OT and just for fun...
WHEN DEMOCRACY FAILED: THE WARNINGS OF HISTORY
> By Thom Hartmann
> Thom Hartmann's Newsletter for March 17, 2003
>
> thomhartmann.com
>
> The 70th anniversary wasn't noticed in the United States, and was barely
> reported in the corporate media. But the Germans remembered well that
> fateful day seventy years ago - February 27, 1933. They commemorated the
> anniversary by joining in demonstrations for peace that mobilized citizens
> all across the world.
>
> It started when the government, in the midst of a worldwide economic
crisis,
> received reports of an imminent terrorist attack. A foreign ideologue had
> launched feeble attacks on a few famous buildings, but the media largely
> ignored his relatively small efforts. The intelligence services knew,
> however, that the odds were he would eventually succeed. (Historians are
> still arguing whether or not rogue elements in the intelligence service
> helped the terrorist; the most recent research implies they did not.)
>
> But the warnings of investigators were ignored at the highest levels, in
> part because the government was distracted; the man who claimed to be the
> nation's leader had not been elected by a majority vote and the majority
of
> citizens claimed he had no right to the powers he coveted. He was a
> simpleton, some said, a cartoon character of a man who saw things in
> black-and-white terms and didn't have the intellect to understand the
> subtleties of running a nation in a complex and internationalist world.
His
> coarse use of language - reflecting his political roots in a southernmost
> state - and his simplistic and often-inflammatory nationalistic rhetoric
> offended the aristocrats, foreign leaders, and the well-educated elite in
> the government and media. And, as a young man, he'd joined a secret
society
> with an occult-sounding name and bizarre initiation rituals that involved
> skulls and human bones.
>
> Nonetheless, he knew the terrorist was going to strike (although he didn't
> know where or when), and he had already considered his response. When an
> aide brought him word that the nation's most prestigious building was
> ablaze, he verified it was the terrorist who had struck and then rushed to
> the scene and called a press conference.
>
> "You are now witnessing the beginning of a great epoch in history," he
> proclaimed, standing in front of the burned-out building, surrounded by
> national media. "This fire," he said, his voice trembling with emotion,
"is
> the beginning." He used the occasion - "a sign from God," he called it -
to
> declare an all-out war on terrorism and its ideological sponsors, a
people,
> he said, who traced their origins to the Middle East and found motivation
> for their evil deeds in their religion.
>
> Two weeks later, the first detention center for terrorists was built in
> Oranianberg to hold the first suspected allies of the infamous terrorist.
> In a national outburst of patriotism, the leader's flag was everywhere,
even
> printed large in newspapers suitable for window display.
>
> Within four weeks of the terrorist attack, the nation's now-popular leader
> had pushed through legislation - in the name of combating terrorism and
> fighting the philosophy he said spawned it - that suspended constitutional
> guarantees of free speech, privacy, and habeas corpus. Police could now
> intercept mail and wiretap phones; suspected terrorists could be
imprisoned
> without specific charges and without access to their lawyers; police could
> sneak into people's homes without warrants if the cases involved
terrorism.
>
> To get his patriotic "Decree on the Protection of People and State" passed
> over the objections of concerned legislators and civil libertarians, he
> agreed to put a 4-year sunset provision on it: if the national emergency
> provoked by the terrorist attack was over by then, the freedoms and rights
> would be returned to the people, and the police agencies would be
> re-restrained. Legislators would later say they hadn't had time to read
the
> bill before voting on it.
>
> Immediately after passage of the anti-terrorism act, his federal police
> agencies stepped up their program of arresting suspicious persons and
> holding them without access to lawyers or courts. In the first year only
a
> few hundred were interred, and those who objected were largely ignored by
> the mainstream press, which was afraid to offend and thus lose access to a
> leader with such high popularity ratings. Citizens who protested the
leader
> in public - and there were many - quickly found themselves confronting the
> newly empowered police's batons, gas, and jail cells, or fenced off in
> protest zones safely out of earshot of the leader's public speeches. (In
> the meantime, he was taking almost daily lessons in public speaking,
> learning to control his tonality, gestures, and facial expressions. He
> became a very competent orator.)
>
> Within the first months after that terrorist attack, at the suggestion of
a
> political advisor, he brought a formerly obscure word into common usage.
He
> wanted to stir a "racial pride" among his countrymen, so, instead of
> referring to the nation by its name, he began to refer to it as "The
> Homeland," a phrase publicly promoted in the introduction to a 1934 speech
> recorded in Leni Riefenstahl's famous propaganda movie "Triumph Of The
> Will." As hoped, people's hearts swelled with pride, and the beginning of
> an us-versus-them mentality was sewn. Our land was "the" homeland,
citizens
> thought: all others were simply foreign lands. We are the "true people,"
he
> suggested, the only ones worthy of our nation's concern; if bombs fall on
> others, or human rights are violated in other nations and it makes our
lives
> better, it's of little concern to us.
