So far as I’m aware the Hitler youth were explicitly inspired by British scouting. In much the same way that Wehrmacht uniforms were inspired by British military uniforms. Hitler was a bit of an Anglophile. Whether the comparison is fair or not wasn’t what I was commenting on. It is,however intellectually
flat and "fuck the system maaaaan, common. But multiple scout inspired groups have been created (or adapted) by fascist groups as part of an overall strategy of militarising and indoctrinating the general public.
I’ve read Kipling. Remember that whole white man’s burden thing? Seemingly positive representations of foreign and non-white cultures are generally of the noble savage, closer to nature, simpler and more honorable tropes that are generally considered stereotype. Nasty stereotype. Western civilization represented as primary and entitled or required to lead or guide lesser cultures to greatness. With an occasional fetishization of poverty or savageness as somehow providing closeness to god or honor or whatever.
Kipling is considerably more complex than all that. But it’s there and he wrote as part of a long tradition of such things in British and colonial lit.
Man falls into the same tradition. Macho literature about the glory of exploration and military expeditions in frontier locations with strange people’s. Both implicitly accept racialist ideas, the importance and beneficial natural of colonial control. And the social and class distinction and benefits of the grand British military tradition.
Perhaps no better or worse than anything else mainstream published at the time. But that was the intellectual frame work at the time. And they both embody it quite well.
More over if I recall correctly the Kipling derived stuff was added to scouting later as a part of a general attempt to demilitarize scouting. Less army for kids, more outdoorsy self sufficiency. So while Kipling may have had a bit more going on than the common reading of the white man’s burden. It’s inclusion in scouting was based rather heavily on the colonialism defending, racialised common interpretation.
And at base the idea of a children’s organization explicitly predicated on providing children with the skills of military scouts and instilling specific, mainstream, dogmatic values. Is a little creepy without any of the other shit.
