Aside from the bucolic charm and pastoral beauty of the set, which I love, I also see something else. Something darker. I see that this representation of innocence and simple agrarian values was created in a region that was at the very heart of an unspeakable barbarism. A savage inhumanity that nearly swallowed the world whole in the 20th Century. Twice. That consumed a grotesque and astonishing 80 million lives in WW2 alone.

How could this be? How could the two–the bucolic beauty and the barbarism–possibly be connected? Through slogans, that’s how. Through simple-minded mottoes, sayings, catchphrases and rallying cries. And the belief that because ‘we’ are so very good, and ‘our’ way of life in some ways so admirable, that ‘others’ are a threat. Even if the others are not identified immediately, they soon will be–and they were. They were identified as inferior. As less than. As a ‘poison’ in the blood of the good and beautiful. Jews. Communists. People with disabilities. Gypsies and Romana. Gays and LGBTQ+individuals. Slavs. Political dissidents. The list is long and extraordinarily sad, of those who were deemed a threat to the good ‘volk.’ And thus were deemed expendable. Worthy only of conquest, of rounding up and imprisoning, of purging, slavery, torture, or death.

We don’t see that in the beautiful depictions on the set. But it is there beneath the surface, once authoritarianism, corruption, deception, moral extortion, and mindless slogans in the hands of power take hold. So words phrases like these: Blood and soil. Jews will not replace us. Vermin. Poison. Lebensraum! America First! Aliens. Parasites. The master race. Enemy of the people. Enemy within. Ethnic purity. Make Germany Great Again. Make America Great Again; or depictions of human beings as animals, as rats or apes or monkeys, or as garbage… such words and images are the flip side of the self-congratulatory, nativist, ‘we are good and pure’ messages of… nations. Movements. Cults. Religions. You may note that I mixed and included American MAGA phrases of today with those of the Nazi past. I meant to. That is how/where they belong. You can see the continuum. Who could argue with Make America Great Again? Until you look closely. Until you think.

So is there something inherently wrong with the beautiful little tea set of my childhood? With its images and depictions? No, not at all. But in the hands of liars, deceivers and demagogues, of the amoral and the power-hungry, anything can be corrupted–turned inside out and upside-down. Used as a bludgeon and a weapon. It is an old, old story. What, then, is the antidote? What is there to prevent such things from happening?

It is a short but powerful list.

Thinking. Thinking that goes deeper than slogans, emotional candy bars and self-congratulation. It is often called ‘critical thinking.’

Integrity. The living of one’s core values even when they become burdensome. A stubborn refusal to ‘go along’.

Courage. The ability to stand up to power.

Empathy. The emotional ability to see and feel oneself in others. A concept that has now been labeled by the authoritarians of our day as ‘a made-up word.’ An invention of ‘liberals.’

Rejection of absolute power–in the hands of anyone. But particularly in the hands of the cruel, the corrupt, and the insane.

And finally, adherence and loyalty to a form of government that essentially included and enshrined these all of these values in its original founding documents, and has tried to live up to them for 250 years.

Then, with these simple guideposts in place, the images and messages of the goodness of one’s own home, of one’s people, one’s religion or ones’ country, can be appreciated. Treasured. Understood in context. And then, perhaps, one can enjoy a sip of tea from a lovely childhood cup.

(This is my latest Substack Post. You can subscribe to or follow me there at Notes From The Campfire@douglaswoodauthor) https://substack.com/@douglaswoodauthor