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I have followed [the Church] in giving our party program the character of unalterable finality, like the Creed. The Church has never allowed the Creed to be interfered with. It is fifteen hundred years since it was formulated, but every suggestion for its amendment, every logical criticism, or attack on it, has been rejected. The Church has realized that anything and everything can be built up on a document of that sort, no matter how contradictory or irreconcilable with it. The faithful will swallow it whole, so long as logical reasoning is never allowed to be brought to bear on it.

Adolf Hitler#105

FaithIdeologyAuthorityDogmaCritical thinkingLogic

About this quote

What does it mean?
Hitler compares his party program to the Church Creed, noting its unalterable nature despite contradictions. He argues faith accepts it without logical scrutiny.
In plain terms
He treats his party program like religious dogma that followers accept without question.
What can you take from it?
Ideologies gain power when treated as unquestionable dogma.

Where it applies

  • party discipline
  • ideological movements

Putting it to work

  • examine how movements enforce beliefs

Questions to consider

  • Why do people accept contradictory beliefs?
  • What stops logical criticism in movements?

Another view

It normalizes accepting contradictory claims without reason.

More from Adolf Hitler

  1. It is not the State that orders us; but it is we who order the State!

    Permalink to quote #104
  2. Man has discovered in nature the wonderful notion of that all-mighty being whose law he worships. Fundamentally in everyone there is the feeling for this all-m…

    Permalink to quote #106
  3. All upright Germans will be National Socialists, but only the best National Socialists will be party members!

    Permalink to quote #103

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