Osho on Fascism
I have heard about a man who became very famous in Germany - even today his statues are there and some squares and some streets are still named
after him. His name was Dr. Daniel Gottlob Moritz Schreber. He was the real founder of Fascism. He died in 1861, but he created the situation for Adolf Hitler to come - of course,
unknowingly.
This man had very pronounced views on how to bring up children. He wrote many books. Those books were translated into many languages. Some of them ran into fifty editions.
His books were loved tremendously, respected tremendously, because his views were not exceptional - his views were very common. He was saying things which everybody has believed
down the centuries. He was the spokesman for the ordinary mind, the mediocre mind.
Hundreds of clubs and societies were set up to perpetuate his thoughts, his ideas, and when he died many statues were installed, many streets were named after him. He
believed in disciplining children from the time they were six months old.
Because he said if you don′t discipline a child when he is six months old you will miss the real opportunity of disciplining him. When a child is very tender and soft,
unaware of the ways of the world, make a deep imprint - then he will always follow that imprint. And he will not even be aware that he is being manipulated. He will think he is
doing all this of his own will - because when a child is six months old he has no will yet; the will will come later on, and the discipline will come earlier than the will.
So the will will always think: ′This is my own idea.′
This is corrupting a child. But all the religions of the world and all the demagogues and all the dictatorial people of the world, and all the so-called gurus and the priests,
they all have believed in doing this.
This seems to be the basic cause why man is unhappy, because no man is moving freely, no man is sensing, groping his path with his own consciousness. He has been corrupted at
the very root.
But Schreber called it discipline, as all parents call it.
He believed in disciplining children from the time they were six months old in such a way that they would never after question their parents and yet believe that they were
acting of their own free will. He wrote that on the first appearance of self-will one has to... "stop it immediately, kill it immediately. When you see the child becoming a
person, an individual, you have to destroy the first ray of his individuality, immediately, not a single moment should be lost."
When the first appearance of self-will is noticed... "one has to step forward in a positive manner... stern words, threatening gestures, rapping against the bed... bodily
admonishments, consistently repeated until the child calms down or falls asleep." "This treatment was needed only once or twice or at the most thrice," the doctor
told people.
Make the child so afraid, shake him to his very roots! And those roots are very tender yet - a six-month-old child. Threaten him with gestures, with a deep hatred, enmity in
your eyes, as if you are going to destroy the child himself. Make it clear to the child that either he can live or his self-will - both cannot be allowed to live. If he wants
his self-will then he will have to die. Once the child comes to know that he can live only at the cost of self-will, he will drop his self-will and he will choose survival.
That′s natural! Survival one has to choose first; everything else comes secondary.
And then one is master of the child forever. From now on, a glance, a word or a single threatening gesture is sufficient to rule the child.
What happened to his own children?
Nobody bothered. Everybody liked the idea. Parents all over the world became very enthusiastic and everybody started trying to discipline
their children. And that′s how, according to Schreber, the whole of Germany was disciplined. That paved the way for Adolf Hitler.
Such a beautiful country, intelligent, became the victim of a fool who was almost mad. And he ruled the whole country. How was it possible? It is still a question which has not
been answered. How could he rule so many intelligent people so easily, with such foolish ideas?
These people were trained to believe; these people were trained not to be individuals. These people were trained always to remain in discipline. These people were trained that
obedience is the greatest virtue. It is not! Sometimes it is disobedience which is the greatest virtue. Sometimes, of course, it is obedience. But the choice has to be yours:
you have consciously to choose whether to obey or not to obey. That means you have consciously to remain the master in every situation, whether you obey or you disobey.
What happened to his own children? Just now the whole history of his children has come to light.
One of his daughters was melancholic and her doctor suggested putting her in a mad asylum. One of his sons suffered a nervous breakdown and was institutionalized. He
recovered, but eight years later had a relapse and died in a madhouse. His other son went mad and committed suicide.
And the autopsies of both the sons proved that there was nothing wrong physically with their brains - still both went mad: one died in a madhouse, another committed suicide.
What happened? Physically their brains were perfect, but psychologically they were damaged. This mad father damaged all of his children.
And that is what has happened to the whole of humanity.
Down the centuries, parents have been destroying people. They were destroyed by their parents, and so on and so forth. It seems to be a chronic state. Your parents were not
happy; whatsoever they knew made them only more unhappy and more unhappy - and they trained you for it, and they have made a replica of themselves in you.
Arthur Koestler has coined a beautiful word for this whole nonsense. He calls it ′bapucracy′. ′Bapu′ means father - it is an Indian term. Indians used to
call Mahatma Gandhi, ′bapu′. This word ′bapucracy′ is perfect. India suffers more than any other country from bapucracy. The Indian leadership is still
suffering from its bapu, Mahatma Gandhi.
Each child is destroyed by the bapus. Of course, they were destroyed by their bapus. So I am not saying that it is their responsibility; it is an unconscious, chronic state that
perpetuates itself. So there is no need of complaining against your parents - that is not going to help. The day you understand it, you have to consciously drop it and come out
of it.