>
> Playing on this new nationalism, and exploiting a disagreement with the
> French over his increasing militarism, he argued that any international
body
> that didn't act first and foremost in the best interest of his own nation
> was neither relevant nor useful. He thus withdrew his country from the
> League Of Nations in October, 1933, and then negotiated a separate naval
> armaments agreement with Anthony Eden of The United Kingdom to create a
> worldwide military ruling elite.
>
> His propaganda minister orchestrated a campaign to ensure the people that
he
> was a deeply religious man and that his motivations were rooted in
> Christianity. He even proclaimed the need for a revival of the Christian
> faith across his nation, what he called a "New Christianity." Every man
in
> his rapidly growing army wore a belt buckle that declared "Gott Mit Uns" -
> God Is With Us - and most of them fervently believed it was true.
>
> Within a year of the terrorist attack, the nation's leader determined that
> the various local police and federal agencies around the nation were
lacking
> the clear communication and overall coordinated administration necessary
to
> deal with the terrorist threat facing the nation, particularly those
> citizens who were of Middle Eastern ancestry and thus probably terrorist
and
> communist sympathizers, and various troublesome "intellectuals" and
> "liberals." He proposed a single new national agency to protect the
> security of the homeland, consolidating the actions of dozens of
previously
> independent police, border, and investigative agencies under a single
> leader.
>
> He appointed one of his most trusted associates to be leader of this new
> agency, the Central Security Office for the homeland, and gave it a role
in
> the government equal to the other major departments.
>
> His assistant who dealt with the press noted that, since the terrorist
> attack, "Radio and press are at out disposal." Those voices questioning
the
> legitimacy of their nation's leader, or raising questions about his
> checkered past, had by now faded from the public's recollection as his
> central security office began advertising a program encouraging people to
> phone in tips about suspicious neighbors. This program was so successful
> that the names of some of the people "denounced" were soon being broadcast
> on radio stations. Those denounced often included opposition politicians
and
> celebrities who dared speak out - a favorite target of his regime and the
> media he now controlled through intimidation and ownership by corporate
> allies.
>
> To consolidate his power, he concluded that government alone wasn't
enough.
> He reached out to industry and forged an alliance, bringing former
> executives of the nation's largest corporations into high government
> positions. A flood of government money poured into corporate coffers to
> fight the war against the Middle Eastern ancestry terrorists lurking
within
> the homeland, and to prepare for wars overseas. He encouraged large
> corporations friendly to him to acquire media outlets and other industrial
> concerns across the nation, particularly those previously owned by
> suspicious people of Middle Eastern ancestry. He built powerful alliances
> with industry; one corporate ally got the lucrative contract worth
millions
> to build the first large-scale detention center for enemies of the state.
> Soon more would follow. Industry flourished.
>
> But after an interval of peace following the terrorist attack, voices of
> dissent again arose within and without the government. Students had
started
> an active program opposing him (later known as the White Rose Society),
and
> leaders of nearby nations were speaking out against his bellicose
rhetoric.
> He needed a diversion, something to direct people away from the corporate
> cronyism being exposed in his own government, questions of his possibly
> illegitimate rise to power, and the oft-voiced concerns of civil
> libertarians about the people being held in detention without due process
or
> access to attorneys or family.
>
> With his number two man - a master at manipulating the media - he began a
> campaign to convince the people of the nation that a small, limited war
was
> necessary. Another nation was harboring many of the suspicious Middle
> Eastern people, and even though its connection with the terrorist who had
> set afire the nation's most important building was tenuous at best, it
held
> resources their nation badly needed if they were to have room to live and
> maintain their prosperity. He called a press conference and publicly
> delivered an ultimatum to the leader of the other nation, provoking an
> international uproar. He claimed the right to strike preemptively in
> self-defense, and nations across Europe - at first - denounced him for it,
> pointing out that it was a doctrine only claimed in the past by nations
> seeking worldwide empire, like Caesar's Rome or Alexander's Greece.
>
> It took a few months, and intense international debate and lobbying with
> European nations, but, after he personally met with the leader of the
United
> Kingdom, finally a deal was struck. After the military action began,
Prime
> Minister Neville Chamberlain told the nervous British people that giving
in
> to this leader's new first-strike doctrine would bring "peace for our
time."
>
> Thus Hitler annexed Austria in a lightning move, riding a wave of popular
> support as leaders so often do in times of war. The Austrian government
was
> unseated and replaced by a new leadership friendly to Germany, and German
> corporations began to take over Austrian resources.
