But Then It Was Too Late...

[WillyT]

From: "They Thought They Were Free" by Milton Mayer

<snip>

"What no one seemed to notice," said a colleague of mine, a philologist, "was the ever widening gap, after 1933, between the government and the people. Just think how very wide this gap was to begin with, here in Germany. And it became always wider. You know it doesn't make people close to their government to be told that this is a people's government, a true democracy, or to be enrolled in civilian defense, or even to vote. All this has little, really nothing to do with knowing one is governing.

What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security. And their sense of identification with Hitler, their trust in him, made it easier to widen this gap and reassured those who would otherwise have worried about it.

"This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter.

"You will understand me when I say that my Middle High German was my life. It was all I cared about. I was a scholar, a specialist. Then, suddenly, I was plunged into all the new activity, as the universe was drawn into the new situation; meetings, conferences, interviews, ceremonies, and, above all, papers to be filled out, reports, bibliographies, lists, questionnaires. And on top of that were the demands in the community, the things in which one had to, was "expected to" participate that had not been there or had not been important before. It was all rigmarole, of course, but it consumed all one's energies, coming on top of the work one really wanted to do. You can see how easy it was, then, not to think about fundamental things. One had no time."

<snip>

Link: http://www.thirdreich.net/Thought_They_Were_Free.html

Sound familiar???

:shrug:

[scarlett1]

1. First They Came for the Jews

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.

Pastor Martin Niemöller

[Sara Beverley]

2. Republicans help widen the gap by always smearing the government

eventhough they control the government. Before 9/11 no one said more hateful things about the US government than Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, and the other conservatives and RWingers. Yet is a liberal or Democrat criticizes the government it's "smearing America."

These hypocrites know no bounds. The government they hate is the government of, by, and for the people. They only applaud government of, by, and for the corporations and big business and the super rich.

Remember, the OKC bombing was by a group of people who believed everything the RW said about government and guns. Now we have our children dying for the lying.

[WillyT]

3. Yep... And One Has To Wonder...

If Karl Rove is using Mein Kampf for his political play-by-play book.

:shrug:

[bpilgrim]

4. RESIST the BEGINNINGS

peace

[WillyT]

5. I'm Right There With Ya !!!

:cry:

And this speaks too it very well I think.

<snip>

"And one day, too late, your principles, if you were ever sensible of them, all rush in upon you. The burden of self deception has grown too heavy, and some minor incident, in my case my little boy, hardly more than a baby, saying "Jew swine," collapses it all at once, and you see that everything, everything, has changed and changed completely under your nose. The world you live in – your nation, your people – is not the world you were in at all. The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays. But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms, is changed. Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves; when everyone is transformed, no one is transformed. Now you live in a system which rules without responsibility even to God. The system itself could not have intended this in the beginning, but in order to sustain itself it was compelled to go all the way."

<snip>

From the same piece.

[Cleita]

6. Thanks for posting this WillyT.

I think you or someone at DU did so a couple of years ago at the beginning of this nightmare. We need to be reminded over and over again.

[WillyT]

7. You're Welcome !!!

:hi:

The similarities to then and now are truly frightening!

Hopefully these fascist pukes will be hoisted on their own petards before too long.

[Doctor_J]

8. My copy is on the way

finally. Psyched to read.

[WillyT]

9. I'm Ordering It Too !!!

It's been out of print for many years, but they are publishing it again now.

:hi:

[Mandate My Ass]

10. All too familiar

See my sig line.

Happy holidays, WillyT! Or, errr, Merry Christmas or ummm Happy New Year. Yeah, that's the ticket. :toast:

On edit: Dagnabit! It was there earlier. Anyways, here ya go:

....laws affecting our lives are being made by something other than a democratic process. Molly Ivins.

[WillyT]

11. Great Sig !!!

And Happy Holidays, right back atcha!!!

:toast::smoke::toast:

[WillyT]

12. Last Kick !!!

Maybe.

:kick: