DEFEAT FASCISM

 This will not end well. Consider the great fall of fascism in 1945. As the allied armies devasted Germany from the east and the west, Nazi commanders refused to cease fighting, help stop the devastation, and save thousands of German lives because, “I took an oath to The Fuehrer to never surrender.”

Though Himmler himself had ordered some concentration camp guards to flee and save themselves, they instead gathered the remaining prisoners and forced them into death marches.

As resistant collapsed, Army commanders still tried to follow Hitler’s orders to counter-attack with divisions that no longer existed from bases in cities that had been leveled.

As the remnants of the Third Reich huddled in Hitler’s bunder, the Gestapo was still applying the death penalty to Germans caught listening to foreign radio stations.

The fruits of moral collapse became evident as thousands of Germans killed themselves and their families rather than live in a world without Hitler. The Russian Army found the bodies of the six Goebbels children poisoned by their parents prior to their own suicides.

How the power of one man is able to poison the minds of so many may be a question never answered by our books or science, only prevented by “the better angels of our nature.”

DEFEAT FASCISM

 The term “chilling effect” refers to the power of evil to influence its aims indirectly, without the need to expend resources. It is much like a dark cloud settling over America now. Honest, conscientious government workers, military leaders, journalists, and even judges are feeling its weight.

A government worker presenting facts that contradict or suggest analysis of a MAGA edict face the loss of their job and employment future.

A person who has chosen a career serving in America’s armed forces must exhibit allegiance not the oath sworn but to the goals of a fascist regime, many goals of which aim toward personal enrichment and not national security.

A journalist presenting facts contrary to party edicts faces being shut out of access to the workings of our country.

Judges making decisions based on the rule of law are seeing their families threatened with public assault through social media and faux-news services.

The long-term result? Resistance can die from lack of will without the use of much direct force, just a chilling cloud that says, “Do the right thing and you are finished.”

 

DEFEAT FASCISM

 We concern ourselves, perhaps irrationally, with causes and reasons. Given some four billion years in forming a life-force and a few million in forming the branches that led to our current species, there may be causes and reasons we’ll never uncover.

But we try. Let's give it a shot.

The best guide presently to America’s current darkness is the one that overshadowed Germany in the 1930s. So far, analysis indicates a predictable path, with some modern tweaks.

-         Fictionalize the reasons for a defeat in a war. Modern tweak: We won. This press just didn't report it that way.

-          Capitalize on any unfair resolution to a war, including a civil one, and use national catastrophes as a tool for spreading hate. Modern tweak: when there is no catastrophe use the modern advances in thought control, i.e. “social media” to convince the weak-minded that there is one.

-          Publish plans so the public can see progress.

-          Use hate to gain power.

-          Use power to defuse constitutional safeguards. Modern tweak: Infiltrate the apex of constitutional justice.

-          Demonstrate invincibility to reduce resistance.

Let’s stop here for today.

How does the power elite stop and consolidate gains? The Nazis used Kristallnacht. That’s when: “Nazi leaders unleashed a series of pogroms against the Jewish population in Germany and recently incorporated territories. This event came to be called Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass) because of the shattered glass that littered the streets after the vandalism and destruction of Jewish-owned businesses, synagogues, and homes.” (Holocaust Encyclopedia)

The current regime used what would have normally been an unimaginable attack on the most prestigious and sacred seat of American government, the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. The message gained further power when the perpetrators were pardoned for any demonstrated participation and may now even serve in the American version of the SS.

Why is this step important?

Simple. It delivers the message that “We are in power now. We can do anything we wish. You are powerless to resist us.”

That message sinks and rots the very roots of the tree of justice upon which America depends.

DEFEAT FASCISM

 As if a dark sci-fi film is playing, America has left its home, passed through a portal, and entered a dark world. As hard as one might try, no happy journey’s end appears, at least not for the immediate future. The leaders of this tragic journey now own the three legs of our governmental stool and a majority of its wealth. The press, that much ballyhooed "Fourth Dimension" loses more prestige each day while chasing distractions.  Little friction remains to hinder the achievement of the evildoers' goals.

This does not bode well for those who will spend their productive years under the dark regime.

A large cohort will not live to pay the ultimate price. Some, having served their country and taken an oath to continue, will resist with the powers they have remaining. Some wiggle like maggots in a pile of ignorance. Some have served the agents of hate and now wait for their reward.

Will it come?

It is hard to say.

But in searching for that answer, one might assess the benefit to the agents of evil that would accrue to them should they halt in their march for domination and expend resources on rewarding the misguided.

Our most recent historical guide, the Germany of the 1940s doesn’t support the assumption.

DEFEAT FASCISM

 Thoughts on tipping points. As it stands now, the orders to hate center on a relatively small cadre of usual suspects: the different, the disabled, people of color, librarians, and teachers. At some point, the hate-field will grow, and continue to grow. The movement will reach a tipping point.

When the tipping point is reached, the impacts of fascism will spread to the hitherto unmolested. Those who voted to install the fascism will begin to feel its wrath. The surprise on a supporter’s face will resemble that of a famous painting.

Will this create resistance? Perhaps.

Will this resistance overcome the worst impulses of those in power?

Not if the experience of Germany in the late 1930s is any guide, and history is sometimes our most reliable guide.

DEFEAT FASCISM

 Ever wonder what has happened to America? Let’s look at some famous observers.

“In laws one should make a careful distinction between the aims sought and the way in which they progress toward that aim and between their absolute and their relative excellence.”  - Alexis de Tocqueville

“The manager who comes up with the right solution to the wrong problem is more dangerous than the manager who comes up with the wrong solution to the right problem.” – Peter Drucker

A fanciful example is that of the bull forced into an arena filled with thousands of drunken, jeering, morons there to witness the bull’s savage and tortured death. The bull goes into decision-mode and decides that his immediate danger is the red cape waving in front of him, not the little murderer behind it. He attacks the cape, the right decision based on his analysis and goal to protect himself, but fatal in the end.

A more realistic example lies in the decision that the purpose of government is to preserve the wealth of the few, the rich. Then of course the right decision, though a tragic one, is to make sure that none of the riches of the few are allocated to the safety and welfare of the many.

In an aristocracy where the purpose of government is to enrich the few, laws are simple and effective.

In a democracy where the purpose of government is to make society prosper, laws are complicated and often flawed. The ill-intended can, and do, become masters at blaming complications and flaws on a carefully selected enemy.

DEFEAT FASCISM

 Today the news reports that President Two-Doll Donnie plans to announce while on his trip to Saudi Arabia next week that the United States will now refer to the Persian Gulf as the Arabian Gulf or the Gulf of Arabia, according to two U.S. officials.

Public administration at the national level has degenerated to the point where, each day, the elected president of the United States of America says something monumentally stupid. The press runs to his side to report it.

Then the worst happens.

The hardcore cult enthusiasts run around saying "Nah, nah, nah, nah nah. We can do anything we want to and you can't do a goddamned thing about it.

It might be funny on a reality TV show. I don't know. It just doesn't seem, to me at least, to fit the country whose men stormed the beaches at Normandy to rid the world of a previous fascist regime.