>
> In a speech responding to critics of the invasion, Hitler said, "Certain
> foreign newspapers have said that we fell on Austria with brutal methods.
I
> can only say; even in death they cannot stop lying. I have in the course
of
> my political struggle won much love from my people, but when I crossed the
> former frontier [into Austria] there met me such a stream of love as I
have
> never experienced. Not as tyrants have we come, but as liberators."
>
> To deal with those who dissented from his policies, at the advice of his
> politically savvy advisors, he and his handmaidens in the press began a
> campaign to equate him and his policies with patriotism and the nation
> itself. National unity was essential, they said, to ensure that the
> terrorists or their sponsors didn't think they'd succeeded in splitting
the
> nation or weakening its will. In times of war, they said, there could be
> only "one people, one nation, and one commander-in-chief" ("Ein Volk, ein
> Reich, ein Fuhrer"), and so his advocates in the media began a nationwide
> campaign charging that critics of his policies were attacking the nation
> itself. Those questioning him were labeled "anti-German" or "not good
> Germans," and it was suggested they were aiding the enemies of the state
by
> failing in the patriotic necessity of supporting the nation's valiant men
in
> uniform. It was one of his most effective ways to stifle dissent and pit
> wage-earning people (from whom most of the army came) against the
> "intellectuals and liberals" who were critical of his policies.
>
> Nonetheless, once the "small war" annexation of Austria was successfully
and
> quickly completed, and peace returned, voices of opposition were again
> raised in the Homeland. The almost-daily release of news bulletins about
> the dangers of terrorist communist cells wasn't enough to rouse the
populace
> and totally suppress dissent. A full-out war was necessary to divert
public
> attention from the growing rumbles within the country about disappearing
> dissidents; violence against liberals, Jews, and union leaders; and the
> epidemic of crony capitalism that was producing empires of wealth in the
> corporate sector but threatening the middle class's way of life.
>
> A year later, to the week, Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia; the nation was
now
> fully at war, and all internal dissent was suppressed in the name of
> national security. It was the end of Germany's first experiment with
> democracy.
>
> As we conclude this review of history, there are a few milestones worth
> remembering. February 27, 2003, was the 70th anniversary of Dutch
terrorist
> Marinus van der Lubbe's successful firebombing of the German Parliament
> (Reichstag) building, the terrorist act that catapulted Hitler to
legitimacy
> and reshaped the German constitution. By the time of his successful and
> brief action to seize Austria, in which almost no German blood was shed,
> Hitler was the most beloved and popular leader in the history of his
nation.
> Hailed around the world, he was later Time magazine's "Man Of The Year."
>
> Most Americans remember his office for the security of the homeland, known
> as the Reichssicherheitshauptamt and its SchutzStaffel, simply by its most
> famous agency's initials: the SS.
>
> We also remember that the Germans developed a new form of highly violent
> warfare they named "lightning war" or blitzkrieg, which, while generating
> devastating civilian losses, also produced a highly desirable "shock and
> awe" among the nation's leadership according to the authors of the 1996
book
> "Shock And Awe" published by the National Defense University Press.
>
> Reflecting on that time, The American Heritage Dictionary (Houghton
Mifflin
> Company, 1983) left us this definition of the form of government the
German
> democracy had become through Hitler's close alliance with the largest
German
> corporations and his policy of using war as a tool to keep power: fas-cism
> (fbsh'iz'em) n. A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of
the
> extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business
> leadership, together with belligerent nationalism."
>
> Today, as we face financial and political crises, it's useful to remember
> that the ravages of the Great Depression hit Germany and the United States
> alike. Through the 1930s, however, Hitler and Roosevelt chose very
> different courses to bring their nations back to power and prosperity.
>
> Germany's response was to use government to empower corporations and
reward
> the society's richest individuals, privatize much of the commons, stifle
> dissent, strip people of constitutional rights, and create an illusion of
> prosperity through continual and ever-expanding war. America passed
minimum
> wage laws to raise the middle class, enforced anti-trust laws to diminish
> the power of corporations, increased taxes on corporations and the
> wealthiest individuals, created Social Security, and became the employer
of
> last resort through programs to build national infrastructure, promote the
> arts, and replant forests.
>
> To the extent that our Constitution is still intact, the choice is again
> ours.
>
> ===
>
> Thom Hartmann lived and worked in Germany during the 1980s, and is the
> author of over a dozen books, including "Unequal Protection" and "The Last
> Hours of Ancient Sunlight." This article is copyright by Thom Hartmann,
> but permission is granted for reprint in print, email, blog, or web media
so
> long as this credit is attached.
>
> thomhartmann.com |
