About Third Reich, I might have too little info about it, but as far as I know, this point stands. Maybe during my further learning my opinion will change in a radical way.
Suffice to say that even without the ethnic cleansing and warmongering, it was a still a nation that advocated the suppression of political dissent through violence, established national propaganda to bolster persecution of any who diverged from "acceptable" views, who ruled their country by intentionally instilling a sense of fear and paranoia that turned neighbour against neighbour.
Even without the jingoism and racial persecution, it was, from everything I've read, a pretty horrible dictatorship, with little chance of improving if left to its own devices.
OwlbreadWhat do you think of strong federal systems like the US, though? In essence, the US is what you *get* from a strong organization like the EU, isn't it? Where individual members can pretty openly flout federal law (like the marijuana stuff) and they operate with their own budgets and own laws except where superceded by central legislation. I imagine under the sort of situation you'd imagine, the US wouldn't really "break up" so much as our federal component would be weakened?
The things are worse simply because people live worse now, than back than (not talking when it started all to fall apart, as back then everyone lived very bad). Individual countries can never ever be better than a bigger one, that is a common logic. Now I am mostly talking about economy, the most important thing (thats why we are in EU now).
This just doesn't hold. There are a great many smaller countries that are MUCH better to live in than similar larger countries. I'd rather live in any of the Scandinavian countries than the much larger Russia, US, or China.