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September 20, 2006
What real facism is like
With all the overheated rhetoric from the Moonbat Left about Pres. Bush creating a fascist regime, it's useful to remind ourselves what it was like to live in a real fascist state, rather than the one that exists in the fevered dreams of the speak-truth-to-power kidz. James Lileks is on the job.
I went up to the library and got the Klemperer diary. [I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, 1933-1941] ... I’ve mentioned this before – it’s a meticulous account of life in Dresden during the Nazi regime, written by a Jewish academic whose “Aryan” wife kept him from the chimney.
The diaries start in the early years of Hitler’s rule, and it’s unutterably depressing; in 1937 the diarist is insisting that the government cannot last, and all the decent people believe it will fall soon. (He survived the war, incidentally; the diaries go to the end.)
I was reading the 1941 passages today. Klemperer had his house confiscated by the state, although he was still obliged to pay for a new roof. He was put in a Jewish Home with his wife. Every month, the noose tightens, and not just for him; shortages are rife, and the planes begin to drone overhead.
His descriptions of the media give you an idea of where Orwell got the tone and flavor of “1984” – the state’s incessant pronouncements are heroic and brash and uncomplicated by nuance. Every battle is the greatest ever; every tactic the most brilliant in history.
What interested me was his description of the dreaded Sunday announcements: The week would begin with stock phrases, such as “the plan is unfolding as expected;” the middle of the week would offer a glimpse of the news to come, and Sundays were always the same: blare of trumpets, drum roll, Deutschland Uber Alles and the Horst Wessel song, followed by an announcement of a victory on the whichever front the government chose to spotlight.
The diarist found Sundays depressing; every victory meant the attenuation of the regime, a continuation of his torments. But surely it would fall soon; surely people would turn. Why, he’d noted that fewer people said “Heil Hitler” instead of “Good Morning” – this must mean something. It must. Perhaps it did, but it didn’t matter.
By “torments” I don’t mean he was hauled down to the station and beaten. No. He was just denied something different every week.
Once the Jews had become accustomed to being banned from public libraries, they were banned from private lending libraries. Once they had gotten used to the special taxes, the taxes were raised. Once they had settled into the special apartment buildings after their homes were taken, they were denied common areas after dark and confined to their apartments. And so on. That was 1941. He had four years to go.
Imagine yourself standing on a street at 7:30, watching the taxis pour past, knowing you must be in your room by eight, or it’s the train and the barracks.
Imagine telling that detail to a friend, and noting his shock: he had no idea. He was appalled. (As Klemperer relates it, his German friend, an eminently liberal humanist, nevertheless hoped for the defeat of England; he had managed to separate his dislike of Hitler from his abiding hatred of Great Britain. You infer that the latter blinded him to the former, and that allowed him to reconcile his humanism with the deprivations he knew his Jewish friends faced. In the end we must all make sacrifices, no?)
That was fascism.
And that's how it begins, with the belief that these lunatics cannot possible get power; cannot retain power; that one's educated friends cannot possibly be blind to the threat from the fascists.
And yet, like Klemperer's friend, who allowed his hatred of the English to ameliorate his distaste for Hitler and the Nazis, the American Left has become so consumed by their hatred of Pres. Bush that they've made common cause with the forces of Islamo-facism, ignoring the fate that awaits the multi-culti coalition should its members ever fall into the hands of the jihadis.
They've become apologists for those who would destroy us, gleefully hooting as they point out the flaws in the "repressive" United States, ignoring the contempt manifest throughtout the ranks of our foreign and ideological opponents for the Western values we -- and I include the Left -- hold dear.
It's 1937 again.
Posted by Mike Lief at September 20, 2006 12:38 PM
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Comments
Yes, it is sad.
Read "A Man called Intrepid". It follows the start of the British secret service. How one man kept contact between Roosevelt and Churchill and set up shop in Rockefeller Center and Canada. The "dirty" tricks they used to fight the propaganda war in WWII. It is especially noteworthy to read about the groups the Nazis recruited in the US to delay the start of the US entering the war. How the Nazis coopted groups and companies to delay America's entry into WWII. (How a certain US Ambassadar to London was especially against the US getting into the war. I suspect he had made a deal with the Germans to continue with the Beefeaters consession even if they took over Great Britian.
Yes, we have a hyperbolic "American Firsters" or maybe it is "Islamic fanatics Firsters".
I would rather be seen as Churchil and not Chamberlain. Besides Churchill was a great orater. That man could speak! (and clearly)
Posted by: jim at September 21, 2006 01:42 PM
It's too bad Pres. Bush isn't able to make better use of the Bully Pulpit, a result of his stiffness behind a podium. What's ironic is that he's much better in a more informal setting, laying into the press -- something he does far too rarely.
Reminds me of a criticism of Bob Dole, who was reputed to be one of the wittiest and funniest men in Washington, D.C., capable of killing with a deftly-told joke; those qualities were never apparent to those of us watching him on TV.
Posted by: Mike Lief at September 21, 2006 07:06 PM