So I watched 'Third Reich, the Rise" on History Channel

[GSLevel9]

and TWO things really struck me.

1) Something similar CAN happen again, even here in the USA.

2) It's the uniforms. In the 1930's if you were a young person, unemployed and looking for a direction in life... and you saw these guys marching around in these cool-ass uniforms (not my opinion of their uni's) and you could JOIN that group...

It would give one a sense of belonging to a group, to a cause, to something bigger than yourself. And all your neighbors and friends would see you in the uniform too. IMHO... just as many people were drawn to the party by the allure of wearing the uniform as were attracted by the rhetoric.

[gateley]

1. Don't even really need a uniform as such -I'm thinking about the kids who

are drawn to gangs so they can feel a sense of belonging.



Those uniforms WERE kind of spiffy:!


The all-black dress uniform of the Nazi Schutzstaffel or SS (the NSDAP paramilitary and military force), in use from 1932 until 1942, was designed by SS-Oberführer Prof. Dr. Karl Diebitsch and graphic designer Walter Heck.<3> From 1933, the Hugo Boss company was one of the firms that produced these black uniforms along with the brown SA shirts and the black-and-brown uniforms of the Hitler Youth.<4><5>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Boss

[Ilsa]

2. Same principle has been why gangs have been successful in their recruiting. nt

[Loudmxr]

3. It can't happen here. Not just yet.

While I agree that the soil for fascism is nutrient rich, the right not being able to get along with the left, an indicator of pre-fascism, it is lacking a couple things that will let it take hold.

1) The rich will not allow a state of anarchy that will allow the government to crack down anymore than it has already. They are pretty happy with the way things are.

2)The right does not have a charismatic leader who is not an ignorant goof ball. This is not a off the cuff insult. Any leader they have now does not have a specific answer to ANY policy problem past a superficial talking point. It makes me long for the smart guys that Reagan had around him. Evil sure... but smart.

3)Uniforms. Americans don't dress well. I was just at Macy's for a make-up photo shoot with my SO and the photographer had to dress the women. We had our complimenting Asian silks on. Her's came from the Philippines mine from Thailand. We looked great.

Oh and gangs... Gangs give you respect. That is why members of gangs will kill for the gang. Trust me. So I see your point about you don't need the uniform or dress well. But right now the gang movement still flirts with crime and intoxication even the more political/militant/racist gangs. I don't see them as getting much traction nationally.

[mudplanet]

4. More than a sense of belonging, kids and adults who are unemployed,

under-employed suffer from a sense of powerlessness. Organizations give one power, a feeling that you matter, you will no longer be ignored.

The old saw that "power corrupts" may be true, but it is equally or even more true that powerlessness corrupts (Rollo May). Powerlessness, or the sense that one has no chance to succeed, one doesn't matter, one's desires and opinions are not valued and listened to, leads to chronic frustration, desperation and anger. In psychological terms, powerlesness is a sense of being invalid. A lot of family therapy addresses the importance of family members listening to each other so that everyone feels "validated." (This is why, IMHO, a lot of people become police officers).

Face it, when the unemployed and underemployed aren't organized, nobody gives a rat's ass about them. They are patronized, despised, looked down upon, held to ridicule, and exploited. But when they get organized - all of a sudden all that contempt and scorn turns into fear and, outwardly, fear and respect look a lot alike. People start paying attention. People even start talking about them like they are capable of bringing down governments. Before they were in the Black Panthers, Rap Brown and Eldridge Cleaver were powerless, ignored, and scorned. "You want what, ni**er?" After they formed the organization, people sat up and took notice. And anyone who called them the n-word did it from the safety of a white enclave.

This is part of what Jesse Jackson was addressing when he would hold rallies and lead a chant of "I am, someone." In Brown vs Board of Education the Civil Rights proponents won to a large extent when they asked little Black girls on the witness stand to pick from two dolls, a white doll and a black doll. Almost universally the Black girls picked the white dolls when asked, "Which of the dolls is the good doll?"

[zalinda]

5. It most certainly can happen here

A teacher in California tried an experiment in 1967. A book and movie were made about it, it was called "The Wave" There is a web site now http://www.thewave.tk/ It really didn't take long before the kids fell in line. It is scary.

zalinda

[Anakin Skywalker]

6. Women Love Men in Uniforms! Don't They?

[displacedvermoter]

12. I wonder how much dreamier the Pres/VP would look

in uniforms? I bet a lot of folks here on DU would just swoon.

[rasputin1952]

7. I was watching that as well...

throughout history, there have been parallels to what happened back then, and in some cases, the effect to the cause was worse. Stalin and Mao are examples, but further back the Mongols and and others were ruthless in how they dealt with perceived enemies...Europeans during the Dark Ages were more than happy to destroy their own populations, eradicating any opposition pretty ruthlessly.; the Catholic Church was more than willing to destroy hundreds of thousands to protect it's power.

Circumstances were ripe in post Great War Germany for the emergence of the Nazi party as the party of "Law and Order", (sound familiar?). The stipulations placed upon it by the victors were aimed at complete destruction of the country economically, and the political ground was tiled in favor of strong leadership regardless of which institution would challenge the Weimar Republic. The Communists could easily have won the day, or other nationalists if they found powerful leadership. What was astounding in this case was that the race to power was very fast, the ruthlessness of the Nazi's and the thugishness of the SA helped Hitler and his group of miscreants win the day, even though only about 1/4 of the country at the time would really be considered Nazi's.

