1/ In 1834, the German poet Heinrich Heine, whose books would later be burned by the Nazis because of his Jewish heritage, made a prophecy. A great insight is at its heart—one that we would do well to grasp and heed. I will quote Heine’s prophecy in this thread.

2/ “Christianity has somewhat mitigated the brutal German love of war but it could not destroy it. Should that subduing talisman, the cross, be shattered, the frenzied madness of the ancient warriors, that berserk rage of which Nordic bards have sung, will again burst into flame.

3/ “This talisman is fragile, and the day will come when it will collapse. Then the ancient stony gods will rise from the forgotten debris and rub the dust of a thousand years from their eyes. Then Thor with his giant hammer will jump up and smash the Gothic cathedrals.

4/ “Do not smile at the warning of a dreamer … Do not laugh at one who foresees in the region of the visible the revolution that has already occurred in the invisible domain of the spirit. Thought precedes action as lightning precedes thunder.

5/ “When you hear crashing such as never heard in history, you know that the German thunderbolt has fallen. The eagles … will drop dead and lions … will hide in their dens. A play will be performed in Germany that will make the French Revolution look like an innocent idyll.”

6/ Well, there is Heine's prophecy. How is it that, writing nearly a hundred years before Hitler came to power, he foresaw what would make the French Revolution with all its terror and bloodshed seem like "an innocent idyll"? Thought precedes action as lightning precedes thunder.