I’m old enough to have known people who witnessed from within, the descent of Germany from democracy into dictatorship. Of course those I have known were those who saw what was happening in the early stages and managed to get out. I have always wondered why so many seemed to have believed they were living in and were part of a free and democratic country until it was too late.
Many believe and for various reasons that the rise of European Fascism was a singularity and never to be compared to anything that happens elsewhere. Germans thought it couldn’t happen there too.
In his book titled They Thought They Were Free : The Germans, 1933-45 Milton Meyer writes:
“To live in the process is absolutely not to notice it. . . Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, 'regretted,' that, unless one were detached from the whole process from the beginning, unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these "little measures" that no "patriotic German" could resent must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One day it is over his head.”
The Patriot Act, the suspension of Posse Comitatus and habeas corpus, the torture, the spying, the justifications for the President being above the law: each small step has its independent justification; each step is taken with a wave of the flag and cries of Freedom.
More lengthy quotes from this frightening book are at Third Reich Roundtable
7 comments:
The Coming Of The Third Reich, by Richard Evans, is also a great read on this topic.
When will the tipster hotline open so I can start turning in my neighbors?
Didn't it already start?
Excellent post about the long term cumulative effect of these actions. Short and Direct.
Thank you. I think the stairway to hell has lots of little steps. . .
Where's thursday post? I need to get more depressed with the state of the world.
You don't need my blog for that.
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