To: Victor Lazlo who wrote (157575 ) 6/3/2003 3:58:10 AM From: GST Read Replies (2) | Respond to Hitler built national pride by playing on people's willingness to blame others for their own problems through a form of mass psychology that appealed to an arrogant sense of superiority and a sense of national destiny for Germans to be masters of the world. In the short run it worked for Hitler. By focusing on their common hatred of Jewish people, and by blaming the Jewish people for German economic problems, Hitler rallied the German people to his military conquests -- to willingly support Hitler's desire to conquer the world. Through war and propaganda, Hitler shaped a world view of "us against them". If there is something worth calling "evil", Hitler fit the bill. There are other evil people in the world, but Hitler is in a special class almost by himself in terms of the scale and scope of his hate-filled sickness. But in a much more general sense, his tactics are not so different than the current WH Administration. The WH has resorted to similar psychology -- hatred of Saddam and an extensive propaganda campaign -- uniting American public opinion by blaming Saddam for everything that troubles us -- specifically 9/11 and the general sense of frustration at fighting a faceless enemy. Bush now says "you are with us, or against us". When we were fighting terrorism, this call to support the US merely seemed arrogant. Now that we have taken it upon ourselves to convert our intelligence operations into a propaganda bureau and to use our propaganda to justify invading countries to make us feel better it is no longer merely arrogant. We lost a great deal on 9/11, but in recent days we have lost things almost as precious as life itself. The US system of Government is indeed something to admire. But there are times when our elected leaders do not serve us well -- and this is one of those times. The American people can throw Bush out of office by exercising their power at the ballot box -- and this is the place to hold a referendum on Bush and his policies. Until then, people all over this country will exercise their right of free speech to criticize Bush and the group of ideologues that surround him and pull his strings.
