today's long list of demonized substances. But this belief is just that: a belief, a tenet, a faith. It is anything but a prima facie conclusion to which all unbiased minds would naturally accede.
The title of Ohler's book shows his drug-warrior bias. The title is "Blitzed," suggesting that drug use can only lead to scatterbrained and distracted mental states. This is far from the truth, however. Did Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's great detective, Sherlock Holmes, use cocaine in order that he might think less clearly? But Ohler is under the spell of Drug War ideology as promulgated by America's Office of National Drug Control Policy, which says that "drug use" must be a sign of pointless hedonism and can have no positive outcomes, like greater mental clarity, for instance, or self-insight. In reality, one might have WANTED the Germans to get "blitzed," if they did so by using entactogens such as MDMA and psilocybin, which might have taught them how to feel empathy for their fellow human beings.
There is another problem with referring to the Nazi leadership as being "blitzed" on "drugs." It is hypocritical. As Thomas Szasz reports, JFK and his wife were routinely prescribed what we would call "speed" today by their doctor. But there are no books out there provocatively describing how that drug use could have impacted his handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Indeed, most American writers will not even acknowledge that drug use, let alone speculate extravagantly about how it might have affected his abilities to keep us out of World War III. This is not to say that I blame or condemn that use. To the contrary, I think that it is likely to have helped him in trying circumstances (not by "blitzing" his mind but by focusing it). My point here is only to underline the hypocritical selectivity with which modern Drug Warriors employ the phrase "drug abuse." The term seems to be a weapon that we reserve for use against someone of whom we disapprove, rather than a concept that we apply according to some objective criteria.
While we're on this subject, how does the frequent and often excessive use of alcohol, coffee, tobacco, chocolate, sugar and caffeine affect world leaders and their decision making? That's a question that the Norman Ohlers of the world will never ask, because the world they live in considers substances like these to be like water, substances whose use may be considered a baseline condition of all modern societies. Meanwhile, the substances of which we disapprove can be allowed no positive uses whatsoever and are to be demonized in every way possible, with all past episodes of positive use being censored from historical accounts and biographies.
But the popularity of the book "Blitzed" is not surprising given that American's have been taught for many decades now to blame all social problems on the boogieman called "drugs." It makes learning 20th-century history so much easier for us, after all. "Oh, the Nazis were on DRUGS," we cry. "Why didn't you say so? Now I understand everything!"
But this naive way of viewing the world makes sense only in light of Drug War lies.
The fact is, people are always on "drugs," many of which intensely focus the mind rather than "blitzing" it. Some of us use coffee in excess, many of us use sugar in excess, some of us drink in excess, and some of us (myself included, alas) are dependent on Big Pharma meds for a lifetime. So, why are WE not blitzed? Answer: because Norman Ohler is a typical Drug Warrior: he ascribes the apparently negative outcome of getting "blitzed" only to the use of the substances of which American politicians disapprove, not to any of America's "favorite poisons." The success of his book merely demonstrates how bamboozled Americans have become by the insidious Drug War logic of substance demonziation.
Author's Follow-up: September 14, 2023
I have recently given a detailed critique of the term addiction in my essay entitled "Prohibition Spectrum Disorder, where I parsed the definition given by Webster's and found at least four reasons why the term is more political than scientific.
September 28, 2023The above post originally identified Johns Hopkins founder William Henry Welch as the morphine user, whereas it was founder William Stewart Halsted who availed himself of the substance in question. Welch invited Halsted to join in founding Johns Hopkins. (Don't worry, folks: heads have rolled! Heads have definitely rolled!) What? I pay my extensive editorial team to catch these things!
Book Reviews
Most authors today reckon without the drug war -- unless they are writing specifically about "drugs" -- and even then they tend to approach the subject in a way that clearly demonstrates that they have been brainwashed by drug war orthodoxy, even if they do not realize it themselves. That's why I write my philosophical book reviews, to point out this hypocrisy that no other philosopher in the world is pointing out. (Hey, if I thought I would ever be recognized in this lifetime, I would be humble and patient -- but it's clear to me that I'm to be largely ignored here-below until such time as I bite some serious dust, so you'll just have to put up with my horn-blowing, fair enough?)
Exactly. The line drawn between recreational and medical use is wishful thinking on the part of drug warriors. Recreation, according to Webster's, is "refreshment or diversion," and both have positive knock-on effects in the lives of real people.
If any master's candidates are looking for a thesis topic, consider the following: "The Drug War versus Religion: how the policy of substance prohibition outlaws the attainment of spiritual states described by William James in 'The Varieties of Religious Experience.'"
These are just simple psychological truths that drug war ideology is designed to hide from sight. Doctors tell us that "drugs" are only useful when created by Big Pharma, chosen by doctors, and authorized by folks who have spent thousands on medical school. (Lies, lies, lies.)
According to Donald Trump's view of life, Jesus Christ was a chump. We should hate our enemies, not love them.
Drug testing labs should give high marks for those who manage to use drugs responsibly, notwithstanding the efforts of law enforcement to ruin their lives. The lab guy would be like: "Wow, you are using opium wisely, my friend! Congratulations! Your boss is lucky to have you!"
All the problems that folks associate with drugs are caused by prohibition. Thousands were not dying on the streets when opioids were legal in America. It took prohibition to bring that about.
If America cannot exist without outlawing drugs, then there is something wrong with America, not with drugs.
Immanuel Kant wrote that scientists are scornful about metaphysics yet they rely on it themselves without realizing it. This is a case in point, for the idea that euphoria and visions are unhelpful in life is a metaphysical viewpoint, not a scientific one.
In the 19th century, poets got together to use opium "in a series of magnificent quarterly carouses" (as per author Richard Middleton). When we outlaw drugs, we outlaw free expression.
We don't need people to get "clean." We need people to start living a fulfilling life. The two things are different.
Buy the Drug War Comic Book by the Drug War Philosopher Brian Quass, featuring 150 hilarious op-ed pics about America's disgraceful war on Americans
You have been reading an article entitled, Blaming Drugs for Nazi Germany: the philosophical problems with 'Blitzed' by Norman Ohler, published on December 7, 2022 on AbolishTheDEA.com. For more information about America's disgraceful drug war, which is anti-patient, anti-minority, anti-scientific, anti-mother nature, imperialistic, the establishment of the Christian Science religion, a violation of the natural law upon which America was founded, and a childish and counterproductive way of looking at the world, one which causes all of the problems that it purports to solve, and then some, visit the drug war philosopher, at abolishTheDEA.com. (philosopher's bio; go to top of this page)
t's becoming fashionable lately to ascribe Nazi madness to drug abuse, thanks in large part to the 2017 publication of "Blitzed," by novelist Norman Ohler. But this implicit scapegoating of drugs for homicidal madness is problematic. First because, taken to extremes, this line of argument could be seen as excusing Nazi atrocity. "They were 'on drugs,' after all, and did not know what they were doing." But there is another troubling (though very telling) problem with this attribution as well.
You have been reading an article entitled, Blaming Drugs for Nazi Germany: the philosophical problems with 'Blitzed' by Norman Ohler, published on December 7, 2022 on AbolishTheDEA.com. For more information about America's disgraceful drug war, which is anti-patient, anti-minority, anti-scientific, anti-mother nature, imperialistic, the establishment of the Christian Science religion, a violation of the natural law upon which America was founded, and a childish and counterproductive way of looking at the world, one which causes all of the problems that it purports to solve, and then some, visit the drug war philosopher, at abolishTheDEA.com. (philosopher's bio; go to top of this page)