"also he [hitler] has grasped the falsity of the hedonistic attitude to life. nearly all western thought since the last war, certainly all 'progressive' thought, has assumed tacitly that human beings desire nothing beyond ease, security and avoidance of pain. in such a view of life there is no room, for instance, for patriotism and the military values. hitler, because in his own joyless mind he feels it with exceptional strength, knows that human beings don't only want comfort, safety, short working-hours, hygiene, birth-control and, in general, common-sense; they also, at least intermittently, want struggle and self-sacrifice, not to mention drums, flags and loyalty parades. however they may be as economic theories, fascism and nazism are psychologically far sounder than any hedonistic conception of life."

em the collected essays, journalism and letters of george orwell.