Himmler was not all that bright, but others were slightly brighter and far more ambitious than those left behind. There were immense riches to be gained by the leadership, and turning Nazism into a quasi-religion helped in their gaining power. In the end, they moved from being left leaning to extreme right, (that happens in almost every political arena once power is gained and power is established as the "norm"), Nazi's, despite their criticism of the establishment, became phenomenal capitalists.

Can it happen here? The answers are varied, our democratic republic set up is different from what Germany had, but, the economic conditions are ripe for a radical change. When one adds that the recent spate of state legislation that has been aimed at "unpopular" aspects of society, we are not really all that far from going down the road to damnation. It takes brave souls to stand up and stop this in it's tracks, but with the massive amount of cash in the political world today, and influence is bought off, almost anything can happen. Add to the equation the near constant erosion of our Rights and Liberties by those who could care less about the laws of this nation, much less the Constitution and we are ripe for the picking.

One sure fire way for Americans to avoid catastrophe is to vote against the nutcases, but just jettisoning the "fear factor" would set the stage for a return to a nation that understood what could be lost because of false fears. We did it after McCarthy, we can do it again.

[AlinPA]

17. With the election of so many teabaggers, we are moving toward the catastrophe now.

One more election like that and it can happen. Palin could be the one leader they need. Gingrich is another.

[paparush]

8. Hugo Boss designed Nazi uniforms

Involvement in World War II

The all-black dress uniform of the Nazi Schutzstaffel or SS (the NSDAP paramilitary and military force), in use from 1932 until 1942, was designed by SS-Oberführer Prof. Dr. Karl Diebitsch and graphic designer Walter Heck.<3> From 1933, the Hugo Boss company was one of the firms that produced these black uniforms along with the brown SA shirts and the black-and-brown uniforms of the Hitler Youth.<4><5>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Boss

So, yeah, the uniforms had a definite, appealing, style.

[southernyankeebelle]

9. I thought the same thing. History repeating itself.

[alcibiades_mystery]

10. I watched "Third Reich: The Fall" last night

It is striking how very long things stay "normal" for the majority of the population. They had home movies from a man in Koln (Cologne) who took his wife and kids out for a hike the day before the city was bombed to rubble by the British. Everything seems fine, and his letters of the time seem unconcerned.

[DirkGently]

11. Don't forget the "scaring people with an amorphous ideological enemy." Commies then.

[SnakeEyes]

20. Don't forget the Jews and bankers too.

And "Jewish bankers"!

[old mark]

13. Many parallels - Huge unemployment, hatred/fear of foreigners and immigrants

"taking jobs", hatred of a different religious/ethnic group (They hated Jews, many here hate Muslims)Love of and huge expenditure on military equipment, secret police and laws abridging rights of citizens, EXTREME Right Wing politics and intollerance of any differing politics, political takeover by the Right with the support of the rich...
Strong appearing , vocal Right wing leaders repeating lies till they are accepted as truth...
I am sure there are many more similarities - just look around. Scarey, huh?


mark

[AlinPA]

16. I re-read Sinclair Lewis's "It Can't Happen Here". It can happen here. The parallels

are amazing. Sara Palin is Buzz Windrip. Same type of followers, uninformed, anti-intellectual, and he wrote a book too! It is a novel that can come true.

[old mark]

18. Watch Palin talking about herself as the "hockey mom", think of Hitler

calling himself the "frontline soldier"...both are lies, too...


mark

[Uzybone]

14. cant happen here

nice to fantasize about the dreadfulness of it all, but it cant happen here.

America is too ethnically, racially and culturally diverse.

[HipChick]

19. so was Germany...that's when they started getting rid of Jewish people

[Donnachaidh]

22. Many Germans said that too, in the beginning

Look what happened to them.

[cottonseed]

15. I just got off a Michael Vick thread. And believe me. It can happen here.

[slackmaster]

21. My dad was glad to get a job with the CCC building trails for $1.50 per day in the 1930s

He contracted rheumatic fever in 1934, and was treated in the Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego.

He decided then and there that he wanted to join the Navy, because the food he had in the hospital was the best he could recall eating in his life up to that point.

One of the attractions of military life for poor people has always been a steady supply of decent food, and there were a lot of hungry young Germans in the 1930s.

[old mark]

27. Remember, they had a terrible depression at the time, too - and had lost a war

they had been told they were winning...the politicians at the time told them the troops would have won had they not been "stabbed in the back" by the liberals and the jews, and it went on from there...


mark

[Donnachaidh]

23. we're on that road -- Homeland Security in Walmart, Obama admin wanting to spy on cell calls

The continuing ad naseum advertisements for the military and now the CIA. Advertising for *criminal justice careers*. Government hiring of thugs like Blackwater even AFTER they are outed as extremists, etc.

And the economy in the toilet, while our government tells us we're recovering. More and more homeless and poverty-stricken people being denigrated by the press as *problems*.

Blatant hero worship of government officials, even when they make decisions that will adversely effect the populace.

It would not take much to push us into the same ditch Adolph took his adopted country of Germany. Not much at all.

[DailyGrind51]

24. Did they show anything about how the German industrialists funded the brownshirts,

...like the U.S. corporations funded the teabaggers?

[WiffenPoof]

25. Excellent Series... n/t

[ProudDad]

26. The 14 Characteristics of Fascism

The 14 characteristics are:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

4. Supremacy of the Military
Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

5. Rampant Sexism
The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and anti-gay legislation and national policy.

6. Controlled Mass Media
Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

7. Obsession with National Security
Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined
Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.

9. Corporate Power is Protected
The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

10. Labor Power is Suppressed
Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed .

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment
Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

14. Fraudulent Elections
Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

We've made it! U.S.A! U.S.A!