CNN - asking the right questions

Steve Kinney admin at pilobilus.net
Wed Nov 23 09:53:34 PST 2016


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On 11/23/2016 07:56 AM, xorcist at sigaint.org wrote:
>> Zenaan Harkness: I'm -pretty- sure we're not descending into
>> 1939, but hey, please holler if I'm missing something...
> 
> ---
> 
> How Hitler Became a Dictator by Jacob G. Hornberger
> 
> Whenever U.S. officials wish to demonize someone, they inevitably
> compare him to Adolf Hitler. The message immediately resonates with
> people because everyone knows that Hitler was a brutal dictator.
> 
> But how many people know how Hitler actually became a dictator? My
> bet is, very few. I’d also bet that more than a few people would be
> surprised at how he pulled it off, especially given that after
> World War I Germany had become a democratic republic.
> 
> The story of how Hitler became a dictator is set forth in The Rise
> and Fall of the Third Reich, by William Shirer, on which this
> article is based.

Three missing elements in this (very useful) summary:

First, the rise of the Third Reich happened while Germany was in
economic ruins due to the Great Depression and Treaty of Versailles,
literally on the brink of mass starvation.  The people were desperate
and the NSDAP offered a simple explanation (Jews and Communists did
it) and a simple solution (get rid of the Jews and Communists).  Under
these conditions the Nazis were able to organize a national militia,
the SA (Sturmabteilung a.k.a. Brown Shirts) and employ terrorist
tactics to help the German people vote correctly.

Second, Germany had a very strong culture of obedience to authority, a
moral imperative synonymous with "honor."  This mind set was dominant
throughout the European sphere of influence in the 19th century, and
although it was in decline (i.e. the much lamented decadence of the
"yellow nineties" and outbreaks of anarchism in the early 20th
century) it remained firmly in place there:  The older Germans I met
as a child were very much "Old World" people, and even as a child I
could see that clearly.

Third, Herr Hitler & Co. kept their key campaign promises:  They did
in fact restore Germany's economy and turned the country (back) into
an industrial powerhouse.  This was accomplished by implementing many
reforms borrowed from Roosevelt's New Deal, and with the kindly
assistance of capital provided by U.S. industrialists who heartily
approved of the Nazis' political philosophy and economic policies.
The Nazis earned the gratitude - and compliance - of the German people.

Hitler was a passionate nationalist; Trump is a vulgar opportunist.
Once in power, Hitler united his nation and did, in fact, make it
great again - at least in terms of economic prosperity and industrial
production.  Trump has already mobilized the already divided American
people into warring factions:  Our natural born Fascists are out of
the closet, the political Left is snarling and screeching while its
leadership digs in for four years of mortal combat, and "moderates" of
all stripes - a sleeping demographic giant - are looking for something
they can actually DO about this train wreck for the first time in
generations.  The Internet has broken the monopoly of Big Capital over
the content mass communications, so the Nazi's famous full spectrum
domestic propaganda regimen can not be duplicated here and now.

Although I would much rather have seen Sanders in the White House,
attempting to implement an updated New Deal solution to the ongoing
collapse of the U.S. economy, a Democratic Party under the literal
control of Clinton and her network stopped Sanders by every means
necessary, and handed the White House to Donald Trump.  So now we get
to see a radical solution to the various crises presently facing the
United States and the world:  Four years of open warfare between the
American Right Fringe and Everyone Else.

Our economic power brokers are already lining up behind Trump, leaving
"boots on the ground" in the form of mass popular movements as his
opponents' only viable response.  We have been taught all our lives
that this means armed conflict, because that's an option our rulers
are very well prepared to control and use to their own advantage.  But
economic warfare through strikes, occupations and mass non-cooperation
are powerful weapons that hit a ruling class hard where it counts - in
their balance sheets and quarterly reports.  Mass movements using
nonviolent strategies and tactics can move political mountains - or
failing this, the struggle to move those mountains builds the
committed support networks that must exist for a last resort armed
insurgency to succeed.


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