Chapter 5 Lessons

Disclaimer: It all belongs to Marvel, except for my original characters, of course. But if Marvel wants to use them, they can. Feel free to post this, or any other Glaivester fic, anywhere, but please notify me so I can brag about it.

[A/N Not having read Nietzche or Mein Kampf, I can't vouch that my take on the Red Skull's philosophy is an accurate portrayal of Nazism. It is my take on what defines the philosophy and actions of the Red Skull.

Also, in this chapter I am going to flesh out the Red Skull a little more. In my previous fiction, I have mainly concentrated on his racism, as that is the aspect that most neatly dovetails into the themes present in X-Men: Evolution. In this chapter, the tyrannical aspect is given more play].

While all of the plotting was going on, Kurt was being taught the Nazi philosophy by the Red Skull, except for the brief period of time when he was checking up on Pocket and his adventures with the Chinese pyramid.

"Let us begin by starting with the beginning, that is to say, with first principles."

"Vhich are?" Kurt was wondering what exactly the old Nazi was planning to do with him. Apparently, he wanted Kurt "reeducated" in the proper conduct for a German, according to the principles of the NSDAP [A/N the German acronym for the National Socialist German Worker's Party].

"{Let us talk German. It has been a while since I have used my native tongue.}"

"{Okay.}"

"{The vast majority of people in this world are sheep. There is nothing wrong with this, of course. We need sheep, without sheep, there could be no shepherds. We need followers as well as leaders. But the fact remains that sheep are stupid.}"

"{I disagree with your analogy.}"

"{Quiet. You see, the sheep are there for two reasons. To achieve the plans of the shepherd, and to be a testament to the wisdom of the shepherd. People are like this, but with the added purpose that they also exist for themselves and for their race, their breed, if you will. The superior breed must conquer the inferior breeds and create a society that is a monument to themselves and their kind. They must rule because it is in their nature, and because nature demands it. They must remake the world to their specifications, to create the destiny that they are meant to have.

"{Like sheep, however, the people often do not understand this. Their glorious future, their destiny, is often not on their minds, due to daily concerns such as eating, drinking, sex. But aside from the few remarkable individuals who can be shepherds, the individual lives of the sheep are not important and do not deserve the importance that they give themselves. Unless directed, individuals look after their own interests instead of those of the race, of the society as a whole. And they can betray their breed to others, not think of the good of the race.

"{Thus, they need leadership. The wise shepherd knows how to direct his sheep. In the same way, the leader must direct his followers to achieve his plan. They, like sheep, are often too ignorant to understand the plan, and so must be made to obey the plan by whatever methods are necessary. Violence is an option, but a crude one which is also costly. If more... covert methods may be used, so much the better. If they might rebel against what you propose, they must be deceived so as to misunderstand you.

"{How to do this? People will believe what they want. They also believe in their leaders. They will expect the leaders to fudge the truth a little, to leave out information, to engage in half-truths. But not to make blatant, easy-to-discover lies. So if you lie, and lie big enough, they will figure that you cannot be that stupid and that you must be telling the truth. They will not believe their eyes if you tell them differently. Truth must be managed to the benefit of the shepherd's goals. People need to be told what is necessary in order to achieve your ends, not necessarily what is true. Because people cannot be trusted to make their own decisions if they might decide against the common good.

"{Which is not to say that sheep cannot be idiot savants. Once a goal is agreed upon, a strategy or action decided, how to achieve it can be left to the individuals most directly involved. Commanders in the field, for instance, need some degree of autonomy in how they fight their battles...}"

Kurt kept listening. He was increasingly horrified at the Red Skull's cynicism and his willingness to look upon other people as means to an end.

"{But aren't we the master race?}" Kurt asked slyly. "{Aren't we intelligent beyond sheep.}"

"{Excellent question. The master race of sheep is still a race of sheep. We Aryans are superior, but only the best among us are qualified to decide the direction of society. The majority of our people, our flock, if you will, must be led to conquer and subjugate the other breeds, but nonetheless, they are still dumb sheep and must be led to do what is best for their flock and in most cases themselves.}"

So, Kurt mused, even those whom he regards as superior are in the end only his pawns.

The Red Skull went on to give a lesson in political power, in which he quoted Mao Ze Dong about it coming from the barrel of a gun. It was quickly apparent to Kurt that his father's philosophy was entirely based n keeping control and power over a many people as possible by any means possible, and that all other considerations were to be made secondary or even to be ignored.

The scariest thing for Kurt was how easy it was to see how the Red Skull thought. Over the past few years, he had seen enough of the worst of humanity that he understood fully well the school of thought that allowed a person to view other people as mere objects.

The second scariest thing was the fact that the Red Skull went on for three hours more in this vein, and at no point did he drop the sheep analogy. He seemed inordinately fascinated by sheep and shepherds. In fact, he was so fascinated by sheep that Kurt was almost tempted to crack a joke that at one point he had heard at the Institute. Only this joke was of an off-color variety, and its original target were people of a different nationality than the Red Skull. Suffice it to say that Rahne Sinclair had beaten up Bobby after he told it, and no one had ever uttered such a joke again at the X-Mansion, even after Rahne had left.

Kurt was once again given a wonderful meal, and he began to worry about how much longer he was going to have to be here before he would be rescued.