First published here on 19 May 2023:
What does the number “six million” not represent?
1. A 1932 film about Jews.
2. Jews killed in the Nazis’ Holocaust.
3. Dub Pistols’ 2001 and 2005 albums.
4. A school in Whitwell, Tennessee.
5. Handguns owned privately in the US.
6. Palestinians excluded from their own homes.
The explanations follow. Answer at the foot.
1. A 1932 film about Jews
Symphony of Six Million is a 1932 (the year before Hitler came to power) American film about a Jewish physician, from his humble roots to the top of his profession, and the social costs of losing his connection with his community, with his family, and with the craft of healing. Its title was conceived by David O. Selznick, and is a reference to the location of the drama, New York, and its then urban population.
2. Jews exterminated in the Nazis’ Holocaust
The estimate of six million victims of Nazi persecution against the Jews between 1933 and 1945 is accepted as being academically accurate.
3. Dub Pistols’ 2001 and 2005 albums
The Dub Pistols are a British electro band (of musicians, not gangsters), dating from 1996. In 2005, their recycled album name Six Million Ways to Live was reissued. They’d previously issued it in 2001, with different songs. Prats.
4. A school in Whitwell, Tennessee
In 1998, Whitwell Middle School, Whitwell, Tennessee, appealed for six million paper clips, from which they wanted to create a Holocaust memorial. They did so and have 24 million paper clips over. A film was made about it, called Paper Clips. The project eventually used a total of 11 million paper clips, representing the various political and ethnic groups that fell victim to German extermination techniques in the 30s and 40s.
5. Handguns owned privately in the US
The last year in which the US manufactured six million guns was 2006. Currently they produce over 16 million a year. No one knows how many handguns are held in legal, private ownership, let alone those illegally held by criminals. Not even the state or federal governments know that. They want to be prepared for war by allowing their citizens to possess guns and form a militia, but they in fact have no way of knowing for sure who even owns a gun, let alone who is proficient at shooting it.
The only way authorities know for sure that someone owns and can properly shoot a gun is if the owner actually shoots it in a situation that is recorded as an incident by law enforcement. As a result of this, in order for the authorities to duly and properly hypothetically fulfil the rationale for gun ownership as set down in the US constitution, they could only ever employ criminals in their militia, because only the ownership of guns used in a crime is actually recorded, by which time the weapon is usually confiscated as evidence or otherwise is unregistered or circulates in the underground world.
What we do know is that more people were killed by guns in the US between 1968 and 2015 than died in all the wars conducted by the US from 1775 to 2017.
Clearly, the US needs more wars.
6. Palestinians excluded from their own homes
Over 6 million Palestinians have been illegally excluded from the land that is rightfully theirs under the Oslo Agreements. They are stuck in gulags. Since this piece was written (in May 2023), the number may have risen.
The answer is: no. 5, with certainty; no. 6, probably.